Clare Josa | Author And Keynote Speaker

UK's Foremost Imposter Syndrome Expert, International Keynote Speaker & 8x Author

great gratitude challenge

If I Had To Simplify Everything I Teach About Gratitude Into Four Simple Words…

Inspirational Quotes

If I Had To Simplify Everything I Teach About Gratitude Into Four Simple Words…
What Would They Be?

Those of you who know me well know that I write a LOT about how gratitude is a brilliant way to get out of your stress-head and back into living from your heart. But I was challenged by a friend this week to sum it all up in a single sentence – so here it is!

Enjoy The Little Things

 
Read on for insights as to why these simple words are so potent.
 
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There is so much wisdom tied up in these four simple words.

Let’s start with the word ‘Enjoy’: I’m curious – what kind of response does that invoke for you?

For some of us, the idea of ‘enjoying’ ourselves is second nature.

For others, it’s far from being part of our daily existence.

Do you give yourself permission to enjoy your experience of life? Or have you convinced yourself that life is meant to be hard work? Perhaps ‘enjoying’ comes at some unspecified ‘later’ point? That there’s no room for ‘enjoying’ or even ‘joy’ in your hectic schedule?

Can you imagine how different your life would become if you suspended that old conditioning and gave yourself loving permission to enjoy this moment, right here, right now? As you’re reading this article:

  • allow yourself to enjoy the experience of breathing – you might like to pause and say to yourself, in your mind, “I enjoy breathing in and calming my body… I enjoy breathing out and letting go.”

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  • press pause on the commentary about any aches and pains and allow yourself to be fully in your body, enjoying its presence, whatever stories you normally tell yourself about it

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  • allow yourself to gently smile (triggering endorphins – your body’s natural happy chemicals) – enjoy the feeling as those hormones kick in

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  • give yourself permission to fully enjoy whatever it is you are set to do today, even if it would usually fall under your ‘have to’ list

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    Enjoying – appreciating – feeling grateful or thankful for – it’s all about reconnecting with your heart – in this moment.

    What happens, as you let yourself enjoy? And… if it feels hard for you… what might NOT happen, if you let yourself enjoy? (Let me know via the comments!)

    arrow-no-bgAnd if you’re running the ‘life has to be hard’ limiting belief, here’s an article that can get you started on shifting that one in the next five minutes: How to handle limiting beliefs
    And if the phrase ‘have to’ runs the show in your inner dialogue, here’s an article that will help you to set yourself free to enjoy your day.

    Now let’s move on to the word ‘little’: and here’s a trap that most of us fall into:

    Most of us hold out for the ‘big stuff’ and hand our happiness over to events outside of our control.

    You can spot this one if your inner dialogue ever comes up with phrases like:

    I’ll feel happy, when….
     
    It’ll all be ok, when…
     
    I’ll be able to relax, when…

    Spotting a theme?

    We’re so fixated on some big event or thing that’s outside of us and at some point in the future, that it’s like we postpone our happiness and inner peace to some unspecified future date.
    If you spent just one minute a day focussing on noticing the little (or even tiny) bits of your life that are going well, you could transform your experience of life, in just a few weeks.

    No matter how many years you have been stuck waiting for the big stuff to come in, before you allow yourself to enjoy feeling happy, you can start to retrain your brain, one minute at a time.

    And it’s not that the big stuff isn’t important – of course it is – but the small stuff is already there, patiently waiting for you to appreciate it and to lift your spirits, right now. If this one resonates for you, then you might love joining in with our Great Gratitude Challenge – it gives you all the ‘how to’ you need on this one!

    And finally, we’re onto ‘things’: and here I have a word of warning for you!

    The word ‘things’… It’s so easy to fall into the ‘things-trap’.

    This one is where we think that ‘things’ – objects and ‘stuff’ – will lead to our happiness. We can even make the collection of ‘things’ our primary goal in life, without even realising it.

    And yes, ‘things’ do have an important role to play in our lives. But they’re only the beginning of the richness of our experience.

    The English language is seriously limited on this one. I’m dreaming of finding a word that means ‘things’, but that also includes ‘non-things’ – like:

    • the kindness of a fellow driver who lets you out of that tricky junction

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    • the colours of the sky when your early start means you get to see the sunrise

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    • the unexpected heart-felt smile from the checkout assistant as you buy your morning coffee

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    • Your favourite song unexpectedly playing on the radio on your way home

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    • Somebody doing you a favour, without being asked – and maybe you don’t even know who they are?

      • You’re getting what I’m saying here?

      Life is about so much more than ‘things’ – it’s about everything that makes up our experience.

      So my invitation to you with this one is to enjoy the little ‘things’ that come to you during your day – whether they’re stuff you can touch and hold or see or hear or taste or smell. They all add to the richness of life. And choosing to enjoy them is a miracle-worker.

      I’m wondering: has any of this resonated for you? Were you falling into the ‘enjoy’ or ‘things’ traps? How might it shift your day if you were to choose to “Enjoy the little things” – even for just the next 5 minutes?
      And – if you play with this – what do you notice?
      Please let me know, via the comments!

      And if your heart is calling you to discover how even just a minute of gratitude each day could change your life, here’s where you can join us (free!) on the Great Gratitude Challenge. I’d love to see you there.

      With love, Namaste,
      CJ Sig

You Shouldn’t Ignore That Pesky Monkey Mind – Because You Get What You Believe…

How To Change Your Life

I was working with a mentoring client recently who is talented, quick-thinking and highly motivated, but also feeling miserable, frustrated and stressed.

It didn’t take much probing to discover that an out-of-date belief of “life has to be hard work” was causing much of the problem. And this person didn’t even realise they were running that belief… Fortunately getting it sorted was

A belief is like a filter in your mind. It impacts what you notice – what you’re aware of – how you experience life.

Not knowing how to handle your beliefs can lead to you feeling stuck and at the whim of life. If you have had enough of that and you’re ready to take back control, then the techniques in this article will help you move things to the next level. Are you ready to set yourself free?

What we believe is what we get.

Let’s use an example to illustrate this:

Imagine that Fred has been working on a report for his boss. He knows it’s a good report, but he also believes that his boss will criticise it and make him feel bad. After all, it has “always been that way”.

What kind of mood do you think Fred is in, when he goes into his boss’s office? That’s right – tense, nervous, a bit stressed, perhaps ready for a fight.Click here to share on FacebookHis boss reads the report and sees that it is really good. He and Fred have a discussion about it. The boss acknowledges the good stuff and makes one or two suggestions for improvement.

Instead of leaving the office feeling upbeat and motivated, how do you think Fred is feeling? That’s right – cross, hurt, annoyed and generally fed up. Why? Because his belief – the filter – didn’t spot the good feedback. He was looking for the criticism, so that’s all he experienced. He was looking for the criticism, so his mind filtered out the positive feedback and immediately started feeding stories around the bad bits – all tied in with how unfair his boss is.

Our beliefs are like choices that get stuck in time. Once we have made them, instead of setting us free, they close the doors to other choices. They limit other responses because they have such a major impact on our experience of life.

Another example:
It’s something that scientists and researchers, for example, struggle with all the time. I remember from my college days that even physical world research (conducting wear experiments on diesel engine exhaust valves!) was at risk of my beliefs.

And guess what impacted that interpretation?
You’ve got it: my beliefs – my hypothesis – about what the causes of the wear might be.

It took a “second opinion” in the form of my supervisor (who had different beliefs) to help me stay open-minded with the data, rather than dismissing the information that contradicted my theory.

But it’s not just the “bad beliefs” you need to watch out for!

It’s obvious to see how a “negative” belief can be limiting. But even a so-called “empowering belief” can restrict your choices. When things change, then that old empowering belief could hold you back from your growth and expansion! The empowering belief puts you in a box, just as much as a “negative” belief. The only difference is that the empowering belief has a longer shelf life, before it causes problems!

So if a “good” belief can do that, just imagine how much a “bad” one can do!

The great news is that we can change our limiting beliefs.

They’re far from being set in stone. Father Christmas, tooth fairies, the world being flat – beliefs can change.

And, if we’re on a path of personal growth, then spotting our beliefs and bringing them into our conscious awareness is a critical key for setting ourselves free from the auto-pilot programmes that most of us are running.

Every time you spot yourself reacting to something in a way that doesn’t make you feel good, chances are there’s a belief at play, that needs some attention. There are techniques we can use to dissolve away the old belief and choose more flexibility and freedom in our lives.

Click To Tweet This: Our beliefs impact what we expect. And what we expect is what we will see.

If you expect miracles, they will find you.
And giving gratitude for what you already have is one of the most effective ways to become a magnet for miracles.

Click To Tweet This: Beliefs, like clothes, were never intended to be worn forever. If they no longer fit, it’s time to say goodbye!

We pick up our beliefs from the most random of places – usually without even realising.

Sometimes we get them from our family or teachers, sometimes we pick them up from the media and our perception of society’s beliefs and expectations of us.

Wherever they come from, all beliefs have one thing in common:

Our beliefs either block or enable that which we want create in our lives.

How to handle a limiting belief?

One of the easiest techniques is simply to notice the problem and ask yourself:

“What is it I believe about this situation or this person? Is that the more resourceful belief I could hold?”
No? What could I choose to believe instead?

If you notice yourself doing, saying or thinking something that no longer “fits” for you today, all you need to do is catch yourself at this game and allow yourself to choose another option.Click here to share this on Facebook.

And if you really want to dive in and deal with some old, out-dated limiting beliefs, there are some ways you can make it easier for yourself:

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Have you ever spotted your beliefs holding you back? And if you get to play with today’s technique, which shifts did you notice?

How about sharing your experiences via the comments box. I’d love to hear from you.

And if you know someone who might appreciate a nudge, please do share this article with them!

With love, Namaste,
CJ Sig

How Can A Minute Of Gratitude Possibly Change Your Life?

Inspirational Messages

I often get people looking at me in disbelief when I tell them they can change their life in under a minute.

So I figured I owe you an explanation about how it all works.

It all starts with the fact that the thoughts you think create the emotions you feel, which impact which thoughts you choose to feed. It’s a cycle. Your mind and your body are linked.

If you create a shift in one, you’ll create a shift in another.

You see, your body doesn’t care whether you’re actually experiencing something, say, scary or just imagining it. It will fire off the same stress hormones and chemical reactions either way. And those hormones and chemicals help you to keep feeding the thoughts you need to be thinking in a survival situation.

Similarly, whether you are in the middle of something happy or just imagining or remembering it, your body fires off the endorphins that make you feel good. And those endorphins help you to think happier thoughts.It takes about sixty seconds for the thoughts you’re thinking to impact and shift the chemistry in your body. That’s why, when I ask you to spend a minute thinking about gratitude, it’s a minute, and not just one thought. It has to be long enough to actually create those chemical reaction shifts – then it becomes more sustainable.Perhaps you feel it for yourself? There’s often a point during the minute of gratitude when something shifts – almost like a switch being flicked – that sometimes feels like a sigh of relief as you let go of the stress and tension and surrender to feelings and thoughts that lift your spirits. That’s when you know you’ve done it! And have you noticed how that feeling lasts much longer than the minute you were thinking about gratitude?Looking at this from another angle, I was once taught by a Buddhist monk that any thought, left to its own devices, will pass through in under sixty seconds. He knew that the emotions that went with that thought could be equally transient.

The reason why we end up feeling miserable for hours or even days is because we feed the thoughts and keep telling ourselves the stories about ‘miserable’, which keeps feeding the corresponding chemical reactions in your body – so it can go on and on and on.

If you want to retrain your brain’s auto-pilot habits to feed happier thoughts, then you need to get past that sixty second mark little and often.

Want Better Results For Half The Effort?

For those of you taking part in the Great Gratitude Challenge, by the end of week two you’ll find that you get much better results by doing your gratitude minute, say, five times a day than a one-off ten minute block.

So you get better results for half the effort.

The more often you practise focussing on feeling grateful, opening your heart and mind to see what’s going well, rather than just what’s going wrong, the more it will shift your general thoughts throughout your day.

All you need to do is to remember to do it!

So I’ve got two questions for you – and I’d love to hear from you via the comments:

How will you remind yourself to spend a minute, several times a day, focussing on gratitude?

and

What does a gratitude minute feel like for you?

With love, Namaste,
CJ Sig