Gratitude is a Source of Joy

There Is Peace In A Life Of Constant Gratitude.
Have Gratitude for the Smallest Blessings,
for the crust of bread and the cool drink of water.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

The way to happiness is what I call Zero-Based Gratitude.
Each day be happy and grateful for what you have,
independent of yesterday and of other people.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

The struggle ends when the gratitude begins.
- Neale Donald Walsch

Appreciation is the highest form of prayer,
for it acknowledges the presence of good
wherever you shine the light of your thankful thoughts.
- Alan Cohen

Gratitude is the Path to Joyful Living.
[my phrasing of a widely shared concept]

Today's affirmation:
I give thanks for all of life.
I Find Peace in Gratitude.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Appreciate Your Blessings

Give Thanks for the Commonplace

Praise and Celebrate Your Life
       

Life is Mostly a Matter of Introspection

The world in which we live and work,
is a mirror of our attitudes and expectations.
- Earl Nightingale

Everyone is a mirror image of yourself -
your own thinking coming back at you.
- Byron Katie

A person experiences life as
something separated from the rest -
a kind of optical delusion of consciousness.
Our task must be to free ourselves
from this self-imposed prison,
and through compassion,
to find the reality of Oneness.
- Albert Einstein

Life is for each of us
a solitary cell
whose walls are mirrors.
- Eugene O'Neill (paraphrase)

Once we are destined to live out our lives
in the prison of our mind,
our duty is to furnish it well.
- Peter Ustinov

Further reading: Are You a Prisoner?

Life is a Mirror

s Being a Reflection

How We See Things
    

Avoid Battles, Especially With Yourself

We carry our worst enemies within us.
- Charles Spurgeon

It is a man's own mind, not his enemy or foe,
that lures him to evil ways.
- The Buddha

Part of the happiness of life consists not in fighting battles,
but in avoiding them. A masterly retreat is in itself a victory.
- Norman Vincent Peale

Life is way too short to spend another day at war with yourself.
- Anonymous

Today's affirmation:
I lay aside the battles within my own mind,
and grant myself peace.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Your Own Worst Enemy

Still Your Mind

Create Peace Within Yourself

Manage Your Wayward Mind
     

LOOK, Don't Just Assume What You Will See

Change what you see,
by changing how you see.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

The question is not what you look at, but what you see.
- Henry David Thoreau

A flower is a weed seen through joyful eyes.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Call a plant beautiful, and it becomes a flower.
Call it ugly, and it becomes a weed.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

We don't see things as they are,
we see things as we are.
- Anais Nin

It is a terrible thing to see and have no vision.
- Helen Keller

Look for the Unexpected in the Commonplace.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

What we see depends mainly on what we look for.
- John Lubbock

We never see what we are not ready to see.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further Reading: What I Know - What I Don't Know
            

Appreciate the Basics

 

Abundance is not something we acquire. It is something we tune into.
- Wayne W. Dyer

Our journey into consciousness of wealth begins with the realization
that we have already arrived!
- Michael Bernard Beckwith

Appreciate again and again, freshly and naively,
the basic goods of life, with awe,
pleasure, wonder and even ecstasy,
however stale these experiences may have become to others.
- Abraham Maslow

A Table Grace of Thanksgiving:
We gather today in gratitude for the bounty of the land,
the joyful company around this table,
and all the other blessings of this life.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: A List of Gratitudes - a Thanksgiving

Thank You God

Gratitude: Virtue and Joy

Let Each Day be a Thanksgiving
    

Begin, Take Action

Today... maybe I can take one step
on that profoundly complex path to peace.
- Mary Anne Radmacher

A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.
- Lao Tzu (Chinese Proverb)

The first step towards the solution
of any problem is optimism.
- John Baines

A little simplification would be
the first step toward rational living.
- Eleanor Roosevelt

Believe in yourself,
in your vision for your future
and in your ability to take a small step
each day toward achieving your vision.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: The Edge of All You Know

The Jump is So Frightening - Mary Anne Radmacher

How to Create a Great Future

Boldly Sail the Storms of Life
   

Trust Proven Facts and Critical Analysis

The only sovereign you can allow to rule you is reason.
- Terry Goodkind

The ultimate authority must always rest
with the individual's own reason and critical analysis.
- Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama

If we would guide by the light of reason
we must let our minds be bold.
- Louis D. Brandeis

True virtue is life under the direction of reason.
- Baruch Spinoza

Authority has every reason to fear the skeptic,
for authority can rarely survive in the face of doubt.
- Robert Lindner

Rarely do we find men who willingly engage in hard, solid thinking.
There is an almost universal quest
for easy answers and half-baked solutions.
Nothing pains some people more than having to think.
- Martin Luther King, Jr.

No statement should be believed [solely] because it is made by an authority.
- Robert A. Heinlein

Reason and judgment are the qualities of a leader.
- Publius Cornelius Tacitus

Further reading: Practice Conscious Awareness

Re-Examine All You Think You Know

Trust Your Own Advice