Online Gratitude Journal January 2010 Edition #37

Are you having a great start of the year? Keeping up with your new year’s resolution? Time is speeding up and I can hardly believe one twelfth of the year is already gone. (Photo credit)

January in review

My big goal of this year is to write a book on Akashic Records. This will be published in the old fashioned way in print. The starseed series will be incorporated in the book, with some additions and updates. So I’m putting extra effort in completing this series.

My another goal is to eat healthy and well. The Slow Down Diet that I reviewed was very influential to me. I want to pay attention not just to WHAT I eat but also to HOW I eat.

Fun & Challenges

This is the dilemma I face: When I was working in the corporate world, I wrote in the evenings and weekends. I love writing. I forget foods when I write. I can almost forget sleep when I write. I love to express my thoughts and feelings, and the possibility that my writing might help you is exciting.

Now that I work for myself, writing for this blog and the book is part of my life and work. I do what I love all day long — reading interesting books and blogs, writing my own, and doing Akashic Record Reading. Life is full of joy and fun, right?

Right. Yes. And a bit of no somehow. When I have so many things to do (again, all fun things I like to do), I’m a bit overwhelmed, and for a reason I don’t really know, the fun becomes a challenge, too.

Does anyone know how to keep the fun as fun? Do I need to introduce some dread so that fun can stand out as fun? Do I need to meditate more?

Link Love

Be sure to check the book review of the controversial The God Delusion, by my friend Hunter Nuttall. I think the discussion in the comment section is very interesting, too.

My old post on meat eating vs vegetarianism still gets hot comments. While some people insist vegetarianism, or even stricter veganism, is good for health and environment, I found a few information that question this statement.

One is from someone who has been raw vegan for 15 years who found some deficiencies when he had blood test.

Another is a book called The Vegetarian Myth: Food, Justice, and Sustainability. I haven’t read the book yet, but I read the review here and on Amazon. I find it interesting that we need some form of animal products to grow plants. I checked my bag of organic soil and it has earthworm castings. Other organic soil mix has chicken manure or bone meal. So what happens to the chicken afterwards? I bet they were either hens for eggs or meat chickens. And if vegans are committed not to eat even honey because they don’t want to force the bees to work, how do they feel about the earthworms that worked for the soil? The dogma of veganism to never harm any animals is very hard to sustain, I think. Even if someone is not eating any animal products, some animals are dying to grow their vegetables.

I don’t think this is a bad thing, however. All lives are in the big ecosystem, supporting one another. The problems happens when we reject this system. When I die, please throw the cremated ash in the ocean so the fish can benefit. The fish may end up on your dinner table or become fertilizer for the farm that grows your vegetable. This very Buddhism view sits fine in my mind and spirituality.

Word of month

“Laughter is a great way of letting go. . . Laughing releases endorphins and lowers stress hormones in our system. The other two activities that do the same are sex and meditation.”
– Lisa, aka Mommy Mystic

Well said. Let’s pick at least one of the three for our well-being.

This is all for today. Enjoy your weekend — the day is getting so much longer (in the northern hemisphere, that is )

Related reading: After I posted this article, I was informed about another great post about the problem vegans face, especially raw vegans. (HT: Gena) I think the whole discussion on vegan nutritional health is very interesting.  Additionally, this part by Shazzie caught my eye:

“…many raw food enthusiasts who identify themselves as vegans are in fact not totally vegan. Whether it’s a free range organic egg or a little raw goat’s cheese once a week or some fish once a month, these people think of themselves as vegan and will tell you they’re vegan…This makes us wonder how many more who identify themselves as vegans are doing the same but not admitting to it.”

Ah. So there is honesty and awareness issue, too.

Online Gratitude Journal November 2009 Edition #35

Hi! Did you have a good Thanksgiving? (that is, if you are in the US, I guess.) Are you excited about the coming holidays? My November was filled with gratitudes. And one milestone achievement. . . (Photo credit)

November in Review

My highlight this month was definitely the completion of my eBook “Lightworker’s Guide to Self-Employment”. I’ve spent considerable amount of time and energy writing this eBook on spiritual entrepreneurship. It’s my gift — it’s FREE, so please check it out if you are interested in starting your own business.

Thank you all for your readership. A writing needs to be read, so you are supporting me a great deal just by reading this blog. ^_^

Fun

Have you noticed I redecorated the front page of this Yes to Me blog? The center column now shows random posts from “Ascension” and “Spirituality” categories. Because “Spirituality” is a huge category, I added subheaders that show the ten subcategories. (Everything on this blog is about spiritual growth, but I set aside” Ascension” as a special independent category, and also set aside “What’s Akemi Doing?” for posts that are mainly about sharing of my life — like this post.)

If you are reading this article by subscription, please click here to see the new front page!

Yes to Me now has nearly 200 articles. I hope this new design helps you to find older articles that you may have missed.

I also updated my About page and the blurb on the sidebar. Do you like it?

Challenges

As you probably know, English is my second language. I do quite well but I have a slight accent (and I make some grammatical errors, like with the singular / plural rules. . .). Most of the time, I hardly think about this. I know I have important messages to convey and I express them well in writing. When I do phone sessions for my Akashic Record Reading, most clients have no problem understanding me.

Except when I need to do public speaking.

I’ll be on Small Business Trend blog radio (podcast) in January, talking about spiritual entrepreneurship and my new eBook. Aaaagh! I feel a bit nervous! Wish me luck.

Where in the blogosphere Akemi has been

During the Thanksgiving week, I spent a lot of time on Twitter for the #RadicalGratitude experiment.

Twitter is fun. If you are willing, you can find interesting people worldwide to chat. I’m not sure how effective it is in marketing because I’m personally put off with people who only shout what they want to say and never seem to listen and respond to others even when they are talking straight to them (that is, using @, like @akemigaines. When you put in @akemigaines in your tweet, it shows up on the “Mentions” timeline on my Tweetdeck, so I can respond.)

If you are new to Twitter, a piece of advice is NOT to turn on auto-follow. There are so many internet marketers and hookers (I’m not joking) who just want to increase their follower numbers by preying on those who have automatic follow on. Let’s use Twitter for real conversation and learning. I follow people who have valuable messages (even if they don’t follow me back).

Some well-known spiritual teachers are on Twitter. My favorite is @Deepak_Chopra. He tweets great insights, and he often responds to tweeted questions.

Word of month

“How unconditional is your love for yourself?”
– Susan Ariel Rainbow Kennedy, aka SARK

I found this line in her article at Crazy Sexy Life. In the article, she describes how self-love helps to love others. Self-love is not about self-indulgence — it’s about loving life and the world as it unfolds from within.

The world is a mirror that reflects your beliefs, as Gregg Braden explains so eloquently in his book. Self-love, then is the beginning and the end of all LOVE.

Stay warm, friends. With gratitude,

Radical Gratitude: My Twitter Experiment

The missing key to the power of gratitude

How often do you say “Thank you”? A few times a day? Maybe ten times or so? Or is it more like you cannot remember when was the last time you actually said it? (Photo credit)

Much has been said about the power of gratitude. For instance, Dr. Robert Emmons maintains in his book Thanks!: How the New Science of Gratitude Can Make You Happier that practicing gratitude increases the sense of happiness by as much as 25%. He also found that gratitude can boost social relationships, creativity, and immune system.

Gratitude is also a key to the effective use of the Law of Attraction, or our power to create our lives. We cannot create something new until we are grateful for what we already have.

On the other hand, there are people who say something like, “I’m grateful for all the things I have. I just wonder why I have so little even though I work so hard.”

What is going on? Why gratitude works for some people and not for others?

The key is the quantity and quality of gratitude. And in this case, quantity brings quality.

Radical Gratitude

Most people just don’t use the power of gratitude often enough. They reserve it for some special occasions, like when something notably good happens. Or, they say their gratitude routinely with a feeling of obligation, not with a true feeling of gratitude.

The remedy is to boost the quantity of gratitude to see its effects.

So I started the Radical Gratitude movement. The idea is to say 100+ gratitude a day for seven days. Now this gets you going. Of course, you can continue after the seven days, but I think you get the hang of it in seven days.

Don’t just think about gratitude and how important it is. Say it aloud. When you say it, 100 times a day, it starts to sink in your feelings. You start to really feel the gratitude. And feeling is what matters in the process of creation. This is why I say quantity brings quality in this case.

As an experiment, I started this #RadicalGratitude on Twitter on Sunday night. I tweeted the idea along with some of the things, people, and events that I am grateful for. Here is how the experiment is unfolding. . .

How #RadicalGratitude spread around

Say it aloud, sing your gratitude. 100+ a day for a week. Take the #RadicalGratitude challenge. Your life will change.

Within several minutes, @lymanreed, whom I haven’t been talking with for over a year, tweeted back. @hnuttall also tweeted, with a question:

Do all 700+ things have to be different?

No. You don’t have to keep track of your gratitude. Just bump up the volume of your gratitude to 100 level. I mean, wouldn’t your spouse be thrilled to receive “Thank you” every morning and night?

Can’t think of 100+ things to be grateful for? Here are some of the things I’m grateful for:

• My vision, hearing, sense of smell, taste, and feeling. They bring me joy and pleasure.
• My arms, legs, head, butts, breasts, tummy, hair, skin . . . my health and beauty.
• Every food stuff in my fridge. When I go grocery shopping, I thank each item I purchase. Apples, bananas, kale, spinach, sweet potatoes, almonds, water. . .
• And the farmers, transportation, the people who work at the market, and the Earth.
• The sun, the air, the trees, flowers, the stars, the moon, the universe.
• The bills I need to pay — because I received the service and products.
• When I drive, I say “Thank you,” at every green light. And at every red light — for safety. And when I safely change lanes. (Oh, I remember @rawliving’s suggestion to send gratitude to cops. . .) I say thank you when I arrive at the destination, and I say thank you when I come home.
• Money in the bank, my apartment, my car, each of my furniture.
• Every book I’ve read and their authors. Thanks to Gregg Braden, Bruce Lipton, Seth Godin, Deepak Chopra, Karen Bishop, Rumi, Lao Tsu, just to name a few.
• My macbook, the internet, WP, twitter, facebook, that connects me with my friends all over the world

My gratitude to the people in my life. My mother, father, my friends. Sometimes, it’s hard to express gratitude to people who are so familiar, but don’t be shy. Tell each person how much they mean to you. Thank them for being the person they are.

Some more gratitudes:

• That I am in this country. My greencard.
• Artists who make the world so beautiful, including Picasso, Matisse, Modigliani, Rothko, Frankenthaler. . .
• As I recall my life, I’m grateful to all the events — they all served as learning experiences.
• I’m grateful for God, the Universe, the Nature, the Energy, whatever you call it, and my spirit guides.

@JaySchryer joined, mentioning his favorite music. He is also grateful for:

Big dreams, and the courage to pursue them. Common sense and intelligence to make them a reality

Sense of humor to laugh at myself should I fail

Friends near and far who keep me sane, family who keeps me insane.

@lance02 @thatgirlisfunny @EvitaOchel also joined. I just love the ripple effects! I’m grateful.

@SuperSpiritGirl says:

Feeling grateful today for so many things… Even feeling grateful to feel grateful

So true. And the side benefit of this Radical Gratitude was that I found some cool tweeters who share the same kind of passion for life.

I suggest you include not just the things you like, but also the things you don’t (like the red lights). Because they are all connected, like the sides of a coin.

The true power of gratitude

When I first did Radical Gratitude personally, I was just going through the motion in the beginning. I thanked each dish, bowl, glass, and cutlery when I washed the dishes. I thanked the toothbrush, toothpaste, dental floss and water when I brushed my teeth. At mealtime, I put my hands together and said thanks three times. I said gratitude when I woke up in the morning and I said gratitude when I tucked myself in bed at night.

This may sound like crazy, but because I live by myself, it didn’t matter. I just kept saying “Thank you.”

Something changed. It was when I was taking a shower and saying thank you to the abundant water that so readily came out of the faucet. I got it. It broke me into tears.

Everything in life is a miracle. Every single thing, person, and event.

Gratitude heals.
Gratitude humbles.
Gratitude opens your eyes.

Happy Thanksgiving. And remember, you can start gratitude any time.

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