Kristin Larsen

Ideas That Ignite Curiosity To Love With Courage!

The Gratitude Formula

Feeling Joy and Inner Peace with the Gratitude Formula

How a person is choosing to show up for themselves in their life could be directly related to their mental health which could also affect how they perceive things in their life.

Mental health can most often be a perception of their happiness.

This is attributed to the thoughts and emotions being constructed from the reactions and interpretations of what is occurring.

Gratitude is not the only thing that alleviates mental health functioning, but it is an important piece of the formula to experience joy and inner peace.

Gratitude is one attribute that promotes positivity with thankfulness. It places perspective on emotions that focus on accepting events, situations, people and things as blessings as opposed to dwelling on the negative thoughts or experiences.

Any type of new process takes time to implement or adjust to. That is the same with living with daily gratitude. Making it part of a daily routine requires patience before seeing or feeling it’s immediate results.

Studies have shown that it has a psychological effect, almost like re-wiring the brain.

It is re-wiring the brain to see the goodness in life by placing focus on it. People begin to notice that the source of the “goodness” in their life is not just external.

Through gratitude there is a connection to something greater than ourselves.

To think that gratitude can help to feel positive emotions, savor experiences, improve mental health, develop adversity, connect in relationships, it is hard to imagine why someone would not commit to a daily practice of gratitude.

However, with any habit, lies resistance or reluctance to follow through for change to occur.

A simple process helps with making it a consistent habit

Writing or saying one thing you are grateful for each day for 30 days is one way to start living into it.

There are many ways to express gratitude

  • Thankful for past memories or blessings during any time period of your life
  • Thankful for the present experiences, moments, situations in your life
  • Thankful for the future of hope, optimistic outlooks of what could be

Through my life journey I have realized the Gratitude Formula that works for me.

My Gratitude Formula

Acceptance + Acknowledge + Giving & Receiving + Curiosity + Wonder = Love, Connection, Joy

= GRATITUDE

Acceptance means appreciating the situations for what they are in the moment. What they are showing, teaching about life, others and myself.

Acknowledge means expressing the blessings wholeheartedly. The simple things that give joy for living each day.

Giving & Receiving means being open to allow the exchange of abundant appreciation.

Curiosity means continuously committed to being a student in life with expansion to learn, grow and transform in thoughtful connection.

Wonder means having captivation be visible in everything around you. The awe of how things came to be.

Knowing the benefits of gratitude is just the beginning.

If you started your day, everyday with focus on what you have instead of what you don’t or what you feel you are lacking, how might that change your approach in life?

What would you be letting go of?

What would surrendering to inner peace give you or others?

What would you be creating?

Gratitude is a powerful way of “being” which is a key ingredient to live with contentment, inner peace, and glowing elation.

Surrendering To Presence In Life

Surrendering To Presence In Life

Challenges Getting In The Way

The experiences encountered in life can present challenges in the way our thoughts interact with them. Emotions may reinforce the thoughts which produce the perception that the situation is difficult to navigate with the creation of doubts and worry.

The struggle that is encountered is met with ways that are decided to alleviate the suffering.

Sometimes this translates into enduring the suffering because it is resisted.

Struggle and discomfort always come with a choice.

The choice is accentuated if the  choice to see the resistance being held onto is viewed as less important than what is desired to be thinking and feeling.

The obstacle is seeing past all the things that are getting in the way of realizing that.

Surrendering becomes a spiritual process. The choice can only be made in presence.

Believing you are enough as you are now, to make that choice.

What this means is the only choice needed to surrender is presence.

Held within presence is to accept “what is.”

Closing your eyes, feeling into presence. Relaxing your body. Feeling your soul.

Giving yourself permission to surrender. Choosing to release the struggle.

Asking Yourself

Asking yourself, “what am I holding resistance to?”

“Why is it important I hold this resistance?”

“What do I gain from holding onto it?”

“What would happen if I let it go?”

I envision myself letting go of what I am surrendering to.

What happens?

What happens to my thoughts?

What happens to my emotions?
I thank myself for doing my best in these moments.

I allow myself to let go and surrender.

The resistance that was present disappears.

In that moment I am free.

That moment is filled with gratitude and presence.

Compassion Brings Me Back To Inner Peace

In this moment I am free.

It becomes easier to do it again if I choose to surrender.

“Surrendering becomes a spiritual process. The choice can only be made in presence.”

– Kristin Sven Larsen

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