Power of Thoughts

http://simplereminders.com/blog/post/power-of-thoughts

What Are You Grateful for Today?

Do Your Best, Do Good

Going Forward

Daily Gratitude Log 15

Gratitude Challenge Roundup: 
Reflection, Feedback and Next Steps Moving Forward!

As this is the first time I have participated in a Gratitude Challenge, I am glad that I have managed to complete the 14-day challenge.  I was quite apprehensive whether I would be able to do all the tasks in the challenge and wanted to give up the challenge after the first few days.  I am glad that I persisted with the challenge although I have not been able to complete two of the challenges so far.  

I have not complete Day 10's Give a Gratitude Tip as I have not been to any place to receive service which warrant me giving a gratitude tip to the service staff.  The other challenge which I have not completed is Day 13's Do a Gratitude Meditation.  I did try to do the 15-min Gratitude Meditation yesterday and today when I woke up but I did not fulfill the challenge as I was not able to visualize the realization of my goals during the meditation.  

I think it is because my meditation practice so far is still very much on the surface and I will need to go deeper to be able to do the Gratitude Meditation. I will keep trying and I believe one of these days I will be able to do it. 

My favourite tasks have been Day 9's Share Something you are Grateful with Someone as I was able to share my love for my yoga practice by inviting my readers to visit my yoga blog.  Day 14's Give Thanks for Your Mistakes allowed me to reflect on my mistakes and what lessons I have learned from them.  It also act as a reminder that I need to be more confident with myself whenever I am given a task or venture into something new. 

The quote below sums up what Gratitude means to me.

"Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life.  It turns what we have into enought, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos into order, confusion into clarity.  It turns problems into gifts, failures into success, the unexpected into perfect timing and mistakes into important events.  Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today and create a vision for tomorrow." - Melody Beattie 

I will continue to improve on expressing and cultivating the actions of giving gratitude in my daily life not only in my dealings with other people but also to myself. 

3 Things (and more) that I am Grateful for Today....

I would like to thank Celes of Personal  Excellence for conducting this 14-day challenge and the participants for their supportive comments on my posts.  

Love & light,

Karin 

Daily Gratitude Log 14

Gratitude Challenge: 
Give Thanks For Your Mistakes

Today is the last day of the Gratitude Challenge and the final challenge is to think of 2 mistakes that I have made which I felt bad over and to identify 3 things I gained from each mistake. 

The first mistake that I can of is thinking that I am not good enough whenever I want to venture into something.   I am always my own worst enemy as I would start to think of excuses on why I won't be able to do it.   A good example is when I was learning to do headstand in my yoga practice.  I would tell my teacher that I don't have the arm strength to hold the pose as I was afraid of falling.    But with the encouragement of my yoga teacher, I managed to overcame my fear of falling and I am now able to do the headstand and also add some variations while I am in the pose.  

The 3 things I have gained from this mistake are:

(i)   I have to approach each new experience with an open mind and heart.

(ii)  I can create possibilities if I am willing to take the first step. 

(iii) Have more confidence in myself.

The second mistake that I regret making is not having more time for myself when I was younger.  I was a workaholic and spend most of my time in the office and have little time for recreational activities and let myself get stressed out over my work.    I have since learned to have work-life balance where I now create time for myself.  I now go for my yoga classes after work and whenever I need to pamper myself, I would take leave to go for a facial and massage. 

The 3 things I have gained from this mistake are:

(i)  Self-compassion 

(ii) Creating space for my personal growth 

(iii) Generosity with myself and others 

3 Things I am Grateful for Today...

(i) I am healthy and strong. 

(ii) that my friend was not hurt when her bag was snatched this morning. 

(iii) for the mistakes I made which is part of life lessons. 

Daily Gratitude Log 13

Gratitude Challenge: 
Do a Gratitude Meditation 

For today's challenge,  I have to do a 15-min gratitude meditation where I will be expressing gratitude for things which are about to come true in my life! 

Although I have a 10-min daily meditation practice which is the first thing I do when I wake in the morning, which helps to start my day off well, I have never done a gratitude meditation before. 

The challenge is for me to think of two goals that I would like to accomplish in the upcoming period  and visualize them coming true and as if I am achieving them right then during my meditation and expressing my gratitude for them. 

The two goals that I would like to achieve are to meet my life partner and that I will find peace and happiness. I will be thinking about these goals when I do my meditation practice tomorrow morning as I find it easier to meditate when it is quiet in the morning.

I would like to share below a mantra card that I received together with a Serpentine bracelet which I bought online.  

3 Things I am Grateful for Today......

(i) my yoga teacher, Delphine who always encourages me to go deeper in my practice..making me see that impossible can become "i m possible".

(ii) my colleagues for agreeing to end the meeting so that I am able to go to my yoga class this evening.

 (iii) having my leave approved for tomorrow so that I can go for my acupuncture appointment. 

Daily Gratitude Log 12

Gratitude Challenge: 
Take Action on Your Plan from Day 11!








For today's challenge, I am supposed to take action on the things I have listed in Day 11's challenge which I have taken for granted.

My challenge not take mom for granted would not be easy to accomplish as mom tends to take charge when it comes to cooking the meals.  Sometime, even though,  I have told her that I would be cooking lunch, she would prepare the ingredients by cutting all of them ready for me to cook.   So I would really have to take charge and get her out of the kitchen when I am cooking the meal.   I also plan to take her out for a meal whenever I have the chance and not just wait for special occasions. 

I remembered that my friend's birthday would be in October.  I plan to give her a surprise call to wish her on her special day instead of just posting on her Facebook. 

Conserving water is an on-going project and I will try my best not to waste water.   Water used for washing my clothes will be reused to flush the toilet. 

  

3 Things I am Grateful for Today...

(i) my yoga teacher for not teaching the intense shoulder stretching poses after I told him that I am having shoulder pain before the start of the class

(ii) getting early to class and spending time catching up with one of my yoga teacher before the class. 

(iii) receiving a prompt email reply to a query at work. 

Daily Gratitude Log 11

Gratitude Challenge
List 3 Things You Tend to Take For Granted (and What You Intend to do About Them) 

I think there are many things I tend to take for granted, but these are the first 3 things that I thought of when I saw this challenge. 

For the past few days, as mom has not been feeling well, I realized I tend to take her for granted especially when it came to having a home-cooked meal waiting for me when I came home from work.    When she was away at my brother's place, I had to buy packed food home or prepare some of my own meals when I reached home.   Although sometimes, i would  cook some of the meals during the weekends, I will make it a point to do so more often or I would take her out for a meal so that she can have a rest. 

Recently I met back a friend I have not seen for ages during a wedding dinner.  We had not kept in touch although we were quite close at one time.   When the MC informed that we can validate our parking ticket to a one-entry fee, I found that I had left my ticket in my car.  My friend without hesitation, accompanied me to the car-park to collect my ticket.  When we went back into the dinning hall, we spent a lot of time catching up and I realized that I have taken our friendship for granted.  I will make it a point to call her and ask her how she is doing and maybe arrange for us to meet once in a while.  

Water is one thing I often take for granted until there is a dry spell in the weather and there is an announcement that there will be a water cut in my area.   We would then have to store some water for our daily use.   I will make it a point to try to conserve water and ensure that I switch off the tap when I am brushing my teeth.  

3 things I am Grateful for Today....

(i) for today's challenge for reminding me not to take things for granted.

(ii) for a clean and tidy house.  

(iii) for the company of my fellow Ashtanga buddy during our Mysore self practice this morning.

Gratitude Log Day 10

Gratitude Challenge: 
Give a Gratitude Tip 

I only saw the today's Gratitude Challenge after I return from home in the evening. Although I did receive some service today, I don't think I would have given a gratitude tip to anyone as tipping is not  necessary in my country for most of the services provided. So far, I think we would only give tips when we eat at some restaurants when we feel that the service provided by the waiting staff is very good by leaving the change as tips for the staff even though we would already have to pay for the service tax in the bill.  

The challenge would be quite difficult for me to complete but I will try to see if there is any way I could give the gratitude tip for the next few days and report it here. 

I would like to share this picture and hope it inspires some of you to start something like it with your family.  

For myself, I will improvise by putting some money  in a jar at home whenever someone did something for me to express my gratitude.  I think it would be a good way for me to find gratitude in my dealings with everyone I interact with daily.   I will decide later what I would do with the money collected and it would be interesting to see how much is the collection. 

The money in the jar is my gratitude to my hair-stylist for her service today. 

3 Things I am Grateful for Today.....

(i) a nice hair cut and a relaxing head massage. 

(ii) coffee which helped to keep me alert while driving.

(iii) my yoga practice today which reminds me to always be honest with myself and not to let my ego takeover. 

Daily Gratitude Log 9

Gratitude Challenge: 
Share Something You Are Grateful With Someone

Today's challenge on sharing something you are grateful with someone is a task that I have been doing since I discovered yoga in my life.  When I started practicing yoga, I  created my blog, "I am a Yoga Kaki" as I wanted to share my yoga journey and hope that it will inspire my readers to take up yoga.  I write about my yoga practice as well as share articles about yoga in my blog.   I have also set up a "I am a Yoga Kaki" page on Facebook where I share photos of inspiring yogis and whenever I find an article that is very inspiring, I will share it on my page.  

Social media has allowed me to share everything that is meaningful in my life as I am always sharing things, photos and events on Facebook and Instagram with my family and friends.

3 Things I am Grateful for Today...

and

Daily Gratitude Log 8

Gratitude Challenge: 
Transform An Ungrateful Thought 

Today's challenge is to reflect on any ungrateful thought that we might had and write about how we can transform this thought into a grateful thought. 

For this exercise, I can think of one incident that happened on Monday, which was when there was no internet connection in my office as the server was down for almost 2 hours.    As I was rushing to complete an assignment where I had to key-in information to a website and it has to completed by the end of the week, i was feeling very annoyed as without the internet connection, it meant that my work was at a standstill.  

When I  called  the staff in the IT Dept. to check on the situation and was informed that they were trying to restore the connection, I could feel that the staff who answered the phone was a bit frazzled as she must have  been receiving a lot of calls and complaints from many staff.    I realized that the IT staff were trying their best to resolve the matter as fast as possible but sometimes, it was beyond their control.   When there was no problem with the internet connection, nobody would praise them for a job well done but when something goes wrong, everyone would be breathing down their neck.  

At that time, rather than wait in frustration, I managed to catch up on my filing  and also started to work on writing the minutes of a meeting.    

Today, while reflecting on this, I know that I should be grateful that with the internet connection being down, I have actually managed to do some of my other work which have been left aside. 

3 Things I am Grateful for Today...

(i) mom feeling much better after the two acupuncture sessions. 

(ii) completing my assignment at work before the deadline. 

(iii) finding a parking space easily at the night market when I went to buy dinner for mom and myself tonight.

Daily Gratitude Log 7

Gratitude Challenge: 
Give Thanks to Yourself 

How time flies?  Today is already day 7 of the 14-day Gratitude Challenge.  Today's challenge is to give thanks to myself which is not an easy task to write about as Asians are quite shy about receiving compliments, what more, I now have to tell the world what I am grateful for about myself.  

However, I am grateful to be given this opportunity to write about the good things about me.   Firstly, I believe I am a good daughter as I have always put my family above everything else.  I am also a good friend as I don't give away confidences and will offer my help to the best of my ability.  I am kind and sincere and I believe that when I  helped others, I am also helping myself.  I believe in karma.."do good and be good".   I am always glad to share information with my friends and colleagues as I believe that "sharing is caring". 

I have learned to get out of my comfort zone, to take risks and go after what I want which has been inspired by the quote below.  

I am happy with my life and would not exchange it with anyone else as everyone has their own problems.  I have learned to laugh at myself and not to worry about things which might not happen and finally, I love myself for who I am. 

3 Things I am Grateful for Today....

(i)  that I joined this challenge as It has enable me to start writing again. 

(ii) that there were no problems in the internal audit check on my unit today. 

(iii) a hot meal for my dinner which was bought at a stall near my house. 

Daily Gratitude Log 6

Gratitude Challenge: 
Give Thanks for Your Life 

For today's challenge, I have to write a gratitude note where I give thanks to everyone/everything responsible for my life today. 

Firstly, I would like to give thanks to my parents, without them I would not be in this world.  I am grateful for their guidance and for always being there for me.    Although my dad has passed away, I know that he is up there watching over me.  

I am grateful for the people who I have met in my life especially people whom I have worked with.  Some of these people have given me the opportunity to show my capability by trusting me which has built my self-confidence and to take on challenging tasks without fear. 

I am also grateful to discover yoga in my life  and  I would like to share below a poem by John Martin where he has put into words how yoga has put a difference into my life. 

"Yoga has become such an important part of my life
Something I can turn to, to help erase the everyday strife

Practising in a class, of all shapes and sizes

Listening to a teacher who encourages, never criticizes

Standing in Tadasana with hands at Namaste

Each class starts, and for a brief time we stay

The asanas always flow gently, one after the other

The class is like a family, with the teacher the mother

Lying on our back or standing on our feet

The postures allow us, our inner soul to meet

Stretching up to the sky, or bending down to the earth

Brings forth a feeling of both personal peace and self worth

By the end of the class, the muscles are stretched and the mind still

And each student, for another session at least, has had their fill

So thanks go out to all the many teachers, present and past

Who have made sure the beauty of yoga will forever last."

Yoga has helped me to become more mindful and to learn to let go and accept things that I cannot change besides reaping the health benefits from my yoga practice. 

3 Things I am Grateful for Today....

(i)   for a wonderful yoga class with props with Delphine who was away for the past  month. 

(ii)  for the sunny weather today for drying all my clothes as it was raining the whole day yesterday.

(iii) for free parking outside the studio, I managed to save MYR5 for not having to park inside the building. 

Daily Gratitude Log 5

Gratitude Challenge:
Identify Three Things to Appreciate about Your Adversary 

The person who I can think of as my adversary is a colleague of mine.  When she first joined my workplace, she was having a hard time from another colleague who was not willing to give her information to help her in organizing the training sessions for the staff.  With my help, she managed to make the booking of the rooms, and arranged with the caterer for the meals during the training sessions.  To show her appreciation, she had taken me out for lunch and sometimes bought treats for me.   But when she was promoted to a higher position, she started to write emails to my bosses that I was uncooperative and not providing information to her.  I was shocked and disappointed with her change of attitude. 

For today's challenge, I have to identify 3 things to appreciate about this person which are as follows:

1.  She is very good at showering people with praises which make them feel good.

2.  She is very persistent and in a way this helps to get things done.

3.  She is very good at saying words that make the other person listens to her and thinks that she is right. 

I believe I can learn from the above behaviours but I will only use them genuinely.

3 Things I am Grateful for today...

(i) as mom has not been feeling well for the past few days, my brother took her for a medical check up today.  I am so glad that the doctor said her pain might be due to muscle spasm and she should get well after taking some medication. 

(ii) mom will be staying at my brother's place for a few days.  I am grateful that my brother and his wife will be looking after her as she would have been all alone at home when I am away at work.

(iii) chia seeds which I have started taking due to its many benefits.   By adding them into my drinking bottle, I find that I am also drinking more water daily. 

Daily Gratitude Log 4

Gratitude Challenge :

Reflect on the Meaning of Gratitude 
                                                                                                                





When we feel grateful for the little things in our daily life, we start to appreciate the simple things in our life that bring us joy.  We learn to complain less and take everything in stride.  We acknowledge the people who has helped us and that when we are grateful and do good and be good, the universe has a way of bringing people in our life to help us when we need them.   I truly believe in this (please read my blog post "Do Good and Be Good").

3 Things I am Grateful for today....

(i)  being able to do my self-practice at the yoga studio as I don't have a space to do so at home. 

(ii) the delicious food prepared by mom and myself for dinner.

(iii) my yoga teacher, Azmi Samdjaga who always gives encouraging words for my yoga journey.  Thanks Cigku!  

Daily Gratitude Log 3

Gratitude Challenge :
Write a Gratitude Note to Someone








Dear Mom,

I would like to thank you for being there for me always.  Although we sometimes do not agree on certain things like when you get anxious whenever I came home late, I know that I am always your little girl and you get worried that something might have happened to me.    I will try my best to call home whenever I am late to reassure you of my safety.

I am grateful to have you around to take care of me.  There is always a home-cooked meal waiting for me and you are the best cook!

Although mom would not be able to read this post as she does not understand English, I will try my best to show her my gratitude and love for her by taking care of her. Mom has been having back pain these few days, tonight I am going to give her a back massage before she goes to sleep to ease the pain.

3 Things I am Grateful for today..

(i)  spending time with my family at my sister's house and having dinner together. 

(ii) my masseur for letting me sleep for a while after my treatment as she saw that I was feeling a bit tired.

(iii) having my favourite drink, Chai Latte and a blueberry muffin after my yoga practice in the morning.

Daily Gratitude Log 2

Gratitude Challenge:  Give Thanks to Your Food








Today, I had dinner together with mom as I was able to reach home early due to the smooth traffic.  Mom made Chicken Wine Soup which she added in a bottle of Essence Chicken.   She also made a dish of Stir-fried French Beans with Vegetable Fish Balls.  I am not able to post a picture of the food as the challenge was only posted in the Personal Excellence website after I had my dinner  (due to the time difference).

Anyway, I would like to give thanks to the delicious food prepared by my mom which I enjoyed very much.

3 Things I am Grateful for today...

(i) for my colleague who shared the cost of the Marshmallow Crispy Squares which was on offer - buy one free one, by taking one box while I took the other.   

(ii) for the friendly lady from UNITEN who took my call and gave me the information I requested for my work without any hesitation. 

(iii) for the refreshing shower due to the hot day.