An "Attitude of Gratitude"...

How important is it to keep positive in our every day lives, no matter what challenges may come our way?  More and more schools, businesses and organizations throughout the world are promoting the idea of taking our negative thoughts and emotions we carry, and changing them with positive energy and thoughts.

How many of us spend time in our days talking down to ourselves and justifying a reason to be negative about something we did or said?  The chatter in our head can effect our mental, emotional and even physical health.

An experiment to promote negativity and bullying was done by IKEA (Swedish furniture retailer) and the following comes from www.TheHealthEdge.com:

"If you don’t believe that negative talk – or self-talk – is damaging to health and psyche, check out this amazing experiment that Ikea dreamed up. For 30 days, two identical Dracaena plants were put on display at a school to demonstrate the effects of bullying words and vocal tones.

Both plants were played looped voice recordings but one received compliments and the other was verbally bullied with hateful words. The children took part in recording the compliments and negative words.

In only one month’s time, the complimented plant was thriving with vibrant colors – while the bullied plant withered and looked very dispirited indeed:

Words and deeds do impact us all constantly. Including the centering practice of meditation in your regular regime will lead you to self-love, appreciation of life’s gifts, and empathy toward other people’s problems."

Some may dispute this experiment (saying it's the decibel level of voices that may have affected the plants), but awareness of negative thoughts, bullying,  and changing that into the vibrancy of positive energy, is what we each need...for ourselves and one another!

Sending positive thoughts your way!

Colleen :-)