“Whatever our individual troubles and challenges may be, it’s important to pause every now and then to appreciate all that we have, on every level.”
~ Shakti Gawain

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What this quote means to entrepreneurs:
As I suggested in last week’s Power Thoughts post, appreciation brings you into the present moment.

It also brings attention to that which is going right in your world. I talked about this in last week’s Celebration Call, as well, which you can listen to here.

We all have a part of our brain called the reticular activating system or RAS. Located in the brain stem, the part of the brain that leads into the spinal cord, the RAS has many important functions, including control of sleep, wakefulness, dreaming, sex, eating, and elimination. But the function that is most relevant to appreciation is its role in the ability to consciously focus attention on something, as well as it’s filtering responsibility.

The RAS helps us from being overwhelmed by the billions and billions of bits of information we receive from all of our senses at every moment. And, we can program it to filter in what we want by using appreciation.

You see, what you focus on — what you program your RAS to filter in, whether consciously or unconsciously — expands. For example, you have a new squeeze in your life and that squeeze drives a blue car. All of a sudden, wherever you go, you start noticing blue cars just like the one your squeeze drives. This is your RAS interpreting your paying attention to the car of an important person to mean you want to see more like that. It was unconscious programming, but it was still programming.

Now, if you focus your attention on what’s right in your world — from flowers to butterflies to surprise income — by appreciating it, you program your RAS to filter in more things that you appreciate. By doing this consciously, you can not only attract more things to appreciate, but you can lighten the burden of the things in your life that are less than stellar.

This is, in part, the purpose of the 31-Day Celebrate You! Challenge, currently in its 20th day. You can still participate by joining the Facebook Group and chiming in with your celebrations each day. I also invite you to either attend or send your questions to me for the third Celebrate You! Call this Friday.

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• Learn about the 31-Day Celebrate You! Challenge:
  www.carmaspence.com/31-day-celebrate-challenge
• Join the Facebook Group: bit.ly/celebrateyougroup
• Last week’s Celebrate You! Call: www.carmaspence.com/day-16-of-celebrate-you

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Now It’s Your Turn:
Do you agree with my interpretation of today’s quote? Why or why not? Do you believe you can appreciate your way to a better life? Why or why not? Please share your thoughts and sage wisdom in a comment below.