I have always been of the opinion that if I could take just one idea from a speaker and implement that in my life, that would be better than all the pages of notes I would put in a file drawer.

Les gave me that one idea.  I now keep it on a sticky on my computer desktop.From Les: “1 minute of anger will suppress the immune system for 4-5 hours. 1 minute of laughter will boost the immune system for 24 hours.”

Now I have a reminder on my calendar each morning to take time to laugh. Check out Laughter Yoga on UTube. A number of years ago I participated in laughter leader training and have facilitated programs on laughter. I had not ever made it a point to put it on my calendar until I had the reminder from Les Brown.

I’m quite sure everybody has had an unexpected incident happen that caused anger. I just had such an experience. Immediately I got myself laughing, I do not want my immune system to be at the affect of the anger.

Laughter is indeed something to be grateful for!

Today she called me. We had a conversation and talked about when we might see each other. Then I mentioned that I knew her birthday was in a few days and I wanted to sing Happy Birthday to her. I love singing Happy Birthday to people, it is something that many people don’t get the opportunity to experience. When I finished she said I had made her day.

We never know what is going on in the life of someone we care about. Isn’t it great that we can help make someone’s day so easily? Just a phone call and a song?

I don’t know about you, but that make my day good! And I’m grateful for good days!

Who are you thinking about? How long would it take you to make a phone call? And what about the song? Maybe it’s not a birthday song that you can sing, maybe it’s “I just called to say I love you!”

Each one has been instrumental in my growth. And the way I thought it would be, well that was a good thought. And then there are grandchildren. That is different from what I imagined as well.  What’s my biggest lesson. Attachment to anything being a particular way is a sure road to heartache. I now know that any ideas of what these adult relationships might look like is false. I’ve really made every attempt to say it many ways. As parents with adult children, the best action we can take for ourselves is to continue to build our own lives around interests we have and surround ourselves with people who share those interests. Our children may not share our interests.

We are all individuals and as a parent one of the greatest gifts my children have given me – is my own growth. And growth is one of my most precious gratitude items.

Whenever someone tells me about a book now, I take steps that I did not used to take. In the Denver Area where I live, we have a marvelous library system. And I love using it. When someone tells me about a book now, I immediately go to my library website and request that book. What a resource we have in our library system. Once I’ve requested the book I can then forget about it.

My library will get the book from whichever branch it is located and bring it to my library just minutes away from my office. I’ll get an email telling me that the book is ready for pickup.

This is a great system for saving time and money. I only buy books now that I am convinced I want in my own personal library.

If there is a title I want and not in our local library system, the library will get it for me from a library in another part of the country. They will find hard to get titles for me.

The library is my own personal research assistant. And it’s all free, what a service to be grateful for.

When I began to experience decreased energy, exhaustion and difficulty breathing, I looked at what I was doing differently. Because I had stopped drinking water in a bottle it was not as easy to keep track of how much I was drinking. I made a commitment to get back on my regiment of 5 litters of water per day, each with greens in them. I also learned some valuable lessons from the book Your Bodies Many Cries for Water.

The following is an excerpt from a longer article about water.

The brain must be remain hydrated at all times. When the body is lacking water or the salt required to balance water levels, it will do everything possible to retain adequate water levels to the brain. This involves limiting water loss in other areas of the body. Simply breathing causes the loss of a significant quantity of water each day.

If you are experiencing chronic dehydration from not drinking enough water or not getting enough salt; or from drinking waterdepleting drinks such as coffee, beer or beverages containing sugar, your body tries to prevent respiratory water loss by producing histamines which close off the capillaries in your lungs. Through the constriction of these capillaries, water loss is reduced, but of course breathing is made far more difficult. It’s important to understand that the body is doing this on purpose. The body is producing histamines as a strategy, not as a disease or something gone awry. The body constricts the capillaries in your lungs because it is trying to save your brain! What asthma sufferers really need is lots of water balanced with the appropriate amount of salt on a regular basis, not antihistamines! The same sort of destructive cycle is taking place with other diseases as well — most notably hypertension and arthritis. Many of the prescription drugs today are, in effect, various forms of histamines which counteract the body’s efforts to conserve water.

Water, it is a gift of life, be grateful for it!

Negative energy is a powerful force in our world. It is everywhere, and so subtle. I imagine that most of us really don’t even realize how much negativity is affecting us. It like dust, we don’t realize how it is covering the furniture until we don’t look at the furniture for several days. Negativity is like dust on our soul. So what can we do? First, realize it is happening, we are picking up negativity. We must take the time to support ourselves by getting into a positive environment so that we can shift. It is vital for our well being. If you’ve spent any time with the Law of Attraction material, you know that we become what we surround ourselves with and attract more or the same.

I am so grateful for the ability to make the choice of getting myself into an environment that is supportive. This weekend I found so much connection with the Mission Statement of Peak Potentials Training, the Millionaire Mind intensive is one of their programs.

“Our Mission is to educate and inspire people to live in their Higher Self based in Courage, Purpose and Joy.”

If you will put yourself in this environment you will shift. I’ll bet on it!

It’s not only being in the energy of people who are focused on growth, it’s also being away from things like the news which is not focused on growth.

I knew this was a good decision even though it is a huge commitment of time and not really very much sleep. So this post is short, and if you have not given yourself the gift of attending this program, do it! You’ll be glad you did.

By noticing what systems are already in place we can create new systems for doing anything we want and have those systems support us in accomplishing everything.I’ve got one system I absolutely love. I have a system that allows me to send an unexpected greeting card each and every day. This same system also tells me when someone I care about has a birthday and I never forget to wish the person “Happy Birthday”.

I have the greatest gratitude for this system, if you’d like to know about it or any of my other systems that help my life run smoother, send me an email, I’d love to share more.

In addition to being in business together during our marriage, we also co-founded the Colorado Chapter of the National Speakers Association. We wrote books together and taught classes together. And we just could not make it as a married couple.Since we’ve been divorced Joe has experienced a stoke. While he was in rehab for 42 days I spent time with him every day.

You might have noticed at the beginning of this post I referred to him as my former spouse, not my ex husband. We prefer to call each other former spouses, and ask others to do the same.

We’ve chosen the relationship we have now; we have chosen to transcend.

We can all do that with any situation in our lives. We can leave the past behind and be grateful for what we have today.

Anytime I am wondering about any question at all, from a particular recipe to something legal, and everything in between, I just go to my favorite search engine and ask it the question.  My favorite search engine happens to be Google.

Google is my pick for Day 4 of Gratitude Month. Spend some time with your favorite search engine, maybe an hour or so and satisfy your curiosity thirst.