Acceptance And Gratitude

Positive affirmation for the day — day 17– Finding peace within ourselves

This is part of a daily series about positive affirmations and how they can benefit our lives.

Affirmation of the day:

“I love my body, my mind, my dreams, and my goals.”

Explanation

One of the greatest challenges in life is to accept ourselves as the way we are, our body and our mind. Of course, we can seek to improve ourselves when this is appropriate, but finding happiness often involves being comfortable in our own skin.

Practise gratitude

Part of reaching a state of happiness involves gratitude. It is often recommended that we daily give thanks for what we have. Our lives are less than perfect, far from it, such is the human condition: to live is to suffer. However, being grateful for whatever we have is a key to a better life.

Enough

It is tempting to always want more, it seems a less appealing feature of human nature. Again, finding happiness involves being happy with our lot. This may not be an issue for writers on Medium, but there is research that shows that beyond a certain level of income or wealth happiness actually declines. Look at the experience of many celebrities who struggle with fame and fortune, seeking solace in drink or drugs. We can only live in one home at a time, drive one car. No one needs a yacht or a space rocket. Always wanting more is an insatiable hunger, an itch that can never be soothed.

The following parable, versions of which may be found in many cultures, is re-told by Paulo Coelho, and emphasises the futility of always chasing more money.

“There was once a businessman who was sitting by the beach in a small Brazilian village. As he sat, he saw a Brazilian fisherman rowing a small boat towards the shore having caught quite few big fish. The businessman was impressed and asked the fisherman, ‘How long does it take you to catch so many fish?’ The fisherman replied, ’Oh, just a short while.’ ‘Then why don’t you stay longer at sea and catch even more?’ The businessman was astonished. ‘This is enough to feed my whole family,’ the fisherman said. The businessman then asked, ‘So, what do you do for the rest of the day?’ The fisherman replied, ‘Well, I usually wake up early in the morning, go out to sea and catch a few fish, then go back and play with my kids. In the afternoon, I take a nap with my wife, and evening comes, I join my buddies in the village for a drink — we play guitar, sing and dance throughout the night.’”

“The businessman offered a suggestion to the fisherman: ‘I am a PhD in business management. I could help you to become a more successful person. From now on, you should spend more time at sea and try to catch as many fish as possible. When you have saved enough money, you could buy a bigger boat and catch even more fish. Soon you will be able to afford to buy more boats, set up your own company, your own production plant for canned food and distribution network. By then, you will have moved out of this village and to Sao Paulo, where you can set up HQ to manage your other branches.’”

“The fisherman continues, ‘And after that?’ The businessman laughs heartily, ‘After that, you can live like a king in your own house, and when the time is right, you can go public and float your shares in the Stock Exchange, and you will be rich.’ The fisherman asks, ‘And after that?’ The businessman says, ‘After that, you can finally retire, you can move to a house by the fishing village, wake up early in the morning, catch a few fish, then return home to play with kids, have a nice afternoon nap with your wife, and when evening comes, you can join your buddies for a drink, play the guitar, sing and dance throughout the night!’ The fisherman was puzzled, “Isn’t that what I am doing now?’”

Paulo Coelho’s most famous book is probably “The Alchemist”, from which the essential message is perhaps distilled, as that the important thing in life, is to find the thing in life that you are passionate about, and then pursue your dream. It also contains the not-always-accurate advice that,

“…..when you really want something to happen, the whole universe will conspire so that your wish comes true”.

Dreams and goals

While it is good to practise gratitude and to learn what is enough, there is nothing wrong with having sensible dreams and goals. Setting ourselves targets can help us focus on productivity and define where we want to get to. The following article considers how visualising SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, Timely) targets can help in reach our objectives.

I hope you found this affirmation useful and do share any of your own that you find helpful in the comments.

As always, thank you for reading.

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For more information on the power of positive affirmations:

Day 16 — Healing is possible

Day 15 — Bumpy progress

Day 14 — Value yourself –

Day 13 — Choose health

Day 12 — Perseverance pays

Day 11 — Keep your dreams alive

Day 10 — Valuing ourselves

Day 9: Forgiveness

Day 8: Making a new start — the past does not dictate the future

Day 7 — Being worthy

Day 6 — Feeling good

Day 5 tip: Setting boundaries

Day 4 tip: Being human

Day 3 tip: Building resilience

Day 2 tip: An opportunity to grow

Day 1 tip: Strong and capable