Over the past few years, I have been making it a priority to have a good feeling life. My long dedication has paid off in wonderful ways, because most of my days now are pleasant, peaceful, and just plain good. The absolute best way I have found to maintain a good feeling life is through appreciation.

Being thankful and/or grateful is similar to this. In fact, the very first positive change I made in my incredibly bad feeling life was to write down three things I was thankful for every day. Eventually, I realized my thankfulness had turned to gratitude, and now I simply call it appreciation.

The word appreciation might have a small distinction between thankfulness and gratitude, but it’s an important one, because appreciation has a far bigger good feeling attached to it (just try it and see for yourself). When I appreciate, there’s not even a tiny amount of bad feeling or obligation attached to what I’m feeling. It just feels good.

Another thing I have found is that consistency is vital to building a good feeling life. I can instantly lift any bad feelings by spending fifteen solid minutes really appreciating something or someone in my life. After that fifteen minutes, I can feel my mood lift, and as a result, the rest of my day becomes so much better. But then what about the next day? Or what if something or someone comes along and completely ruins that good feeling high? Yep, I find more things to appreciate.

The more I appreciate, the better my life gets.

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