CELEBRATE THE PRESENT
The 3rd Tenet of The Shin Dao Philosophy
The energy of Gratitude and Appreciation blesses you with ease and greater flow. Celebration is an expression of Gratitude and Appreciation that may honor an achievement, a completion of an objective, or a special occasion. Celebration can be a self-acknowledgment or a recognition of another’s life (isn’t that what a birthday party is?)
Too often we save Celebration for the big things in life, yet here are some good reasons to celebrate even the smaller things in life, and more often:
- Celebration helps you maintain momentum in your life.
Life is all about the journey, and that means that every step, as well as reaching your destination, is part of your journey. When you celebrate the completion of small steps along the journey of your life, you leverage the powerful energies of gratitude and momentum. Thomas Edison (the man who invented the light bulb after thousands of attempts) is quoted as saying, “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.”) His words indicate that even each mistake along the way is cause for celebration, since each mistake delivers learning and indicators of what doesn’t work, opening the doors to finding alternative ways that do work. His persistence and perspective shows how celebrating each step of the way can encourage you to keep taking more steps.
- Celebration builds self-respect.
Others treat you according to how you treat yourself. It’s important to hold yourself in high regard. Perhaps your parents, or other early caregivers in your life, did not celebrate who you are and your special gifts to the world, and this caused you to doubt your value and worth. Celebration of your achievements, your qualities, and your special gifts overwrites this limiting conditioning and tips the balance of your internal programming so that it’s more natural to think well of yourself.
- Celebration is positive magnification.
What you focus on expands. When you downplay or skip celebration, you are telling yourself that you haven’t done enough, and your self-doubt expands. If you want to complete more projects with less procrastination and guilt, then be sure to celebrate more. Honor your completions, both big and small. This celebration will expand more of what you want in your life.
- Celebration of the Present brings more joy into your life.
How often do you allow yourself to simply be in the moment that you’re living, with full presence to, and appreciation for, that moment? People habitually fill their heads with memories of the past, and worries, concerns or hopes for the future. Yet filling your head with this stuff actually prevents you from being fully present to this moment, here and now, where life is happening… whether you notice it or not. The precious moments in life that bring you that exquisite feeling of joy are only experienced when you are fully present to the moment.
