by Kathleen O'Keefe-Kanavos | Sep 6, 2018 | Uncategorized
As I walk toward my computer, morning coffee in hand, high pitched pings greet and alert me to the fact that someone had sent an email. Perhaps it is another invitation to be a guest on a radio show to discuss dreams, I thought. No. The email is a cry for dream-help.
It reads, “My dreams are so real I often do not know if I am really dreaming or in another dimension. How can I tell?” “Pinch yourself to see if you are dreaming,” might be something you have heard someone say to you. Another old cliché often used is, “pinch me, I must be dreaming.” There is a good reason for this call to action.
This is the story of dreams that are more real than reality. Have you ever had such a dream? Pain is the answer.
Some studies indicate that dream pain is rare and may be beyond the representational capability of dreaming. In other words, pain is just too complicated in a dream to really work.
This excerpt is an example taken from The Neurocritic Blogspot.
Once I dreamed I was lying on my stomach, getting a tattoo on my calf against my will. Because it was a particularly malevolent tattoo studio, I cried out in the dream. When I woke up, I felt no pain at all.
The pain in the dream woke the dreamer, but in the waking world, the pain was nonexistent.
While you are in the dream state, your dreams can be as vivid as reality. One type of reality dream we can have is known as the Waking Dream. We believe we have awakened, are preparing for work or school as we do daily, but when the bus doors open the driver is Winney the Poo. Ding-ding! We pinch ourselves to be sure this time we really are awake and not still dreaming.
Another type of Waking Dream is when you dream that you woke up and begin your day as you normally do and then suddenly you really do wake up…and you sit up, pinch yourself or touch your face to see if you are really awake this time.
Pinching is reassuring because pain is the reality.
When pain wakes us up from a dream, it can be to remind us that we were dreaming, but are now awake. Although we may dream of pain, we may not actually feel the pain. For example, we may dream that our hand is on fire. We may watch the blazes engulf our fingers, yet feel no burning sensation or pain in the dream. We may even comment to ourselves in the dream that the fire is quite beautiful. However, if reality begins to creep into our dream our hand may begin to feel hot or uncomfortable, and this will usually wake us from the dream.
Reality has validation in discomfort.
In most cases, reality can be validated in the waking world using real-life consequences. Dropping a raw egg on a hard kitchen floor usually results in an expected consequence. Just the thought may make you cringe.
However, in a dream, the floor might suddenly open up and swallow the egg, or the egg could bounce and stick to the ceiling, grow wings and fly away like a bat, all of which would not cause the dreamer even to bat an eye.
It is this, Alice in Wonderland Mad Hatter’s Tea Party that makes dreams so amusing.
However, you can also have a Precognitive Dream which predicts the future through a sixth sense. This dream may later be validated in reality and by reality. An example of such a dream is a medical report confirming a diagnostic dream that turns out to be an early warning sign of a disease.
Your vivid Lucid Dream validated during your waking life is part of your reality.
Examples of this type of validated dreaming grounded in reality appear in the book Dreams That Can Save Your Life: Early Warning Signs of Cancer and Other Diseases. The dream research is based on the diagnostic and precognitive dreams from a Breast Cancer Dream Group involving eighteen women whose dreams diagnosed their breast cancer that was later validated by pathology reports. Dr. Larry Burk, Radiologist at Duke University Medical, headed the research, which has been published distributed in medical journals and by Inner Traditions/Simon and Schuster. The bizarre precognitive and diagnostic recurrent breast cancer dreams were grounded by the reality of pathology reports in the waking world of medicine.
Reality is grounded.
An example of grounded reality would be the inability to effortlessly fly through the air with our bodies when we are awake. This explains how waking reality has validation.
Flying may represent a sense of freedom from reality.
According to Psychology Today, a flying dream can serve as a sort of escape from the pressures of our waking world which is represented by the ground. This is also an example of the play-on-words often represented in dreams. In reality, a plane is grounded when weather conditions do not permit flight. In a dream, we may be grounded when life becomes too burdensome to allow us freedom or lightness of being capable of flight.
Much like the fight or flight response of a bird, we may take flight from a disturbing situation in our dream. Feeling as free and flighty as a bird does not mean we can do so when awake.
Reality is relative to the environment in which it is experienced.
And that brings us back to the first statement in this article, a dream to the dreamer may feel as real during that reality as our waking life feels to us during our daily reality.I hope these explanations help to answer your cry for Dream-help concerning dreams vs. reality and how you can learn how to know the difference.
About the Author: Kathleen (Kat) O’Keefe-Kanavos, author and three-time cancer survivor whose guided dreams diagnosed her illness as seen on Dr. Oz, The Doctors, NBC News, American Express Open, in Newspapers and magazines. She’s a Contributing author to Chicken Soup for the Soul, TV/Radio Host/Producer- Wicked Housewives On Cape Cod™, the Kat Kanavos Show, Internationally Syndicated Columnist in BIZ360, Keynote Speaker and Lecturer who promotes patient advocacy and Spiritual guidance. www.KathleenOkeefeKanavos.com
Photo Credit: Pixabay Dream CastlePixabay httpspixabay.com endreamcastle europe and america 1518227 No Attribution Required
Article Research:
Pain in dreams-PubMed-NCBI, Sleep. 1993 Aug;16(5):490-8 Nielsen TA1, McGregor DL, Zadra A, Ilnicki D, Ouellet L. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7690981
waking dream – Wiktionary https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/waking_dream
Dreams Vs Reality: How Do You Know Which Is Which .., https://www.bizcatalyst360.com/dreams-vs-reality-how-do-you-know-which-is-which/
http://neurocritic.blogspot.com/
https://www.world-of-lucid-dreaming.com/precognitive-dreams.html
by Kathleen O'Keefe-Kanavos | Aug 30, 2018 | Uncategorized
Many of us have heard of Trolls in fairytales, but when they show up on your social media sites, they become a real nightmare. They are also known as modern-day Cyber-bullies. There is only one way to get rid of them. Starve them. Don’t feed the Trolls.
What is a social media Troll and how do you know if you have attracted one?
In fairytales like Three Billy Goats Gruff, a Troll living beneath a bridge used extortion, threats, and bullying to try to eat all three of the goats. But it was positive wisdom, not negative threats that prevailed. This was a Norwegian fairytale first published between 1841 and 1844, and in Norse mythology and Scandinavian folklore a troll is described as a class of beings that
“dwell in isolated rocks, mountains, or caves, live together in small family units, and are rarely helpful to human beings.”
The Nors also called Trolls auðsug jǫtuns, which translated means “giant-wealth-suckers.”
Mythical Trolls were known to try to suck the success right out of their victims. This behavior continues today with modern-day social media and internet Trolls. In mythology Trolls also displayed a habit of “bergtagning” (kidnapping’; literally) and overrunning a farm or estate. Your internet success is the today’s equivalent to a farm or estate and that success is a Troll’s dinner.
Now we know where modern day trolls got their name and how they are still living up to it.
In Scandinavian folklore, Trolls become defined as a particular type of being. There was the Skogtroll who was a forest dweller, and the bjergtrolde which were mountain-trolls. All Trolls are solitary creatures who live in dark, dank places and do not like the sun or daylight because according to Folklore, Trolls turn to stone upon contact with sunlight.
Here is a list of the 5 most prevalent modern-day Trolls and signs that they are on your site.
Bully Troll- calls people names and will pick on everyone and anyone, to get a negative emotional response from them. Sign- name-calling and profanity.
Debate Troll– loves a good argument, turns facts into fiction and they believe they are always right, and everyone else is wrong. Sign– they leave long threads or arguments with other commenters in community comment sections.
Professor Troll– uses a commenter’s sentence structure, spelling, grammar mistakes and “rules and regulations” as an excuse to insult them. Sign- belittling commenting with the correction behind an asterisk symbol.
Victim Troll- turns any content, but especially humorous ones, into an argument by playing the victim. Sign- online crying-gags and people “walking or commenting on egg shells” around them.
Kidnap/Hijack (“bergtagning”) Troll– posts something completely off-topic to hijack the conversation and kidnap the commenters to some other irrelevant thing that was posted by the Troll. Sign- a sudden shift in an active, established discussion thread.
Where do modern-day online Trolls live and forage for food?
Today Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Google+ is the dank mountain cave of many a Troll, and they want to overrun the social media estate you have built or you online-farm displaying the fruits of your labor and suck the success right out of it. There are also Trolls in office buildings and work places. Those Trolls are more easily recognizable because they are two-faced.
Trolls no long try to take over farms and estates. They kidnap and hijack pages and forums.
Rather than having forest or mountain Trolls we now have social media and internet Trolls. If you are on social media long enough, you will probably get a Troll or two. Most modern day Trolls stalk social media pages, and internet radio shows because they love the limelight the shows offer them with a ready-made audience. Other Trolls prefer to live in online-forums. And, the more social media sites you have, the higher your chances are of attracting multiple types of Trolls.
How do you know if you encountered a Troll? How do you recognize them from inquisitive followers?
Trolls are tricky. Anonymous online Trolls are people who, per the Urban Dictionary, “purposely and deliberately start an argument in a manner which attacks others on a forum without in any way listening to the arguments proposed by his peers.” Their main purpose is usually self-amusement that is hiding behind self-rightness. A secondary purpose may be to suck the success out of the forum and then take it over. To do this, they shift the positivity and growth in the group to negativity and destruction. You may see or feel it as it is happening when page followers begin to drop, and the page’s numbers decline or participation drops off, and the page seems “empty.” You may be left wondering, “Why this is happening and what can I do to make a change?”
Now that you know how to spot a Troll what can you do to get rid of a Troll? Here are 6 suggestions.
- Keep your site positive while you deal with your Troll. Remember, Trolls are attracted to the light but cannot live in the light. The positive light will turn them to stone.
- Monitor your live internet and radio shows before you bring someone into the audience.
- Don’t be tricked. Find and learn how to use your BLOCK button. Trolls are tricky and will try to turn the tables on you making you think they were “just helping you.” If you do not feel helped it is because you were not helped.
- Do not engage. The argument is their food. Like most bullies, they are masters at word manipulation and thrive from arguments.
- Do be the light that turns them to stone. Ignore them, and you starve them. Engage them, and you feed them.
- If suggestions 1-5 do not work- use banning/blocking or report them to authorities, or close off comment sections entirely from a blog post, video page or topic thread.
In all the mythological stories the Trolls were defeated by brains. They were outsmarted by average people and in one case, a tiny but clever goat. Be smart. Don’t feed the Trolls!
About the Author: Kathleen (Kat) O’Keefe-Kanavos is a three-time Breast Cancer Survivor, as seen on Dr. Oz, DOCTORS, NBC, and CBS, whose Divine Dreams diagnose her illness, and was a Dream Research Participant for Duke University’s Dr. Larry Burk‘s Breast Cancer Dream Research Program. They co-wrote, Dreams That Can Save Your Life. She is a Syndicated Columnist, TV Producer/Host and award-winning Author/Lecturer who promotes patient advocacy and connecting with Divine Spiritual-guidance through Dreams for success in health, wealth, and relationships. “Don’t tell God how big your problems are. Tell your problems how big your God is.” Learn more @ www.KathleenOKeefeKanavos.com
Photo credit: Broesis-art-2307407_1280-Pixabay-CCO-Public-Domain-FREE-for-commercial-use-No-attribution-required.jpg
Article Research:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troll
Three Billy Goats Gruff https://www.pitt.edu/~dash/type0122e.html
The Trolls In Our Midst: What Fairytales Can Tell Us About .., https://electricliterature.com/the-trolls-in-our-midst-what-fairytales-can-tell-
10 Types of Internet Trolls You’ll Meet Online https://www.lifewire.com/types-of-internet-trolls-3485894
by Kathleen O'Keefe-Kanavos | Jul 29, 2018 | Uncategorized
Are you still collecting emails? Stop! You are wasting your time. Email lists and group blasts are going the way of the carrier pigeon. A hundred years ago a once-mighty species that carried messages to many different sites became extinct. Email blasts may be the next messenger to become a victim of abuse.
This article this article explores:
- How terrestrial and cyber events are suffering due to the death of promotional emails
- Three researched reasons why it’s a waste of time to collect email addresses
- How and why emails that once meant promotion no longer matter
- Tried-and-true solutions to help solve the resulting email challenges
What do tele-summits, terrestrial or Internet-based events, and emails have in common? Nothing anymore. Rumors circulated on the internet state that tele-summits and other internet-based means of promotion no longer works. Why? The experts think it is due to a lack of interest in events. There may be another reason.
Research shows the problem is not the message. It is the messenger.
In fact, Internet-based events, if promoted correctly, can be more successful than terrestrial events for five reasons:
- Attendees have the ability to enjoy the events from the privacy and comfort of their homes
- Attendees don’t have to spend money on travel, hotel rooms, and meals
- Events can be viewed and/or listened to live or replayed later as a podcast at the convenience of the attendee
- Promoters do not need to secure expensive venues like hotel banquet rooms and risk losing money on less than full events
- Experts/presenters do not need to travel to a land-based venue
Reason number three is especially important for attendees with jobs and/or family responsibilities.
So, how and why are emails the problem?
Unfortunately, the decline of business contact through an email blast to connect with potential clients is having an enormous impact on many internet and non-internet-based business-building programs, and start-up businesses.
If you aspire to be a published author your book is your business.
For instance, when attending writing conferences to improve my second book Dreams That Can Save Your Life, it was standard for keynote literary agents to inform audiences that an email list of 10,000 was necessary for representation, because, “publishers do not sign authors unable to self-promote using email reach.” That was a couple of years ago and times have really changed.
Once Upon a Time…Emails meant promotion.
Large email lists were the lifeblood for physical and virtual events, such as:
- Tele-summits – Online multi-speaker events that assemble a series of experts to discuss a specific theme and often used for email list building.
- Conferences – An important or notable planned occasion, social gathering, or activity.
- Product launches – A site-based or virtual launch party around the release of a new product.
- Networking events – For making new contacts, leading to new clients, partners, and vendors.
- Seminars/educational events – For professionals or the public with single or multiple speakers.
- Trade shows – A way to position brands as an industry leader and to generate new leads.
Remember when?
- People bought email lists
- Phone Apps were developed to collect emails at events to grow contact lists
- FREE gifts were an enticement for clients to double-opt into email lists
- Clipboards were passed around at events or presentations for email collection
That was then, and this is now.
Today email marketing is considered the epitome of bad marketing. Email addresses do not really matter anymore because emails are no longer being read, or answered, so potential clients are not being reached.
Email spamming has resulted in email deletion and blocking.
Consequently, this has resulted in the decline of virtual and in-person attendance at terrestrial events. If you are an entrepreneur attempting to connect with a high-level clientele by using emails, especially blasts, you are wasting your time. Most of these clients don’t read their emails, and hardworking middle-class clients don’t have time to answer countless daily emails.
Time is money. It is a precious commodity in our fast-paced world.
Once upon a time…I read my emails… until I was overwhelmed with more than 350 a day, many of which I had not signed up for (my address had been purchased somewhere or otherwise shared without my consent). When attempting to respond to some of those emails my email went to Info@, never reaching the person who had sent it. They had no problem spamming me but did not want to be contacted, except through a link that sold me something. Out of necessity I began to block and unsubscribe to newsletters, blogs and emails, which was annoying because it took time.
Today, my virtual assistant handles my emails.
And, many of my friends and clients, who do not have personal assistants to delete their emails, have special email filters that block unsolicited contact. This is part of the death of email and the end of email blasts. Therefore, events and companies which relied heavily on email contact are also dying.
How did this happen? Too much of a good thing became a bad thing.
Abuse killed emails. Email is going the way of phone solicitations and the Do Not Call list. So what is an entrepreneur, author or start-up business to do?
My next blog will address:
- Professional marketing studies which shed light on the decline of the email
- Your Solutions for the future.
Kathleen (Kat) O’Keefe-Kanavos, author- Dreams That Can Save Your Life, seen on Dr. Oz, The Doctors, NBC News, American Express Open, in Newspapers and magazines. www.KathleenOkeefeKanavos.com
Photo Credit: Pixabay FREE Email Newsletter Marketing Free vector graphic on Pixabay ribkhan No Attribution required httpspixabay.comenemail-newsletter-marketing-online-3249062
Article Research:
Why You Should Think Twice About Hosting a Telesummit or Accepting an Invitation to Speak, Tara Gentile http://taragentile.com/telesummits-bad-marketing/
https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/email-blast
Why Email Blast is Bad Email Marketing https://www.pinpointe.com/blog/why-email-blast-is-bad-email-marketing
It’s Not Them; It’s You- Why Email Marketing Blasts Don’t Work https://www.outboundengine.com/blog/its-not-them-its-you-why-email-marketing-blasts-dont-work/
by Kathleen O'Keefe-Kanavos | Jan 27, 2018 | Uncategorized
“What if I dream of my dead uncle telling me to come to him in my dream? What does it mean?”
As a member of Quora’s Dreams and Dreaming group, this dream question was emailed to me by another Quora member. It seems like such a simple question, but it is quite complicated and has multiple answers. The tricky part is deciding which one is right for you because our dreams are filled with a dream language that only we can understand.
Here is my answer based on the research for my dream books.
Dreams of the deceased are one of the most exciting and confusing aspects of dreams and dreaming. In the book Dreams That Can Save Your Life, distributed by Simon & Schuster, many of the 30 life-saving dream stores contained visitations from deceased loved ones and family members during times of crisis.
One dreamer in Part VI, Chapter 42 of the book shares two dream stories about deceased loved ones appearing in her dreams during a time of extreme stress. She had Cystic Fibrosis and was undergoing a triple organ transplant.
One dream is about a previous dead lover who appeared to her in her dream.
On September 11, 2001, (9/11) I received a letter officially listing me for a
double lung and liver transplant. This day symbolized a new beginning for me.
From that day on, my struggling shared space with waiting for the phone call
saying my clinic received organs for me. On August 18, 2001, I got a welcomed
visitor in a dream.
Dream: Mario Is With Me.
Mario, the dead friend I hadn’t thought of for so many months, or get a chance
to say a proper goodbye to, stopped by in my dream. We were sitting in a
house in the living room, just talking as we always did, while there was a lot of
activity around us. It appeared as though someone was moving in or out, but
I wasn’t sure. And while we talked, I couldn’t help but wonder why Mario was
here in my dream, sitting right next to me, while being dead.
The moment I started to wake up, I knew Mario was dead, of course, but still
here with me and would protect and take care of me during the transplant. This
feeling was so clear and real, I immediately wrote down my dream.”
The other dream is about a strange man who keeps returning in her dreams. He hides his face and runs away in the pouring rain. His tan raincoat flaps in the wind behind him, which turns out to be a clue as to his identity as the dreamer had never seen this person before.
Dream: The Face of Death?
It was a dark night on an empty street in the city. It had rained, the streets were
still wet, and the light of the streetlights reflected on the puddles. I stood on
the street alone, not sure what I was supposed to do or why I was there, when I spotted a telephone booth. In it was a man standing in a long coat and a hat,
beige fabric reminiscent of 1960s attire. Every time I spotted him, he half-turned,
opened the door of the telephone booth, and started to walk down the street.
Every time I saw him taking off, I knew as long as I could see him, as long as I
didn’t lose him, as long as he didn’t turn around and show me his face, I was safe.
After I was able to talk, I told my mom about this dream, and she knew immediately
who the man was. It was my uncle, her brother. He always wore long coats
and hats in beige. I had never met my uncle, because he died from Hodgkin’s
lymphoma, at the age of 37, 10 days before my birth.
When she relayed the dream to her mother the description of the man and his raincoat led to the realization that the man was the dreamer’s uncle who had died before her birth.
At the time of the dream, the dreamer was on death’s door after having had a three organ transplant. It turns out the Uncle was just checking up on her and trying to reach-out or speak to her using the phone in an old phone booth, a hint that the Uncle was much older and unaware of cell phones.
This is a classic example of a dead relative trying to communicate with the living in a dream.
Are the dead relatives in our dreams real, aspects of ourselves, or just wishful dreaming to see a loved-one one more time?
Often the people we see in our dreams are aspects of ourselves. If this were my dream and I were not terminally ill, I would ask myself what aspects of my uncle I like to integrate into myself and my life. Was he joyful, or perhaps a strong emotional and intellectual fighter?
Although I always encourage people to look for the answers to dreams using their own dream language, sometimes a dream dictionary can be useful, especially when trying to interpret something that may contain a symbol that may be a play on words, like “Cry Uncle.”
Uncles hold an exceptional spot in the family dynamics. They are often Godfathers to children and the person most entrusted with the lives of their brother’s children.
According to a Jungian dream dictionary: to see your uncle in your dream represents some aspect of your family heritage and trait. It also symbolizes new ideas and emerging awareness. Consider the idiom “cry uncle” to mean surrender or admit defeat.
This begs the question, “Is someone asking you to cry Uncle? Who and why?”
In your dream, your Uncle is telling you to come to him.
Maybe your unconscious feels that you should surrender to something that’s going on right now?
Our dreams concerning passed over loved ones can also be what is known as a duality, two things happening at once that contain different meaning.
A dream-duality can speak to two things happening at once, a conflict, or an opposition. It may contain aspects of ourselves in life and the actual dead relative who has come to help us and give us guidance.
Perhaps the conflict is life and death with the dead visiting the living in a dream in order to secure life from a place of death.
What is your life like emotionally right now? Are you stressed? Is this a time of challenge?
When we are in a place of emotional or physical turmoil our dead relatives are often given permission to return to us in our dreams during our darkest hour to help change the darkness into a defining moment. With them they bring celestial light into a dark place; another duality.
Resources: https://www.quora.com/profile/Kathleen-Okeefe-Kanavos
Dreams That Can Save Your Life: Early Warning Signs of Cancer and Other Disease; Findhorn Press/Inner Traditions; distributed by Simon &Schuster (April 17, 2018)
Surviving Cancerland: Intuitive Aspects of Healing; Cypress House; 1 edition (March 28, 2014)
All book quotes are used with permission from the author, Kathleen O’Keefe-Kanavos and Dr. Larry Burk.
Photo credit: Cancerland Poster used with permission by the author.
About the Author: Kathleen (Kat) O’Keefe-Kanavos-three-time cancer survivor whose guided dreams diagnosed her illness as seen on Dr. Oz, NBC News, American Express Open, in Newspapers and magazines, and detailed in her book Surviving Cancerland, and Dreams That Can Save Your Life. She’s a Contributing author to Chicken Soup for the Soul, TV/Radio Host/Producer- Wicked Housewives On Cape Cod™, the Kat Kanavos Show, Internationally Syndicated Columnist in BIZCATALYST360, and Lecturer who promotes patient advocacy and Spiritual guidance. www.KathleenOkeefeKanavos.com
by Kathleen O'Keefe-Kanavos | Nov 17, 2016 | Access Your Inner Guide, Uncategorized
“There is nothing more life changing than gratitude. This I know for sure.” ~Oprah Winfrey
Nightmares are blessings in disguise and a call to action. I immediately gave thanks for the Divine intervention. And, that brings me back to here and now, at the hospital —pissed off and panting! “Thank you God for guiding me. I can’t do this alone,” I thought. Then, the power of gratitude flowed into intention which began to manifest results.
“I want an appointment for an MRI and I don’t care if they can give me a false negative. I’d rather sweat through a negative biopsy than have another missed positive mammogram. You have my records on your computer. See who made the last appointment and then make one for me, please!”
The secretary must have pushed a hidden panic button because Dr. Harold appeared.
“I already told you, we don’t write MRI prescriptions here. Who wrote your last one?” he said.
Those words had echoed in my mind as I ran between the lower floor of nuclear medicine to ninth floor oncology to fifth floor surgery, to find who had written the last prescription. Isn’t that why I have medical records? My dream said an MRI is a matter of life and death. So, I’m not leaving until I have that appointment, even if it means lying on the floor of his waiting room and throwing a full-fledged temper tantrum like a two year old brat denied candy.
“I don’t know who wrote the last prescription, nor do I care. I want you to write this one, now, please.”
“Kathy, you are healthy and it’s not hospital policy to give MRIs without a reason.”
Is this déjà vu or have I been transported back in time to the same response five years ago? I need to pinch myself, or better yet pinch Dr. Harold. Instead, armed with gratitude for guidance I step closer for effect. “ I want an MRI. If I hadn’t convinced Dr. Wagner to perform exploratory surgery on me, against hospital policy, I’d be dead now.”
Four months later my MRI results showed stage four breast cancer recurrence.
I could have sued and won but chose not to. I could have chosen to remain angry but, that would drain my immune system. Anger is debilitating. Instead, I chose to stand in gratitude and immediately said a silent prayer. “Thank you for giving me strength and guidance to self-advocate. Please use me.” I decided to let-go-and-let-God with the statement, “Thy will be done. If I am to die thank you for giving me time to get my house in order. If I am to live, thank you for allowing me to be of service to others. ” With those words of gratitude I could not loose, and that made me a winner, which was reason for more gratitude creating a cyclone of positive energy. That was 12 and 17 years ago. Gratitude is still swirling.
Gratitude is a big part of my daily healing and can be used to pay-it-back or pay-it-forward. My favorite prayer is, “I thank you for all that I am, all that I will be, all that I have, all that I choose to give away, and all that I will receive.” So simple. So powerful!
No matter what you are feeling right now give thanks for it. Breathe in healing gratitude and exhale any limitations. You always have a choice. You can bemoan your lot in life or look for the silver lining and give thanks for the opportunity to rise above your challenges. Every challenge is a stepping stone toward gratitude. Be grateful and give thanks.
Giving thanks means more than a seat at the Thanksgiving, Christmas, or Easter table. It is a daily event that involves taking a momentary break from your fast paced life to put a smile on your face.
Gratitude is a mind-set that holds the key to shifting your awareness from an attitude of rejecting and defending to one of acceptance and appreciation in order for more abundance to magically flow.
Studies by Robert A. Emmons PhD, a leading expert on the subject of gratitude, show people who live in a state of pervasive thankfulness experience life differently than people who cheat themselves out of joy by not feeling grateful.
Have you ever noticed how good you feel when you are thankful for something or someone? When present in the moment of gratitude we feel more open, more generous, more connected, more aware and more alive.
Why save that special feeling for a certain day, occasion, or time of the year? Don’t wait for a reason to be thankful, paying it forward and give thanks for anything the Universe may send you in the future. Make it a game. Close your eyes, take a deep breath and give thanks now. Begin a new life of gratitude this moment. Your Spirit-guides and Guardian-angels love to play the Gratitude Game. The rule is simple: The worse the problem the more grateful you must become for receiving inner- guidance to grow from the challenge. You simply can’t lose at the Gratitude Game.
BIO: Kathleen (Kat) O’Keefe-Kanavos is an international, multi-award-winning author, contributor to Chicken Soup for the Soul, Internationally Syndicated Columnist, TV/Radio host/producer of Wicked Housewives On Cape Cod. ™and The Kat Kanavos Show. She is a three-time cancer survivor whose dreams diagnosed her illness, is written in medical journals and invited on National Talk Shows like Dr. Oz. Kat lives her life daily in gratitude and grace. Learn more at KathleenOkeefeKanavos.com
