Conscious Appreciation practice is designed to train the mind to “see” and focus on the positives in ourselves and the world around us. A commonly familiar example is the new car syndrome. We buy a new car, and all of a sudden we notice them everywhere. Our buying the car did not suddenly manifest hundreds of them in our community. What happened is that particular car moved up in our conscious awareness. As a result we noticed more of it in our world. The same principle applies with “good” and “bad”. The more we focus on either one, the more of it we will notice. The result is that our world will appear to be more full of whatever it is. The more “good” it has in it, the better our world becomes. The more good we have in our lives, the easier it is for us to share it with others, making their world a little brighter. An important community practice here is “feeding the good”, meaning expending our conscious energy on things we want to see grow. But before we can feed the good, we have to see the good. Then once we see it, we can feed it with the energy of our conscious appreciation of it. Not only does this practice actually influence the energy of our environment and other people, it also strengthens our own consciousness by feeding it with positive energy.

How to practice Conscious Appreciation

Each day find something good about yourself. Take the time to appreciate that part of you and how it contributes to making your life better than it would be otherwise. Spend some time and mental energy (to the point where you can emotionally feel it) congratulating yourself and celebrating that particular part of you. You should not select the same quality about yourself more than once in any given week.

Also each day find something good about someone you know. Take the time to think about how that trait in them positively contributes to the people in their lives. Expend some time and energy (to the point where you can emotionally feel it) celebrating that aspect of who they are.