The three A’s are Awareness, Acceptability and Action. At the top of the mindset ladder sit presence, gratitude, discipline, and service. If you spend your time enriching these states, you will find happiness and joy in the simplest encounters. These established ideals are used widely in psychology and coaching because of the effects on the brain and emotions.

Gratitude

To be grateful you must see the truth, that you are a divine creature of awing splendour. Gratitude is a buzz topic for good reason. It is a tool for supreme living and worthy of its status for developing advantageous attitudes. It is undoubtably a central viewpoint to foster for living in joy. Gratitude makes us feel happy. It puts focus on what is good. Gratitude is the opposite of self-pity and can give you a richer lens to observe life though. Positive attention is vital for positive development in every area. Gratitude is both free and valuable, making it a gift of the highest grade.

You are alive NOW

Presence is the art of living in the now. It is as simple as bringing awareness to what you are doing, all the time. There are practical techniques like Mindfulness which can guide us and improve our understanding. Being present can help you with difficult issues like forgiveness and unmanageability. The desire to live fully in the now can help you escape painful pasts. Moving into presence will stop you projecting false ideals and fantasy expectations onto the future. Living in real time is more gratifying and profoundly healing.

Presence is about reacting to life in the moment rather than from our negative programming. It is not about avoiding difficult times and situations but having the awareness to act within the realm of now. Tomorrow does not exist. Yesterday is over. Only in the presence can you learn to live wholly and blissfully.

Discipline is freedom

Discipline is a central point in spirituality. As you become more aware and awake the Universe requires continuous upgrade. Akin to going to the gym, you cannot stop after 6 months and expect to keep your fitness. It needs attention and action. In Spiritual fitness you enhance your knowledge and collect practical tools. Personal and spiritual development has no endgame. It is the total evolution of you and your whole life and worth interest and commitment.

Discipline equates to freedom. Undisciplined minds and bodies eventually suffer severe consequences. Know that your spirit remains wild and free, discipline is just a practice to evade suffering and nourish your growth. It does not need to be boring or arduous. Rather I urge you to fill your life with things you enjoy doing and have stacks of fun. Learn to understand that the answer is in a balance somewhere between discipline and delight.

Service; but isn’t it all about me?

Living selflessly helps transform our attitude, self-worth, and our position on Earth.

Service is gratitude in action. Do we actually believe that we can live abundant lives without giving back? This is the greatest harm in modern society. Giving is so pleasurable that we miss out true joy when motivated by a self-seeking existence.

Having a mentality of usefulness means you are not chasing external things to define your happiness. You do not spend your thoughts trailing what you want but rather what you can bring. So much misery is created by our unfulfilled expectations of what life should be like and what we think we are entitled to. These are painful paradigms. If your purpose is to be useful you will always be happy because you are in control of what you give. Your happiness can be dependent on your generosity of spirit which is utterly rewarding. That does not mean we cannot receive great abundance, or shouldn’t enjoy it, because we should.

By Including service in your life, it will lead you to a channel of positivity and personal expansion. Karmic law is real. What you do becomes who you are and what you receive. Service opens your heart. Once you are living in-line with giving lovingly you will receive better as grace is drawn to you. Love and Goodness does not have to be returned immediately or by how you anticipate it should be. Keeping your heart open is key. When we close the heart, we attract others with closed hearts resulting in a cycle of loaded resentment and trauma. Give and love freely. Let go of what is not meant for you, with love, and learn to receive without reservation or expectations. If you can do this, you will know peace and joy.

Mindfulness

Fundamentally Mindfulness is a practical practice that includes gratitude, presence, and discipline. If you haven’t heard of Mindfulness, you must have been living on the moon, and even from there the message has landed. This method can be used to get happy quickly and to treat anxiety, stress, and depression. It also supports addiction recovery and physical pain relief.

Pioneer, Jon Kabat Zinn introduced the ancient technique popularly known as Mindfulness into modern medicine in the 1970’s. He rearranged the language and made it more acceptable to western ideology. The treatment was proven to be extremely effective in treating serious ailments. There are many avenues for Mindfulness, but the theory is always to live absolutely, unreservedly in the moment.

Mindfulness is not simply a meditation but a way of living that tops all other techniques as its purpose is simply to be alive and notice that you are. It is free and accessible to every human without prejudice, but undeniably takes some work. Knowledge is never enough for true transformation to hold, instead it is the beginning and foundation for higher living. We must take action and work towards getting out of our head and into our lives.

Top Mindfulness Tip:

Going into nature is a fun way to practice Mindfulness. Engage in the sensory experience of natural beauty. Go outside and say, “look at what the Universe did”. Nature can help us cultivate humility and appreciation of the majesty of Mother Nature, elevating life from mundane to spectacular. Finding beauty in all there is enriches the psyche, and you spend more time noticing the good, improving the mindset, and engaging with your heart rather than the critical mind.

Gratitude, presence, and discipline combined will create a paradigm shift that will have transformational results. Remember it is progress, not perfection and you cannot fail. Intention is the most important component in Universal Law so action with right-intention is warrior attitude. Most importantly, enjoy the ride… ITS EPIC!

Love Amanda

Amanda Lennon - My ethos is do good and have fun.

My purpose is to be happy and useful. I help people to overcome self-sabotage and low self-worth and connect with joy, purpose and meaning. Contact me at ASK AMANDA.

Email: askamanda@theportugalnews.com

Amanda is a Personal Development Coach who helps people to overcome internal issues.

• She has programmes in self-sabotage, self-love, healthful mind and body and inner-child (trauma informed) healing.

• She specialises in addiction and spiritual freedom.

• She has recovered from chronic addiction, disordered eating and has overcome trauma.

• She is a journalist (MA), historian (BA), amateur theologian, and yogi. She loves wild swimming and thinks life is a glorious bumpy adventure.

• She wants to share with people how she overcame living in misery by integrating spiritual principles to live in peace, joy, and servitude.

• She believes that spiritual principles are essential for modern lifestyles and wholly compatible with contemporary society.

• A rebel and knowledge seeker, she has learned to live-in harmony with all of creation and is still learning.