Writing about appreciation seems to bring up a lot for me. Today after weeks of delay, I asked myself, “Why is this so hard?” I am pretty good at clocking the beauty that surrounds us all – the sun, the sky and the stars. I know I am blessed to have a job, family, wonderful partner and an incredible group of friends. Many times I have been in awe of the way incredible opportunities have opened up, or of the colours of the sky during sunrise or sunset. When I speak to people I find it easy to tell them how much I appreciate them, the way they light up my life and what they bring to the world, – I do it often. Last and certainly not least, I’ve had more things to appreciate than I would have thought possible since I discovered Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine around seven years ago. So seriously, what’s the problem?
My head wants to jump in with all the answers. It tells me that by avoiding appreciation, I am simply avoiding my responsibility to be all of me. It’s a fact, too. I know that the more I appreciate myself, the more that I will realise how important my contribution to the world is, but the facts feel hollow and hard. My head is not helping.
I ask my body what the next step is. It says, “Bring some understanding to yourself – you are a deeply sensitive, tender being. You don’t have an issue with appreciation and you are not a ‘bad,’ ‘irresponsible’ person. Those judgmental thoughts, no matter how subtle, are all equally crushing. There is a reason you are choosing to have an issue with appreciation.”
I let myself feel that underneath it all, I don’t have an issue with appreciation at all. In fact, I can see I am afraid of what will happen when I let the world know just how much I value myself. I start remembering my childhood and the confidence I had; the way I could command a room and feel how deeply precious I was. I also sense that others didn’t always embrace my confidence and unbridled appreciation of myself. As a child, I did not understand that the shunning, withdrawal, harsh words, bullying and taunting were actually symptoms of jealousy. I chose to interpret these things as a sign that I was not ‘so crash hot’ after all, and I had used them to ‘take myself down a notch.’ Ah! … what a convenient way to fit in and be accepted. Everybody wins, or so I thought… (that’s where listening to my head got me).
So today I have another opportunity to claim myself back. Appreciation is not just our responsibility, it is also our birthright. I’ve also just discovered that I’ve left my lunch in the oven about an hour too long, (a little too crunchy for my taste). Didn’t see that line coming, did you? Ha! I could go into my normal judgment and self-bashing, but this blog reminds me it’s another moment to appreciate. Perhaps I’ve sensed that I need to eat something different today; perhaps I have an opportunity to look at the way I am doing things and change some behaviours that aren’t working for me and are impacting others.
Perhaps I am so deeply loved and supported that I am being shown my worth has nothing to do with what I do and everything to do with the way I respond to what life presents.
Yes – I see it now: every moment is an opportunity to engage with the science of appreciation.
By Leonne Barker, Woman discovering how wonderful she really is
Related Reading:
Self-acceptance and appreciation bring true presence
Washing my Car: a Lesson in Appreciation and Self-Care
What is the Science of Appreciation and how does it…
Words on Serge Benhayon 
Understanding life as a forever deepening movement that is an expanding part of our evolution, is a remarkable opportunity to have every moment as “an opportunity to engage with the science of appreciation”.
Appreciation of ourselves asks us to feel all the love that we are and the Divine Love that is continuously flowing through us.
Understanding our source of energy and aligning to that Godly source is such a Joy and then the ensuing appreciation of that Soul-full connection is Absoulutely life changing Leonne.
Where do these judgmental thoughts or any thoughts come to that come from?
I am discovering for my self that thoughts come from a pool of energy or consciousness and my body is configured in a way that lets say is attracted to them so that they stick as they pass through and so I think they are my thoughts because they are in my mind. Getting to grips with the fact that I don’t think has been a challenge but now I see it as a relief because then I can say no to those negative thoughts and move in a way that pulls in positive energy from a different consciousness. This supports me to not berate myself or have negative feelings about the world. I can make more loving choices, this is such a different way of living and one that I prefer.
“It tells me that by avoiding appreciation, I am simply avoiding my responsibility to be all of me.” Great line, and also the way you expanded on this with the understanding of how people’s reactions can lead us to avoid being all we are. Appreciation is an amazing magnifier, I found it also consolidates and cements in the qualities I am appreciating, and they feel more expanded afterwards.
Leonne it’s as though we can feel that our external environment does not want to feel our beauty and sensitivity and the truth we can bring, so it tries to shut down anyone that stands up and speaks their truth.
True-appreciation holds no judge-ment or comparison, which is to be judge-mental evil twin, and therefore to live in a Deep-humble-appreciate-ive-ness fills our life with so much, as we use ‘our-will’ to choose to be divine vessels and thus see divinity in others and all around us, as everything is coming from the hand of God, thus allowing Appreciation to flourish.
The assumptions of what will happen can and do cripple us, more than I reckon even I have fathomed at this point in time. Even then it’s a choice to fear the past coming back to bite us once again. Understanding my past choices helps to move beyond them.
Thank you Leonne, for understanding how the science of appreciation works and living that is a true responsibility. So when we Live with True-appreciation, which is understanding that to be energetically appreciative we understand that we are divine beings so much more than physicality, then our deep-humble-appreciative-ness eliminates any judge-ment.
Gregbarnes888, I’m just beginning to understand that we are indeed divine beings that stepped away from the flow that is the universe, step back in again and we will feel that we have gone nowhere it’s all a game of smoke and mirrors that we have all participated in and accepted as life. When actually this is no life at all we are stuck in time not space.
Absolutely Mary, the smoke or benevolence being the so called “good” and the mirrors or pirates being the so called “bad” dude but it is all one and the same force or energy driving both to distraction.
The more we appreciate, the more we discover there is to appreciate.
Self appreciation is super super natural, its only us that can turn away from this natural birthright.
Understanding the science of appreciation is a forever deepening subject, as when we accept our divinity and the light of God coming in and through us we are claiming who we are with authority, and this is also then a confirmation of our essences or Soul-full-ness.
Which then Greg everyone has the ability to feel and choose for themselves or not. That is the understanding that we all have free will, so if there is free will then there can be no judgement of another’s choice, as it is their free will and nothing to do with anyone else.
Absoulutely Mary, great level of awareness is a part of appreciation and thus is super important, and to bring Love in as it is condition-less and non-imposing as you have shared, changes our relationships on every level.
“So today I have another opportunity to claim myself back. Appreciation is not just our responsibility, it is also our birthright”
Yes love this – thank you for the reminder.
‘Yes – I see it now: every moment is an opportunity to engage with the science of appreciation.’ There is such a hurt and a hardening when we compromise ourselves to fit in and allow that judgment to creep in, but all that is needed is a shift in focus and an acceptance that we are already more than enough.
To deepen appreciative-ness with the authority of love that can come through us comes from the understanding that divinity is coming in and through us and we are more than human and this is confirmed in our ability to be in repose while we move in physicality.
“Perhaps I am so deeply loved and supported that I am being shown my worth has nothing to do with what I do and everything to do with the way I respond to what life presents.” What a beautiful way to live Leonne. Thank you so much for reminding us that there is an other way to be and that being hard, harsh and self bushing is not the only way!
“the more I appreciate myself, the more that I will realise how important my contribution to the world is” and this offers us an inkling of our sense of purpose. What we each contribute is vital as part of the whole we are from.
When we can recognise those magic moments, where we are aware of how just by being ourselves and in the constellations we are offered, there is a deep confirmation in the alchemy that takes place for everyone we encounter and for ourselves too.
Lucy this is a great understanding that we are all here for a purpose which has nothing to do with bettering our lives, or having more than we could possible need, or leading a safe, secure comfortable life.
We are missing out on being part of the grandness of the universe while we insist on clinging onto a safe and secure life, which is not real, we have made real something that doesn’t exists anywhere else in the universe.
I have a friend who has no appreciation of who they are or what pleasure they bring to everyone’s life just because they are there. There seems to be a level of worthlessness that constantly eats away at them so that their thoughts are all biased towards the negativity of life rather than seeing the beauty and potential that is there waiting to be explored. So many of us only look at the surface of life and therefore miss the hidden richness that is lying just beneath the surface.
“… their thoughts are all biased towards the negativity of life rather than seeing the beauty and potential that is there waiting to be explored.” Surely the negative is seeing with the loveless mind, and the beauty is seen with the eyes of the heart.
Leonne what I’m discovering is that as you say we are deeply loved and supported and held. I can feel that we are held in a body of love just as the sun, stars, and the planets are held. We are all held in the space that we term the universe. We are all equal, we are all one and the same.
Absolutely Mary, appreciation is in the knowing of this quality of this lived wisdom coming through us from heaven!
Quite simply the more we appreciate the more abundance we see and feel around us.
Very interesting to realise and consider that we avoid appreciating ourselves because we know the forces of jealousy and others that will come our way if and when we do but perhaps we forget that the more we deepen our appreciation and our sense of self worth the more we can handle and see through these forces.
andrewmooney26 it feels to me that you have given us one of the keys to life
‘the more we deepen our appreciation and our sense of self worth the more we can handle and see through these forces.’
The more we deepen the more we can see through the forces that are attempting to stop humanity from realising the truth of who we are. The lies have eroded away our knowing that we belong to a grander way of being than what we have currently settled for.
Appreciation is not all just about positive things – it is about appreciating what you can and cannot feel and hence allowing yourself to feel those things that are not so ‘great’ as well as those things that are great. Hence appreciation comes hand in hand with honesty and a willingness to see and feel all there is.
Thank you Leonne for the reminder that our worth is not tied to what we do, but rather to who we are.
The way you looked at the example of leaving your food in the oven too long, has me considering my own eagerness to look at the ‘disaster’ in situations.
The reality is, that there is something very valuable and very profound on offer in all situations.
My body is communicating very loudly about what I have chosen for it. The light in my body cannot handle these choices. I could winge and bemoan the fact, or go wow, yet more proof in the pudding- these physical repercussions are showing me my light again and again.
Simone it’s interesting how we always seem to look at the negative aspects of life rather than the positive. I had no idea for example how much of a negative Nancy I was. And if I do not focus it is very easy to slip back into such negative behaviour as those thoughts are always ready to swamp my mind which then has an effect on everything I do and say.
Simone what you have said here rings true to me as my body feels less heavy and dull and there is a part of me that wants to dull myself down again as though what I am now becoming aware of is too much for me to handle. So there is definitely a choice to be had to either dull myself down again by eating food that I know will race me, or allow myself to be aware of everything around me. I hate the feeling of being raced by sugar now I have done it enough times to feel the difference in my body. This is giving me such an appreciation of the fact that our bodies are actually so sensitive and finely tuned that why would I eat or drink something that doesn’t support these feelings.
Appreciation frees us up from being owned by emotions and being drawn into other people’s drama.
Appreciation most certainly is a science, it is the science of the Divine within us all. The world may treat it as trivial and frivolous, as indeed it does. We may grow up to consider appreciation to be a waste of time, as you have clearly done, yet appreciation is the antidote to so many feelings that plague us, like lack of self worth, self doubt and low self esteem. It is so powerful.
Appreciation I know now is not something that is an arduous slog. It is simple and quick and confirming. However, I could still do this far more than I currently do!
“My worth has nothing to do with what I do and everything to do with the way I respond to what life presents” – this is absolute gold. And this movement we make, in response to what life presents, is constant, and appreciation feels like simply us clocking our choice of the fuel for our movement, and being with that.
I have been clocking my fuel recently and it is having quite a massive ripple effect in how much I self-bash or appreciate. The thoughts that come into our head can be changed by the movements in our body – go figure!
I love this. Every moment is an opportunity to engage with the science of appreciation. Also it’s interesting what I felt reading about appreciation and appreciating ourselves being our birthright, on a deeper level within my body I could feel how much I have not been appreciating myself. This doesn’t have to be a long drawn out drama just really simple, quick but deeply felt. All of our movements matter .. something I obviously needed to just remind myself!!
These days I’m learning to appreciate myself and I’m realizing about the foundation that is to don’t allow the self-critical thoughts to kick in anymore. I’m the one responsible to care for the body I live in at all levels and to appreciate it for the support it is offering me to be in this life, learning daily to be the loving and tender woman I actually am.
I can relate very much with you Leonne when you shared about how easy it is for you to appreciate the beauty in others and around but when it comes the chance to do it for ourselves sometimes it seems harder. I’m asking myself as well, why? After all the beauty is not exclusive for anyone but inclusive for all. As you beautifully said ‘Appreciation is not just our responsibility, it is also our birthright.’
And this birthright can be walked by us so it is our normal and then we can offer that level of appreciation to others. I am learning that I can appreciate others but when it is not lived in my body I translate that as someone else can be that awesome but I couldn’t. The more it comes from a lived way in myself, the more I am blown away at the appreciation I can offer others.
This is great Leonne, as it gets me to be play-full with words and when we deepen there has to be a humble-ness and we can only be humble when we appreciate and being humble is part of being Soul-fully-connected so there we have a Deepening-Humble-Appreciative-Ness of a Love we can all reconnect to and live Soul-fully.
In order to bring about the great and much needed changes to the way we live life here on Earth, we need to be willing to see it all – the good, the bad and the ugly.
Yes Liane, hear no evil, speak no evil, do no evil, does not work we have to understand life and all its ill ways so we can respond with Love.
We are so deeply loved and supported but while we try to control our lives because we feel we have to have security in such things as a job to pay the bills and put food on the table. It is extremely difficult to respond to what life presents and when we are in the overwhelm of life we cut ourselves off from the love and support that is always there waiting for us all to reconnect back to.
Reducing ourselves is a classic way to fit in.
Great article about appreciation. I especially appreciated(!) the appreciation of the things that may feel like a negative. Like burning dinner and realising why it happened. As I sat here feeling what there is to appreciate right now, I could feel my body didn’t feel as open and light as usual. Even though this doesn’t feel great, I love that I have a marker of who I am and what I feel like when I am allowing myself to be.
I didn’t know food could be too crunchy 😉
Absoulutely never, but we have to chew over that a lot more!
The more that I appreciate the freer I become.
The deeper the appreciate-live-ness the greater our freedom is to connect to our Soul.
Our life gets very miserable if we don’t appreciate the little gems and all that we experience in the magical moment of the day. We could have a beautiful day, with 101 things which are magical, but one thing can happen and ruin it all – this happens because we have not build a solid foundation of appreciation, appreciation of ourselves first and foremost, when appreciation is our standing block anything that comes our way can be observed, understood and dealt with.
I wonder how much the way we see ourselves dictates the direction of our life, and if we can engage in appreciation moment to moment whether that would change the colour of our whole day.
Appreciation brings our focus to the what is and not the what is not.
True Fiona, and from the what is we can see with loving awareness and understanding what is not.
Appreciation supports us to know the magic within us all.
Having an appreciation for ourselves takes off the pressure to be perfect.
Dropping the standards that we take on allows us to confirm and appreciate who we truly are.
Yes! definitely Julie. It’s a very precious way to accept and embrace who we are and where we are at, with no rules and conditions.
I love what you have said here Julie – it does make the focus on what is most important and all our so called mistakes and imperfections do indeed pale in comparison to the grandness we are and the appreciation of that grandness.
“Perhaps I am so deeply loved and supported that I am being shown my worth has nothing to do with what I do and everything to do with the way I respond to what life presents.”
Time and Time again I am inspired by students of the livingness who show me its about quality not about what we do.
Sam what you have written has caught my attention as recently I allowed myself to react to a work situation. I made it all about me and did not read the life lesson I was being presented with. I feel that when we make it all about ourselves we are reducing our potential down to a speck and going against the universe which is constantly expanding.
When I hold back the love and appreciation I have for another oh boy I feel the impact – I lessen and am also aware of the impact it has on another as I am not being honest in supporting them to grow too, however when I express my appreciation towards another there is so much to appreciate in my choice to do so… no more holding back in protection but allowing what is there to be naturally expressed and delivered for another.
This is very beautiful and inspiring to read Caroline. It invites me to not hold back my joy and appreciation equally for myself and others. Thank you.
Reading your comment I am wondering is it when we do not appreciate ourself and hold back with this then of course we cannot appreciate another? So maybe where you have held back on appreciating another your have first held back on appreciating yourself?
Yes Vicky, absolutely there is no doubt that if I am not deepening the appreciation for self then it becomes challenging to appreciate another. The expression of appreciation and how much we allow ultimately comes from the depth of appreciation we have for ourselves.
A great blog to re-visit Leonne. As I become more aware of appreciating the inner qualities within myself and others, the connection and relationship with God is is also deepened.
If we do Take the opportunity to reflect on a ongoing and continuous basis on reconnecting with ourselves and appreciating ourselves, we can start to rebuild that bridge of trust that takes us on a wonderful pathway of evolution.
cjames2012 I feel you are onto something when you mention the word trust, for many people have trust issues with themselves and others which holds us all back. I agree with you from my own experience to rebuild the bridge of trust is the foundation stone back to our path of evolution.
When I appreciate what each moment offers, it feels as though all tension and all judgement drops in an instant, and I can feel the naturalness, ease and lightness of being. I also feel at my most open to learning when I am appreciating. Thank you Leonne, this piece reminds me that it is an amazing science to apply to every moment.
I love how appreciation changes the way that we see things, and gets to the truth- that we are of huge value. In each of the situations you described, it was appreciation that allowed you to go deeper under the surface and confirm how valuable and worthy of great love we are.
Appreciating is an act of surrendering to that which we cannot but acknowledge as being true and of great value to us.
Knowing that our worth has nought to do with what we do is a HUGE one for humanity. The road is long on this one to unravel it but it is the only road worth taking.
I love it Leone ‘Appreciation is a birthright.’ – This is it and to value ourselves to this level that we are intended to be express is exactly what we are here to do. We can make it so complicated, and necessary to strip it back to call out what is not true to be able to fully appreciate and claim what we have been denying ourselves of. Bring it on in full I say. Thank you.
‘Perhaps I am so deeply loved and supported that I am being shown my worth has nothing to do with what I do and everything to do with the way I respond to what life presents.’ And life presents something to me every day. Today I learnt that something of my controlling mechanisms. I felt the effect of this had on my body and I realized: another learning. When I slip in this patten, with my sensitivity next time I can just stop it with a smile. That in itself is to be valued: my attitude of a student responding to what I can learn from each situation.
Thank you Leonne, this is exactly what I needed to read. As from my experience what I am now realizing that all those thoughts and critisms where a continuation of not honoring my worth, the appreciation for what is now, what is on offer and what is there to come. I simply start to understand that I am a little affraid to embrace the uncertainty of what will come when I simply value myself.
How much do we embrace of our worth? What has come in the way ? No negative thought or emotion has to do with this simple pondering.
I have had the pleasure of being around small children recently and they have taught me so much. Watching them has been fascinating but painful at the same time, fascinating because they are open, full of wonder at the world, fearless, nothing seems to daunt them; sweet and guileless. Painful because we were all just like this when we were young it seems we are not even given a choice but there is an insistence to grow up and leave that precious part of ourselves in order to fit into what society expects of us. I now fully understand the damage that we do to ourselves as a race of human-beings when we deny our children the right to grow up fully aware of themselves and take this awareness with them into adulthood. I believe if we were to allow one generation of children to grow up with all their faculties intact we would witness a much needed change in our society
Great point shared here- we often push the lack of appreciation but when we offer the depth of appreciation within our group it is often down played or not even on our radar. How else can we truly work towards deepening our love and that of another unless we stop to consider the science of this simple yet powerful revelation?
Not appreciating ourselves in full is a subtle and powerful way to live an easy life holding back as we can take very good care of ourselves but never express the power that comes from appreciation.
Thank you, Christoph, I never thought of not appreciating as holding back but you are right, it is.
I agree not appreciating seems to be an indulgence and also a rejection of God for how can we not appreciate how awesome we are and the Divinity we come from. If we do truly appreciate ourselves then we have to deal with our power and the jealousy of others but that is mega worth and not such a big deal as we imagine.
Leonne, this was a great blog to read this morning as I found a little gem within your words
“Perhaps I am so deeply loved and supported that I am being shown my worth has nothing to do with what I do and everything to do with the way I respond to what life presents.”
I’m being challenged at the moment and these words are a great reminder that I am not doing this all on my own there is a whole team behind me if I allow this to be so. I’m so used to doing everything on my own I obliterate any idea that things can be different.
it is essential for our own evolution to be able to let in appreciation… When we are able to do this, everyone expands, including the universe.
In a world where comparison and judgement are considered the norm a splash or puddle of appreciation brings change that expands all.
Growing up back in the fifties appreciation was a rare thing, and if you ever felt any appreciation for yourself it was soon addressed as vanity and that was to be shunned at all costs, there was much pointing out about your flaws, where you fell short of the mark. This of course created a lot of judgment, which I am gradually feeling and slowly letting go of as I come to develop appreciation of the love that resides within, who I am and what I bring.
I can relate to this Jill – the joy and inner confidence in childhood was soon brought to heel if there was any sign of vanity and it seemed to be the ‘adults job’ to knock this out of the child. I am deeply appreciating, that appreciation of the truth of who I am is continually being re-developed deeper in daily life.
I can relate to you both and I wonder why adults think it is necessary to knock this out of a child. It was the words you used Stephanie ‘to knock this out of the child’ that resonated with me because that is exactly what I was told. I could never understand and to this day, I still don’t why it is felt necessary to crush children in such a brutal way, that scars them for life so that they grow up feeling worthless and withdrawn. Just crushing our sensitivity as we grow up leaves us denuded of the ability to fully read energy and what is behind the energy which leaves us at the mercy of it rather than in the knowing that the energy cannot hurt. Instead we are taught to tune our awareness to the physicality of life and not to the energy of life, what’s the reasoning behind this?
We can be so kind and understanding to people, to children and even more gentle with our material possessions than we are with ourselves. Why? When our body and who we are is what we have to be with and live with every moment of the day and night, why is that something we invest our appreciation and love into last? It’s crazy but very normal.
‘…every moment is an opportunity to engage with the science of appreciation.’ This is so true Leonne but when I reflect on my day there are not that many moments where I apply this amazing science. Why is that I wonder? I feel it is because it is not something I have fully embraced and embody or utilised to the max even though I know all the benefits and its amazing support for our evolution. Time to appreciate how amazing it is to appreciate.
Reading this I felt just how much I do not allow myself to truly, truly listen to my body and hear what is expressed ‘I ask my body what the next step is. It says, “Bring some understanding to yourself – you are a deeply sensitive, tender being. You don’t have an issue with appreciation and you are not a ‘bad,’ ‘irresponsible’ person. Those judgmental thoughts, no matter how subtle, are all equally crushing. There is a reason you are choosing to have an issue with appreciation,” and the importance of this connection.
“Perhaps I am so deeply loved and supported that I am being shown my worth has nothing to do with what I do and everything to do with the way I respond to what life presents.” Very timely to read this Leonne…I am being reminded of this exactly at the moment and realising how many times I react in a day in the slightest of ways. To begin to clock it, and respond accordingly rather than react is very empowering.
I agree – it allows you to just let go and stop trying or striving to be something, knowing you’re already everything.
I love how you see today as a fresh possibility – a new opportunity to refresh what’s already occurred and to find a new way of doing things. Surely anything is possible if we take this approach rather than continuing on weighed down by the past.
Yes, we can even choose not to be weighed down by the past.
When we appreciate ourselves we open up to greater awareness and wisdom.
What would happen when we let the world know how much we value ourselves? We reflect to all they can value themselves as well. A big invitation and a ‘game changer’. And as you write we don’t have to do anything for that. Just be and appreciate each moment and ourselves in it whatever occurs even though we can’t grasp at all times the meaning why it occurs.
When it comes to appreciation it is the little things that matter, because the more we appreciate the little things the easier it will be to appreciate the bigger things in life.
I too see that ‘every moment is an opportunity to engage with the science of appreciation’ but I don’t always apply this to every moment of my day. As I appreciate it will take a while to relearn how to live with more and more appreciation without perfection. Some days are easier than others and that too is an opportunity for me to learn. The science of appreciation is huge and no matter how big or a small dose of it we apply to life it is always magical to experience.
Thousands of people have this same sentiment
“I’ve had more things to appreciate than I would have thought possible since I discovered Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine, so seriously, what’s the problem?”
But do we really know and do we fully appreciate the master that walks alongside us everyday? Do we really fully comprehend who stands before us at the presentations and workshops? Do we just see a person or do we feel the purity of the energy of God?
There is so much for us to appreciate, of who we are in essence and when we live in connection to our essence, everything that we bring to the world through the lives we live. The more we appreciate that the more we deepen our awareness of living the power we are born to live and when or why we hold this back.
Beautifully expressed Carola, you are inspiring me to appreciate more and more throughout my day.
It is so easy seeing everything as if we are sinners and ‘bad persons’ and therefore with anything that happens we will see us as avoiding something because we are resistant and stubborn. Though I found in this way we don’t see the truth, we have to be open to see all that is there and have no extra dark (self)judgement glasses on as just like sunglasses show the world a bit darker so too do these.
I can feel that vital and vibrant confidence that we had as a child that you speak of Leone – what I am finding challenging right now is why that quality is not nourished and built up so we develop into vital and vibrant confident adults.
So true Suse, we seem to see this quality being crushed from an early age and this seems to happen to so many of us. But it is never too late to reconnect with our natural qualities as they never really ever leave us. We can reconnect with our essence at any age and at any time no matter what we have experienced from society or our upbringing.
‘…my worth has nothing to do with what I do and everything to do with the way I respond to what life presents.’ When we feel how precious, sensitive and delicate we are, then we are able to respond in a delicate and sensitive way to what life presents.
“Perhaps I am so deeply loved and supported that I am being shown my worth has nothing to do with what I do and everything to do with the way I respond to what life presents.” Every moment in life is a call to evolve, when we look at it that way we cannot but help to appreciate all that is on offer.
Beautiful, appreciation is something I have been deliberatly avoiding this ! So time to pick it up, as it is actually so simple !
Me too Donna, in the past I thought I knew what appreciation was but I realise now I was appreciating achievements instead of appreciating who we are, the simple things in life and that every moment is an opportunity to appreciate. The science of appreciation is the key to life and I am learning to apply it more and more.
Could it be that we give ourselves away to a force or energy because of the impact appreciation creates around us or within another? Could it be that we know exactly how to appreciate ourselves but we have allowed self bashing beliefs held or passed on from others to crush or cripple us? What if we were to read exactly what is going on within another or others and their issues which they have also created with appreciation and love for self to not affect us and appreciate every cell of our being? What I am learning is that it is key to read everything within and around me that gets in the way of truly adoring and appreciating my being.
If we base appreciation on our output, we enter a vicious circle that demands evermore output in order to momentarily feel satisfied. The being gets sacrificed at the expense of the doing and the recognition it might bring.
It really is our choice whether we make life a struggle or a celebration………appreciation is definitely on the celebration side.
So true Elaine, appreciation is definitely on the celebration side and the more we appreciate the easier it becomes and it just keeps expanding. It is not that appreciation is difficult but if we haven’t been exercising this very natural skill of ours, then it may take a while to re-imprint our movements back to its original quality and depth.
If our head is not in line with our inner heart and acting in accordance to this alignment, it never helps, only hinders. It is building a connection to our inner heart so that our head can follow that lead, is where it can help.
Love it Leonne, when we discover there is no pink elephant in the room and we are able to live in the most divine way through how we hold and move in our connection to our essence, showing us that “my worth has nothing to do with what I do and everything to do with the way I respond to what life presents.”
This is beautiful. What stood out for me is this: ” There is a reason you are choosing to have an issue with appreciation”
For I will ponder on this, as I have been not going there before only looking and my lack of appreciation. So that will be beautiful to reflect on.
Allowing ourselves to feel another’s appreciation of us is super important as we can easily go through life not allowing in the appreciation of others.
Thank you for what has been shared here. I also find my head can come up with lots of reasons why I don’t appreciate myself consistently and deeply. So, it was useful to ask my body. I could feel that there is a huge appreciation for the divinity and qualities I feel but a desire to protect and keep them safe. Amazing what is held in our bodies that can get in the way of us just being and appreciating ourselves.
Without appreciation, we are always looking at the glass half empty instead of seeing everything that we do have in our lives.
So true Julie. Appreciating – ourselves and others – magnifies the glass half full so it can seem more like three quarters full – and keeps on getting fuller…..
Appreciation provides a platform that allows us to keep evolving evermore.
We are often not raised to appreciate and value who we are rather we are taught to value what we do as more important. This can cause us to bemoan and devalue saying no to what does not honour our bodies and to self care as a way of appreciating ourselves.
Appreciating ourselves ought to be second nature for us but unfortunately that is not how it is for most people. When we consider what amazing beings we are there is much to constantly celebrate and appreciate about ourselves
This is absolutely gold Leonne indeed. If we respond to life by bringing ourselves fully to it, rather than focusing on our talents and abilities and what we do, we confirm not only are we more than enough but we are so supported.
Without appreciation I have found life becomes mundane and about function and getting by. So therefore it makes sense that appreciation should be part of every moment, and not something we leave for special occasions.
It is so easy to dismiss how we are a part of the whole and the natural divine order in life and yet appreciation is what connects us to our natural joy.
The more I learn to appreciate myself and the qualities and strengths I bring, the more joy there is in my life. There is no end to the amount of love and appreciation I can give to myself.
I love how tender and sweet your body expresses and the depth of understanding, bringing this to ourselves is a total 360 for most of us are just super critical of ourselves.
If we don’t appreciate we don’t evolve.
Not being touched by a harsh or critical comment is an art that we can develop by deeply appreciating the amazing beings we really are. It’s like going the other way around we have been taught, not being affected by anything outside, not being defined by anything we do but deeply held by who we really are from within.
So gorgeous Leonne. Your words remind me how natural actually is being confident and appreciative with myself. And when I’m not it is always an opportunity to go deeper and see what’s in the way trying to bring me down. I can’t find self-worth issues in my body just an infinite tenderness and wisdom to connect with every day. Appreciation is as you well said a responsibility and our birthright as human beings, a choice that brings me back to the truth of who I am.
Valuing yourself is indeed the undertone of appreciation. Just for who you are. We are so taught to be appreciated for what we do that underneath it all there is just a being to value for…its beingness.
So true Caroline. I also find that value has that extra kick to it that allows appreciation to springboard into something greater.
That we are more focussed on what we perceive to be ‘wrong’ with us, than what we know to be true, is a sobering indication of how far from our Soul’s love and wisdom we have drifted. Appreciation is our way back to this – the absolute knowing that we are all godly within.
I love what you say that you don’t have a problem with appreciation, it is about letting the world know that you value yourself that you have a problem with. I can relate to this, we don’t outwardly like to show our innermost beauty and radiance because it is nearly always frowned upon and seen as being arrogant.
Yes Alison and feeling jealousy from others too, if one truly values oneself and show it to the world. So many of us were shut down from expressing this as children. Our parents couldn’t cope – as they too were shut down in their turn – so no blame. Time to put a stop to this, and shine.
Leonne, this is beautiful; ‘Yes – I see it now: every moment is an opportunity to engage with the science of appreciation.’ I love how instead of self bashing that you appreciate, this is a very holding and loving way to live and then this naturally allows us to appreciate others too.
Good point Doug. When you see and feel the effects of the lack of appreciation and self-harming that is currently the norm it is easy to understand why people are struggling, and as you say very individual by design.
Appreciation confirms who we truly are as souls, which in turn confirms our responsibility to live this.
I agree Leonne, it can be confounding that something as simple and lovely as appreciating ourselves can bring up such a block or resistance. Your words about why this may be makes sense, in self appreciation we shine from our essence, from our true being, and it’s not always something others can respond to in a supportive or loving way, especially if they too have experienced hurt and feel unsafe to shine their full selves.
I keep being drawn to blogs on appreciation. I have moments when I get to feel the healing balm of appreciation and I think, “I must be like this more often”. Then somehow, I forget in my doing of life. Which makes me realise there is a deliberateness to this tendency. Like the writer, I also feel I don’t have a problem with appreciation at all, as it feels so natural and lovely. It is a way of keeping comfortably hidden, as you shine when you are really feeling appreciation for what you feel within you.
A great sharing about self worth here, showing us that it …”has nothing to do with what I do …” but simply the quality of how we do what we do… and this quality develops with the deepening our relationship we have with ourself through self-care and self-love.
‘Aprreciation is our birthright’. When I read that, I could feel that we are being appreciated, perhaps not so much by ourselves or others, but by something bigger. Like a baby that has been born, you just want to hold it in deep appreciation. An innate holding. We may appreciate that innate holding towards ourselves more I realize by writing this.
I really enjoyed reading how you unpacked appreciation here Leonne, first of all realising that you didn’t have an issue with appreciation, and later seeing how burnt lunch can be another opportunity for a different response than critique. I do appreciate your light-hearted honesty, keeping it light is truly worth appreciating!
Our natural way of responding to life has been so messed up with as we have been brought up to be polite, don’t say this in this situation, only say this in another and its nice to be nice and you must have manners. We make manners more important that what we feel. I feel that even when I do speak up or say something, I at times then feel guilty as if it is not my right. Crazy.
When we appreciate ourselves and others it brings a real loveliness to life as it makes us sparkle.
‘So today I have another opportunity to claim myself back. Appreciation is not just our responsibility, it is also our birthright.’ I have today discovered more ways that I can claim myself back, and also it has been suggested that I have a birthright, something that I have not considered much before…what is my birthright? Now I can feel that appreciation is definitely our birthright and there is so much more that we can claim as such, this will be a very supportive and healing exercise I feel.
The last line in this article is very significant, EVERYTHING that happens, comes to us or that we create is always an offering, an opening to an understanding that we have not before allowed us to connect with. To negate such love from God with self doubt and condemnation is the ultimate choice to not be in the momentum of growth that our very own evolution is offering.
Beautifully shared Leigh, thank you, everything offers evolution, a return to our true qualities and essence as a soul, and a greater understanding of life, ourselves and human beings. Am I responding to what love is offering or am I reacting because it’s not how life is supposed to be due to the ideals and beliefs I hold?
Appreciation is a very powerful tool to counter the lack of self-worth that is so prevalent in so many of our lives.
It’s a bizarre situation – that we think our beauty is too much for this world, but in holding it back perpetuate the lovelessness we fear. It’s time we go for it!
Appreciation, both giving it and receiving it is like a nurturing balm for our body.
This statement holds a depth of truth one cannot know until appreciation for self and ones unique expression can be lived and held. An absolutely natural way that simply allows appreciation for another. For one cannot energetically, with absolute truth, appreciate another until such appreciation is known for ones self.
I think it’s great how you went to your body to sense the next step in understanding what was going on for you.
“…every moment is an opportunity to engage with the science of appreciation.” Indeed! When I remember to appreciate my whole life feels different.
Appreciation can change our lives in so many ways and can make every area of our lives so much richer; even in the areas where we thought we could never have appreciation, i.e. appreciating that we have an illness, and what that illness is showing us and clearing from the body.
Leone, I can feel how important appreciation is; ‘ I see it now: every moment is an opportunity to engage with the science of appreciation.’ In conversation what I find feels great in my body and when I feel connected with me and others is when I am appreciating myself and others. I find any form of gossip or putting others down is the opposite to appreciation and feels awful on my body and is very tiring and disconnecting,
If ever I stop and take a moment, I can feel how much there is to appreciate. I read all the people on this blog that have taken the time to comment and comment in a way that is positive and supportive, not in a way to be critical (for example). In that I can appreciate how we can support someone in their writing, communicating and expression, simply by the way we respond to them on a forum like this. When we appreciate we give a person space to be themselves, and feel more of who they are. With that you can feel how there is a whole science to appreciation that is well worth the time to explore.
Jennifer thank you for your lovely comment, it’s supported me to realise how much more I am actually appreciating in others, and that I can live being more in touch with this natural inner response to life.
when we understand the importance of appreciation, we are building the foundation of self- love, and our life transforms
The more I appreciate the more there seems to be to appreciate.
Therein lies the science….love it.
When I appreciate I can’t help but recognise that there is far more to life than meets the eye.
Agreed, so much understanding comes forward that it is easy to accept things how they are.
‘Perhaps I am so deeply loved and supported that I am being shown my worth has nothing to do with what I do and everything to do with the way I respond to what life presents’, a little gold nugget delivered here!
Whenever I find myself getting frustrated with something I am working on reminding myself to switch my attention to appreciating everything there is to appreciate about that same thing. It is like going from a narrow minded focus to an open minded focus. It changes my whole mood.
That is a great support to read Rebecca, I find if negative or critical thoughts come in about others it’s a sign I’m not appreciating them enough.
Reviewing how we do things and the impact this has on others- this is much easier to do without tearing ourselves to bits, when we have a foundation of appreciation instead of self criticism.
When I started to read your blog Leonne, I became aware of appreciating the very fact, that here I am in a body, whose every cell knows truth that is so grand, and so how could I not in fact appreciate every moment as it leads me back to living that harmony.
Being loving with ourselves is so important. It brings a quality to our lives that we can then appreciate in order to deepen the love.
‘Perhaps I am so deeply loved and supported that I am being shown my worth has nothing to do with what I do and everything to do with the way I respond to what life presents.’ Beautifully put Leonne, we all fall for thinking our worth is what we do, yet our worth is in the quality in which we live in, and the joy we feel in every moment.
Love this Leonne “Perhaps I am so deeply loved and supported that I am being shown my worth has nothing to do with what I do and everything to do with the way I respond to what life presents.” A great reminder that the science of appreciation of ourselves or of another is not about the doing but about the being.
These very insight-full words stopped me and asked for some considered attention as I could feel how hugely important they are to me right now. “I am afraid of what will happen when I let the world know just how much I value myself.” This is the fear I lived (existed) with for so long but today I am in the process of dismantling this debilitating fear and in the process I am getting to appreciate my value so much more and in turn the world is getting to see the real and amazing me – finally!
I do appreciate what life is bringing to me, and sometimes, I have moments when I can take things for granted. Thank you for the reminder.
I learned a valuable lesson from a recent Universal Medicine presentation, that when we get pulled up for something not being quite right, rather than judging and condemning ourselves, it is a reflection that there is more for us to expand into, either in our awareness or our expression. It shows us that we are so much more than what we have allowed ourselves to be in that moment, and so I now see these reflections as little blessings and moments of appreciation rather than critique.
Just knowing that we are beautiful, tender, delicate and loving and have been for an eternity is appreciation ‘gone global’ for as we reflect this so to does everything around us reflect it back. Sometimes it is the detail that leads to complication, judgement and distortion – keeping it super simple holds my appreciation each day. The perfect read for my day ahead – thank you Leonne.
Beautiful blog Leonne. Ever since reading this blog the appreciation towards myself has shifted, from feeling very resistant to beginning to see I make a difference and what I am bringing is far greater than what I first realised. We live in a society where it is all about doing and money, the man once being the bread winner and now, today we see the woman trying to do the same and sometimes feeling the need to want to outdo the man. We make it about competition in our relationships based on how well we are or not doing. What about the quality in which we do? And it is such this, the quality in which I do regardless what I do or how much I do or how well I do through the eyes of another is what matters and this I am getting a sense of, the importance of living, appreciating and confirming the quality within myself with which I live by, in my day.
“Perhaps I am so deeply loved and supported that I am being shown my worth has nothing to do with what I do and everything to do with the way I respond to what life presents.” Beautiful words Leonne… very touching and inspiring … thank you.
“Perhaps I am so deeply loved and supported that I am being shown my worth has nothing to do with what I do and everything to do with the way I respond to what life presents.” I think you might be onto something Leonne, and it takes each of us to start living that, which supports others to do the same. It will take some doing/unravelling as right from when we are very young we are cheered on from our doing (walking, eating, standing, smiling etc…) but we will get there.
“My head is not helping.” – I am not sure our heads have ever truly helped 😦
Why do we stop appreciating ourselves when we are not appreciated by others for who we are a and what we bring to the world? There must be lacking a connection with who we truly are possibly form the investment we have made human life about. We want to belong, part of the group and in that creation are willing to let go of the appreciation of the inner self, that innate and never extinguishing spark of love that when lived, will restore a natural order to human life in which there will be no place for creation, only for co-creations instead.
When we would understand that all of life is there in appreciation of us, the divine Godly beings, that life is there to remind us any moment of the day of this fact, appreciation is the only way to go.
When we appreciate we can feel the hand behind everything that has happened/is happening in our lives and this supports us to know that there is far more going on both within us and around us that we let ourselves be aware of. In so many ways it confirms that the universe is with us always.
Understanding the science of “appreciation” and all the simple ways in which it is life-changing needs to be shared as the normal banter is mostly about denigration, which only deepens the illusion, thus keeping us from being connected to our divine essence! If we are in ‘true’ “appreciation” it become all about our divine connection and how there is a true-joy of appreciating that you are only a part of the whole and divinity has become your go-to as a Livingness, that then allows our movements to be connected to the awareness and space around us so we move in a way that you would have to appreciate the Love we all come from.
Always a joy to read your insights Leonne appreciate your transparency.
‘I’ve had more things to appreciate than I would have thought possible since I discovered Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine around seven years ago.’ totally agree, and there is so much more appreciating I can bring to my everyday, not just the big obvious things but the little things, the moments.. so much more.
The more I feel it is just me, the less I appreciate, the more I see the whole, the more appreciation simply happens.
Well said Christoph, appreciation is actually very natural to us, especially when we can let go of the tiny little self and return to the oneness we belong to.
Leonne, this is really lovely; ‘Yes – I see it now: every moment is an opportunity to engage with the science of appreciation.’ I can feel that practicing this can make life joyful and lighthearted.
We have to take ourselves down a notch just so we can fit in with everyone else who has done the same. I am feeling that holding myself back from how amazing I really am is a real hazard to my health, the tension I feel and behaviours used to fit in are really horrible. Makes more sense to be amazing than not but until now I haven’t felt how horrible holding back is.
Your response to leaving the food in the oven for too long is very funny, but actually very wise. We usually go into a fit of reaction and frustration when something like this happens, but what if in doing this we were actually avoiding the elephant in the room, that there was something much greater to understand from what occurred?
There is no doubt in me that jealousy is a killer as it crushes the delicateness and sensitivity that naturally resides within us all. Looking back on my childhood it is such an insidious form of energy that comes through people that we would least expect to harm us, such as family and friends. It seems to me we cannot bare to see others joyful or happy when we are not and so act in ways to bring the other person down to our level of misery, rather than seeing them as an inspiration to achieve the same joy that they hold in their bodies.
I finding how much joy a little appreciation can bring, I feel I have always shown appreciation for others but I’m still really only a beginner when it comes to appreciating myself. When I stop at the end of a job I have just done and appreciate how good it feels, it is just so much better than just going on to the next job without acknowledging it and by doing so I carry the joy of the last job over into the new one.
Ah the art of observation before the reaction when things do not go according to plan! Yes, a very important moment to take which stops the potential to judge, to shut down and to criticise.
“Those judgmental thoughts, no matter how subtle, are all equally crushing.” Judgments can be so subtle and highly toxic. Committing to focusing on the quality of our movement that underpins appreciation goes a long way to cutting the head chatter and constant criticism. Truly, we are made of much richer stuff.
Leonne I feel that appreciation is an ever deepening continuum; I was taking part in a yoga session and the presenter mentioned how people can feel our presence and so what is the quality of our presence? This brought to my attention that all we have to do is just be present with ourselves and that is enough for people around us to appreciate the difference between stillness emanating from our bodies and raciness of life. Recently I had several colleagues who came to sit beside me because they said they liked my calming influence over them. People can appreciate the difference they may not know what it is they are feeling but they gravitate towards it.
Self-appreciation is something that can easily be overlooked, but I am taking some time every evening before bedtime to stop and appreciate myself and the magic of the day.
Could it be appreciation like so many words has been turned upside-down in it’s meaning? So that when we appreciate our essence we start to understand that we are all divinely connected, then we actually start to deepen the truth of who we are.
Self bashing has quietly dropped off in my life with consistent appreciation which deepens into love, where self bashing has no place in.
Jealousy is quite literally a curse. It is a force designed to decimate the expression of our innate divinity – our sweetness, our delicateness, our warmth, love and light. Even if we just bring it all down ‘just a notch’, we are still playing ball with this crushing force. Interestingly, the antidote to jealousy is appreciation, of self and of others. In this way we can build each other back up to whole-heartedly express from our essence so that we each receive the reflection of who we truly are – the equal Sons of God walking around in human form. Gorgeous blog Leonne, not too crunchy at all 😉
‘my worth has nothing to do with what I do and everything to do with the way I respond to what life presents.’ Absolutely Leonne, and that is staying in that beautiful observation, responding, and not joining the fray.
Seeing a person for who they are, naturally brings understanding and appreciation for the path they have come so far, but this is not possible before we behold ourselves in just the same way.
So true Alex. Learning how to love, understand and appreciate ourselves is so important if we are to hold others in this way too.
And then it is natural and requires no effort.
True appreciation .. it takes a nano second to do but is powerful and confirming when this comes from the body. A great reminder to myself in that maybe I could do this a bit more? …. or maybe start to do it!
I love reading this again because it stops me making appreciation a hard thing or it’s arduous. It also reminds me of how because I had forgotten the joy I was born with and subsequently let go of, I couldn’t stand the reflection of my sons joy when he was born. It’s our own hurt of crushing our own joy that comes up when we see another bursting with joy in every way.
Can someone please implant a device that makes me appreciate myself more often? 😉
It is crazy to not utilize appreciation much more as it is very enjoyable and the fertilizer of the preciousness we hold within. But maybe that is the point, avoiding to be more of the amazingness we all are.
There has to be an app – surely 🙂 I reckon it could be part of our daily routine when brushing our teeth – that’s is a minimum of twice per day when you get to appreciate the awesomeness you bring to the world!
‘I can see I am afraid of what will happen when I let the world know just how much I value myself.’ This is probably true for most of us if we are really honest….if we let ourselves go there. Why wait for anyone else and why let others value themselves without us doing the same? Appreciating ourselves and others brings back the sparkle in life .
Sometimes I find it hard to see the wood for the trees, but when I stop for a moment and just ponder on all the things I do have to appreciate and appreciate myself for a minute, I see enough wood to build a bridge across the Atlantic.
Beautifully expressed, there is so much we can either ignore or appreciate. Appreciation brings to life what is already lived instead of leaving us with seemingly no foundation and substance.
To me, appreciation is more so about the hand behind the outplay, the foresight that is so obviously all knowing. Appreciating this aspect rather than the physical results is what I have found to support me tremendously when I do it.
I just had a beautiful encounter with a friend who just needed some appreciation to come back to himself after having lost touch with his preciousness due to a stressful situation. The moment he reconnected back his joy and spark was lightning up again.
This is gorgeous Alex, and so great that this is the kind of support that we can offer each other.
“So today I have another opportunity to claim myself back. Appreciation is not just our responsibility, it is also our birthright.” Love this I have not seen appreciation as a responsibility but it makes sense. We have a responsibility to ourselves as well as to others to bring appreciation into our lives instead of the constant judgement of either doing something wrong and belittling or berating ourselves which keeps us feeling less and is both draining an exhausting.
I feel like I am still only exploring the surface of the qualities of appreciation and that there is a depth to this word and what it looks like in life that will change everything when we embrace it in full.
It seems that we are hardwired only to want recognition for what we do and not true appreciation for being us without any need for attention to how good we are at something. You can see how as a child these moments of getting recognition for the simplest of things like walking or saying our first word starts the move into achieving.
I have so much to thank Serge Benhayon for and being made aware of the importance of appreciation is one of the biggie’s that he has delivered. Sure I used to appreciate a good meal, that I had work etc, but never did I stop to appreciate me or loved ones to the level that really has no bounds.
Beautiful Kev, it’s true there are so many things that we can appreciate in life and do but there hasn’t been much talk of or reflection of appreciating ourselves in full. Serge Benhayon opened my eyes by how he lives and how he is with everyone as absolute equals what appreciation actually is and the ripple effects on everyone when we do.
What if appreciation is all about our divine connection and when we understand and feel that connection how could we not appreciate the fact that we are more than this simple vessel called a human being? When we get caught up in the doing we appreciate the things we are involved with, but all we really have to do is connect and appreciate our divinity, no tying or doing just a being, a being who is connected to their true essence of Love and we can all do this so simply.
Appreciation in many ways brings us a more tender way of being in the world because when we appreciate ourselves or another it draws our inner loveliness out.
It took me a while to understand that appreciation is about quality, not doing/achieving and it is still a process to expose the pattern of recognition through results. The more I get to feel true appreciation the more I cherish the quality being lived that is worth being appreciated, it nurtures each other moment to moment.
Spot on Alex, appreciating that our essence is a for-ever-deepening “quality” that we are living and when we nurture our true inner-most or essence “moment to moment” our appreciation has to deepen.
Yes, i used to think that appreciation was still a ‘doing’ or an action of some kind, but its not that at all, as i too discovered ‘appreciation’ is actually a feeling of love that is tangible, yet invisible to the naked eye… its like having a private moment within yourself of a feeling, a quality that confirms and communicates immediately, a love you know deeply within your body. It is a moment that you feel the vastness of Divinity
Do we look for things around us to confirm who we truly are, or to confirm a belief that we’re not good enough, not doing it right or not there yet? Appreciation helps us turn the tide and our focus towards what is amazing about us – and the more we give our attention to that part, the more solid, real and practical it feels.
I am sensing there might be something about the way we are with time, and appreciation. I can really relate to having no issue, yet we create an issue by holding onto a moment, and even though we are on a planet that is spinning at a speed as fast as 1,000 mile per hour, we like to frame and cement the moment with judgment even though it is a movement, which even in stillness never stops. Could it be about learning to move in acceptance of the fact that the vibration we belong to is much faster than our thinking (even though we don’t actually do the thinking)?
When we discover our true relationship that we have is all about being the Love we all are, which is living from our essence, then the appreciation of this lived wisdom becomes our foundation for us to all-ways in every-possible-way be able to-return-to that level of Love. So appreciate the Love from our essence and from that space we can then all-so-feel the Loving essence of another, so our appreciation has to deepen in the most Loving cycle that has to be appreciated.
Appreciation means to see, understand and honour the path we have walked up to this point in time, the choices we have made, the lessons we have learned and embracing where we are today. Without appreciation we erode ourselves of our foundations and thus of a healthy and true sense of who we are; it is a way of not taking responsibility, avoiding accountability. Basically we sabotage any further development but choose stagnation.
I love this. Seeing appreciation as a foundation for life, giving us the authority and confidence to move forward.
I love the reference here to the all-encompassing nature of appreciation: i.e. The whole lot, even the choices we’ve made that we might want to judge as ‘bad’- what if instead of berating ourselves for our choices we could celebrate the enormous learning on offer instead? Would it free us up to keep moving forward and to keep learning, without being being afraid of stuffing up?
Appreciation can naturally be in the simplest of everyday moments, enriching and building a foundation of knowing there is more to us and life than meets the eye, it doesn’t need a ‘big’ occasion.
True Appreciation holds me in the Love that I am in everything I do.
‘every moment is an opportunity to engage with the science of appreciation.’ When we are connected we can’t help but appreciate.
I love how you appreciate every moment as an opportunity to engage with the science of appreciation, it completes a circle to claim ourselves and feel how it influences the next moment.
Appreciation is for me a way to deepen my self-acceptance and to value just who I am and not get caught up in what I do or have done. As soon as I go into the ‘I am not doing enough’ riddle, appreciation helps me to realize it is about me as a being, not a human doing!
The other day while speaking about something to someone I said that I really appreciated what I felt and expressed to them … I nearly fell off my chair when I said this at it came so naturally to me from my body and was instant. This in itself is something to appreciate as previously appreciating something to do with myself would be like pulling teeth! 😖
Isn’t it amazing how the language and choice of words we use change so naturally when we have been building self love… What a fabulous confirmation!… Appreciating the appreciation!!
“but the facts feel hollow and hard. My head is not helping.” When the head is in isolation to the rest of the body, it never helps. Ever. Never. Ever. Never. It actually harms not helps or heals. When the head works inline with the rest of the body, it heals.
The Science of Appreciation: Part of Every Moment When I read this; ‘When I speak to people I find it easy to tell them how much I appreciate them, the way they light up my life and what they bring to the world, – I do it often.’ The only thing I could feel was, you are appreciating you, otherwise you could not genuinely appreciate others in the way you’ve described here, it is indeed part of every moment and you are definitely very good at it!
That is a very good point Annelies. I can feel the joy here too, which can only be there if the writer is appreciating herself.
“When I speak to people I find it easy to tell them how much I appreciate them, the way they light up my life and what they bring to the world, – I do it often.” I do it often too. In fact I sometimes wonder if it’s too much (?). The love and celebration I bring in observing how others lives I could do it all day. I’m sure I celebrate people more than most. I am however aware if this can be a distraction in deepening my quality in reflection and deeply appreciating what I bring to all around me just with my presence.
Great Rik, and adding to what you have shared, that when we ‘connect’ with another we are in full-appreciation of their divinity and our own divinity, then as we feel these “quality in reflection” that we both bring how can we not appreciate. Being appreciatively-full allows us all to serve as the humble being in the way that we approach life in all we do, so we are never any lesser than or more than and thus how can we ‘not’ have the appreciativity of the all that our divine “presence” or essence can bring.
Love reading this blog Leonne because it was real and it was about appreciation the most important key (to my) life. The dedication and commitment I now live with life has grown enormously since I developed appreciation of me – it’s built my foundation that I now can always return to.
Why do we make anything complicated and hard? To take us off track so we don’t see the simplicity that life offers, constantly. Appreciation is the pathway to simplicity in life and its also very good for us, the ultimate self-care modality.
Today I noticed how much I give myself a hard time and the constant berating of myself when I make a mistake. I am learning that this does not serve but keeps me in the same stuff however, when I learn and let go it allows me a fresh start and gives the space for appreciation to be there.
The responsibility is to reflect the vibration that heaven has showered on us. Especially when there is resistance around.
Appreciation can be like drinking from a glass, that once you have learned to sip you will always return for more. This builds in so many ways until it feels like our cup-runneth-over, but of course this never happens as the deep humbleness that is lived as part of our evolution as we appreciate more.
I have discovered recently for me a lack of appreciation is coming from a consciousness I had taken on with no true discernment of what it was I was actually buying into. Life is full of choices and consequences and the more we become aware of this fact the less likely we are to be caught out by the energy that wants to keep us as puppets dancing to its tune rather than to the tune of who we naturally are.
After reading this wonderful blog I got to pondering on why, at times, I have been slow to appreciate myself, and in some cases simply haven’t. And I am wondering whether my choice not to appreciate the amazing things I do and the woman that I am, is because it still leaves me free to ‘beat myself up’ everyone now and then – but so much less than I used to. So, if I did appreciate me in full there would naturally be no space left for the inner critic to have a voice. Time to quieten that voice by ramping up the appreciation.
The science of appreciation is when we know God and see clearly how what unfolds in our life is placed by him for us to grow and bloom. I certainly appreciate God giving us you Leonne.
The beauty of the science of appreciation is shown here so lovingly and brings a real depth of understanding to every moment, I love it . “Perhaps I am so deeply loved and supported that I am being shown my worth has nothing to do with what I do and everything to do with the way I respond to what life presents.” The real gift of appreciation.
When we are connected to the communication that we receive, every moment is a blessing – we have to go through the breakdown of images in order to see truth and only by seeing truth we can reconnect to the love that we are.
To bathe in and enjoy appreciation opens doors to divinity that we can not understand from our heads, appreciation is a knowing in our body, of divinity in another and ourselves, we know it in them, we know it in ourselves. It reciprocates and inspires evolution and expansion of us within and of the universe.
Appreciation opens us up to the wonder, magic and love in all aspects of life, even through the rough times as life is offering an ever deepening of our own love and joy.
Beautiful reflection Leonne. I am discovering more and more the power of appreciation, and that appreciation is what truly confirms all that we are through which we live with greater authority, sharing the depths of who we are with the world, with greater and natural confidence.
Beautiful Leonne, and thank you, more appreciation in all ways today!
Learning the science of appreciation is so revealing and a joy to bringing the fullness and who we truly are to our lives in our livingness and movements that changes everything beautifully and makes a real difference to everyone and builds and real relationship with our evolution.
Many of us women struggle with appreciation, we are brought up with the idea that if we appreciate ourselves, if we are confident then we are arrogant. We are not taught to distinguish between arrogance and confidence, between self-love and gloating and in that we remain small, self-loathing and never worthy of anything.
Well said Viktoria. Allowing ourselves to connect to how we feel through our body awakens a trust in ourselves and builds confidence. Modalities like Esoteric Yoga are so supportive in this regard.
When we appreciate we create space within ourselves to love and care even more.
When we understand that the inner-heart is what we feel first and foremost in another so that “the way they light up my life and what they bring to the world,” is a beholding that can be nothing but full of appreciation. Thus for those we meet and our-self there is the deepening love we all share, every time we are ‘truly appreciating’ the essence we all share equally.. Then to appreciate is a holding quality, for we are always seeing another and our-self as a divine reflection whether lived or not!!
What is that we appreciate? Do we appreciate the human being? Do we appreciate what it does? Or, do we appreciate the divines of us and of the others? What it is that we appreciate matters. From where comes the impulse to appreciate matters as well.
How beautiful, uplifting and expanding it is to appreciate me for just being me and what my being brings to the world. So much of life has been in criticism and self bashing leading to lack of self worth. When in fact appreciation opens the doors to a greater love and understanding.
Gorgeous Leonne, feeling the surrendering of appreciation more by this blog, as you are discarding the critical ways, which actually leave us feeling more unsettled. By reading this I connect more deeper to the appreciation that holds me, and now I can hold myself to.
‘Perhaps I am so deeply loved and supported that I am being shown my worth has nothing to do with what I do and everything to do with the way I respond to what life presents’. When we give ourselves the space to respond we are no longer at the mercy of the outside world but connected to something so much grander than ourselves.
And if we build appreciation into the fabric of our lives (not as an adjunct after an event) it is simply there adding sparkle to each moment and sureness for the next.
The idea of making appreciation part of the fabric of life has given me something to ponder Matilda. I agree – appreciation should be as natural as breathing, not a bandaid or an after thought. As you say it brings a sparkle to every moment, a joy, depth and presence that strips away the little worries of life.
I love this invitation to explore how we respond to what life presents: there’s always the option to be self-judgmental and critical, but all this does is keep us small, hard and protected, and we don’t grow and learn from our mistakes. Life is about learning, and when we appreciate that this is what we’re here to do, and celebrate all that we learn along the way, we open ourselves up to more of these opportunities. Life is so much more fun when we say ‘yes’ to it, and yes to all the learning on offer, moment to moment.
Society at present is based upon competition, striving to better oneself and to have ‘more’, which all compound to make us feel dissatisfied with ourselves and our life. Consequently if someone bucks the trend and lives a life that is fully of self-appreciation it is a reflection that confronts others in how they are living. However, rather than questioning their way of living the most common response is reaction and to attack the person. Consequently it is understandable to feel we have an issue with self-appreciation, as you highlight Leonne and identify the counter is to appreciate that “every moment is an opportunity to engage with the science of appreciation”.
I seldom meet clients for dinner but this was the only time to meet with them, and as I chatted to the waiter about the menu and adapting it to suit me I could feel the other person sucking in air, like what the heck have we here!
And I felt my vulnerability but kept steady and actually managed to laugh to myself that they were having such a hard time understanding the care I was taking with my food. At the end of the meal the waiter asked if we wanted any coffee and I asked for a pot of boiling water and the guy just burst out laughing because I had brought my own tea. I was visiting a country and having a meal with a man that comes from a generation where you ate what was put in front of you and was grateful. He could not understand the fuss and that was okay but I did not allow myself to be pressured into conforming to his way of life and so there is great self appreciation in that I stuck by what suits me.
We have a picture of what appreciation is and try to comply with that, which leaves us not appreciating at all even when we “try”. Once we break our ideals of what things should look like, we are free to truly experience the beauty in life.
So true Viktoria, and when we have a picture of anything and we express from them, then we are no longer expressing from a true or loving impulse. The actions and words might sound great but the intention behind it may come loaded with these pictures and images we have taken on. A great example is how we express love, it could sound great and even feel great but if the energy behind our expression is not of divine origin then it is in truth harming us.
I guess when we truly look at it there is a science to everything because everything is energy so hence the science of appreciation is just choosing an energy .. instead of not choosing an energy!
Vicky I can feel an ouch in your words! I can feel an indulgence to keep the status quo when we don’t choose to appreciate. That’s a big ouch!
It’s interesting to understand, that by not appreciating ourselves we are actually avoiding being all that we are, and therefore others miss out on all we have to offer them. So in fact, its irresponsible to not be all of ourselves, all of the time.
Appreciation has been simplifying for me to become a way I hold myself and enjoy the presence of who I am. It then becomes something I walk with.
It can be tricky letting ourselves stay in a situation where we feel vulnerable as it can feel so foreign and uncomfortable because we haven’t allowed ourselves to feel this within us.
But a willingness to explore out of our comfort zones makes for great learning and opportunities to see the support and magic on offer in life.
Appreciation does allow others to see how much we value ourselves and allows our qualities to be felt in full. It also gives other people permission to appreciate themselves, to feel the humbleness and joy in true appreciation. I find it often comes down to not wanting to stand out or shine too bright and reflect that no matter what.
Appreciation is the most miraculous medicine I have every had. Every drop brings deep and tender healing to my body, my being, and opens up universal space within every cell, where more appreciation can arise and work its alchemy.
Very beautifully expressed Lucy, thank you.
Identifying that it is not appreciation that one has an issue with, rather it being the jealousy one has to deal with when living in one’s ‘fullness’ is being real.
Appreciation supposedly means a pat on the back or reward and recognition from another person, but what if true appreciation was nothing to do with other people and their views or feelings on our choices, but instead about moving in a way that flows, supports other people and opens up opportunities for deeper levels of love in relationships, and seeing how that allows there to be more space to connect in and to life. This is totally different to a ‘well done’ sticker or merit.
Recognising appreciation as a movement also opens us up to all the movements of appreciation others are making in appreciation of us. Something we can so easily miss when we reduce appreciation into something another says or does to recognise us.
The moment by moment science of appreciation is there to appreciate in our lives and allows true growth and the potential to truly claim ourselves in all we are beautifully with a joy , expansion, humility and love always offered to us.
Leonne, love how you have given us a very tangible example of the potential for appreciation in every moment, again and again Serge Benhayon has shown me the rich abundance of opportunity!
The fact that there is always another opportunity for us to claim ourselves back is wonderful Leonne, and leaves the doors wide open for us to make that choice. And when we still don’t, for what ever reason, they still stay right open for another opportunity until we choose to jump over that gap and bring much more of us to appreciate our every moments.
Appreciating what we do is one thing but appreciating ourselves for just being us is a whole new ball game.
Yes, the science of appreciation allows us to behold with wonder and joy the loving hand of God in all things great and small.
Genuine self-appreciation is a wonderful support tool that strengthens and builds us from the inside out. Confirming others through appreciation is a gorgeous thing too.
I appreciate you’ve finally written this blog in a way only you can do it Leonne and it inspires me to stop my delay and start writing too.
I love this Leonne, showing us something deeper and way beyond the accepted pictures of what appreciation is, that it is the way we respond to everything that presents. All sorts of things are coming into my mind now, for instance my tummy is hurting — how do I respond? Is it with blame about what I have eaten? And if so can I see it a different way and change my response to appreciation of my amazing body for showing me and educating me in the true sense of that word. I can feel how everywhere I am and everything I meet and whatever is happening can be met with an appreciation of the opportunity to respond with appreciation.
Yes, Leonne. Unfortunately, the majority of humanity are uncomfortable with someone who is full of self-appreciation and often try to bring them down. It would seem that the reflection of the joy in loving oneself is unwanted, when really it is showing us how exquisitely divine we all are in essence.
It feels great when we do appreciate ourselves. It’s like a confirmation of who we are. Nothing to do with what we do but in how we do it!
Completely agree.. Appreciation absolutely offers how “… worth has nothing to do with what I do…”
Whilst it is important to appreciate how we move to more self loving and caring choices it is equally important to discern the energy and quality in which we move.
“I know that the more I appreciate myself, the more that I will realise how important my contribution to the world is, but the facts feel hollow and hard. My head is not helping.” I love how you said your head is not helping, I can relate to this because it is the thoughts of self doubt and ‘I’m not good enough’ and ‘who do you think you are’ that get in the way of appreciating the amazing people we really are. It is these thoughts that destroy any appreciation we may have for ourselves.
Appreciation is absolute magic. It helps us to expand. If we spend our days in self-flagellation we do nothing except contract away from the magnificent beings that we are.
When we read the magic of life it is possible to feel the divinity we are showered with 24/7. Appreciation allows us to expand and feel this joyful flow.
The non-appreciative thoughts have a momentum of their own and being able to deal with these thought patterns may be one of the keys of appreciation.
Priceless is the depth this article offers, going right to the heart of the matter and stating in no uncertain terms that appreciation is a moment to moment livingness, an obedience to the greater All and responsivity to the next needed (and not mind-full) step.
‘As a child, I did not understand that the shunning, withdrawal, harsh words, bullying and taunting were actually symptoms of jealousy.’ – This is something we can all relate to, I’m sure. But it is interesting how we quickly convert those harsh words and taunting into a lack of self-worth and feeling that something is wrong with us. For if we were nurtured to keep that connection with our tender, sensitive self in appreciation of how divine we are, perhaps we would not let those jealous attacks change our self-image.
I love the way you asked your head and your body what the problem with appreciation is. Although the head response may be true, until you feel it for yourself it means nothing (except perhaps a bit more self-critique for avoiding responsibility). The only way I find to shift things is to feel them and be very tender with myself.
The self-bashing thoughts really have to stop. We can even self-bash about not appreciating ourselves enough! Seriously! This has to stop!
How we respond rather than react to life is something to deeply appreciate.
“I let myself feel that underneath it all, I don’t have an issue with appreciation at all. In fact, I can see I am afraid of what will happen when I let the world know just how much I value myself.” It is this ingrained fear that we have that something not very nice will happen if we start to appreciate ourselves publicly, that so often holds us back. However in truth, the plusses of not holding back far outweigh the consequences of not apprecating ourselves, and the more we do this, the more confident we become about expressing what we feel is true and the fear gradually dissolves.
Sandra, what you describe is true and it is crazy that we accept this type of reasoning – on scrutiny it just makes no sense.
As you’ve shared we do not ‘have’ issues nor are we made of them, and this is important to realise as when we do get impacted by different things or choose to take on problems what often keeps us in them is the thoughts that we tell ourselves, that these issues are who we are, we’re a terrible person etc.
Every moment counts as it influences the next. It is in each moment we can deepen our connection to our body and in doing so we build more love in our bodies, love can flow through us to be shared.
Appreciation really is key for wellbeing in our lives, I am still not great with this as I do it as often as I could .. forever work in progress! However this blog is a great reminder.
” I let myself feel that underneath it all, I don’t have an issue with appreciation at all.’ Beautiful Leonne – and how true.
Feeling appreciation this morning I wonder what is there in life that is not to be appreciated ? When everything that comes our way is an offering and opportunity to either confirm what is true or bring awareness to that which is not.
I know sometimes I feel more appreciation than other times, and when I question why, I have usually been dismissing myself and forgetting the grandness that I can bring to the big picture in life. I know I need to return to look at myself first when I have lost this and your moment by moment tip is a great help Leonne.
“my worth has nothing to do with what I do…” An invaluable statement to remember to appreciate ourselves
To truly appreciate ourselves is to absolutely know and value the multi-dimensional being we innately are.
It seems like the more we appreciate the more there is to appreciate and the lighter we become.
Love this, and how pertinent to remind every woman on this earth of this International Women’s Day. Appreciation is a loving balm.
To truly appreciate another we have to learn to appreciate ourselves first, and then learn to accept anothers appreciation of us without dismissing it.
Appreciation helps us develop a love for life and how everything is there to support us to return to the love we are.
No matter the situation it’s always possible to understand it with appreciation. It isn’t a helpful life hack but the true nature of life. It’s just up to us whether we choose to connect to the Love or not. Thank you dear Leonne.
I work in a large store, and yesterday due to short staffing I found myself running the store and trying to do several jobs at the same time. I caught myself going into anxiousness and blame and brought myself back and took a true look at what I was doing. I was actually doing an amazing job and providing an amazing service. And even though I thought I wasn’t getting anywhere I was actually getting all my tasks done. I was doing what was needed and enjoying it. I stopped to appreciate myself in that moment which brought me deeper into myself and continued with my work. It was only a moment but it was so valuable and made a huge difference to my day and to how I felt.
Talking about the ‘science of appreciation’ inspires me to consider this quality more deeply… what is it? what does it look like in the world? what is its impact? and with these questions, feel inspired to practise appreciation in life and watch what unfolds.
We are all so deeply held in love’s grand support, my eyes are just beginning to clock all the ways support is there with every step I take and with my every breath.
We do not have issues we create them….but when we sit with our issue and unravel, what lies underneath always gets exposed and can then begin to clear as we create a fresh imprint of our truth.
“I can see I am afraid of what will happen when I let the world know just how much I value myself.” On reading this I felt how afraid I am. Now it’s for me to ponder on why I’m afraid and if I continue to choose to let that stop me from walking in my glory.
My worth has nothing to do with what I do and everything to do with the way I respond to what life presents.’…words of wisdom.
Had an amazing moment of appreciation, when I was out doing deliveries in a van during heavy snow, for the fact that we brought back snow boots from Switzerland a couple of months before! Absolute life-saver!!
I love how life prepares us in advance! We are held in so much love.
Simple, profound, playful and super sweet. What is not to love about appreciation?
“every moment is an opportunity to engage with the science of appreciation…” Appreciation certainly is a way to develop and deepen the relationship with ourselves …. its like being with the best-est friend ever
This exploration of appreciation starts to open up differences between appreciation and gratitude and how appreciation can deepen our connection to the all.
This blog always brings a tear to my eye. I didn’t realise how transparently I was expressing when I wrote it but I sure am appreciating it now.
Beautiful Leonne, It is amazing the wisdom that can come through us when we have no filters. Thank you for writing this blog.
This is what I felt Leonne it felt like you were unravelling your understanding of appreciation as you wrote and we could share that with you in your writing. It was a joy to read and share your total openness and honesty and your blog gave me a deeper understanding of what transparency is.
Maybe in life when we slow down and turn down the heat so the appreciation does not get over cooked we will bring a stillness to the situation, then we can leave things all day without an adverse effect. “Didn’t see that line coming, did you? Ha!”
You’re so so sweet Leonne and so so wise it is a pleasure to read your insights and playful ways.
I’ve also noticed how so many of the traditional religions do not nurture the concept of self-appreciation. They constantly bombard us with the duty to appreciate others, to look outside of ourselves, to do charitable acts, to put others before ourselves…but all of these are utterly empty movements if they are not coming from a body that loves itself first. This causes enormous damage as it pushes us deeper and deeper into looking outside of ourselves for that which is and always has been residing, in bounty, within us. Is it any wonder that humanity is so lost?
That is true Otto, without a love filled body what is it we are sharing anyway, and at what expense to ourselves and others? Trying to fill from the outside in will never work, it is rather inspired from the inside, that love which is first connected to within.
I like what you add here Victoria. If we are ‘giving’ from an empty vessel, what is that we are ‘giving’ anyway? This then of course begs a deeper question. If the vessel is not filled with love, what is it filled with and what is it thus expressing and ‘giving’? And then, is it possible that a body not filled with love may be filled with emotions and issues and hurts and all sorts of ugly bits of baggage and thus is it possible that it is this that we ‘give’, rather than the true support we may think we are giving, when we are under the ‘duties’ of some of these traditional religions? It is a contentious subject. but if we are to really evolve out of the mess that we are in, it is these trickier questions that we need to be asking.
It is our birthright and this shines a light on the purpose of re-parenting ourselves. Many of us may not have been parented in a way that fostered and nurtured that appreciation and so, as adults, we need to go back and re-establish that, re-build that and re-claim it as our birthright. I have spent a lot of time and commitment on this and have a lot of fun being both parent and child to myself and now self-appreciation is becoming a norm whereas before it was totally alien to me.
“There seems to be this belief running that I need to succeed in life and therefore to do this I can not bring the whole me to it because I need to move in a certain way that recognises achievement first over my own truth.”
Susan this is so honest and well said and a trap we all fall into by the way the world is currently set up.
A beautiful offering on the science of appreciation and the simplicity and power of this in our everyday lives and movements, and the reality of who we really are with the appreciation of this ever expanding in our bodies.
There is so much to appreciate about ourselves and others, we just need to make this the focus and not what we think is ‘wrong’
Double lashings of appreciation please! As for bashing others or our-selves history has proven that abuse of any kind, which has played out with someone being right or wrong, has never worked.
The more we allow appreciation in our life and our movements the more we deepen our relationship with ourselves.
If we truly learn to appreciate and accept all that we are and all that we bring, appreciation of all else would naturally follow.
You nail it Leonne here.. ‘every moment is an opportunity to engage with the science of appreciation.’ We can appreciate what every moment brings, and the knock-on effect builds and grows the appreciation of everyone around us.
Understanding with ourselves is super beautiful to do, it allows us the space to learn, reflect and bring an openness to not only ourselves but all those around us.
When the truth about appreciation and what it can consistently bring to the Love we all are, then many more people will start to appreciate all that happens in our lives.
I am loving appreciating how my heart and body feels today. After a few days of struggling a bit with appreciation I can feel my connection and joy naturally there…. how beautiful!
Too many times I have put my worth in what I do rather than who I am, and this is a difficult pattern or behaviour to break out of…but I must say I am making some progress with is, hence there is much to appreciate in it 😉
Well done Henrietta – I can relate to this myself and yes, let’s appreciate it is learning in progress.
Every moment is a moment to be appreciated, no matter what comes our way!
And there was me thinking I was the only one who was resisting appreciating herself – that there was nothing about me to appreciate, even writing these words feels false and ridiculous, as like you share Leonne, choosing to not appreciate ourselves is just a choice and a dishonouring of who we truly are. Life is constantly inviting us to appreciate ourselves and playing the game of non-appreciation just hurts and keeps us small. At some point, the tide has to turn and after reading your article I feel inspired to appreciate me, starting with those little things that I do for myself on a daily basis which all add up to the bigger picture which includes all of us – and no more shying away from me.
Leonne, I just have to tell you, and anyone who may read this, the ridiculousness of something I observed myself doing the other day in regard to Appreciation. I was drawn to a group of people I know talking together , people I hadn’t seen for a while, and just wanted to say hello. I inconspicuously (so I thought) drew up to them, not wanting to interrupt the conversation when suddenly the whole spotlight was shone on me and they were telling me how gorgeous and sexy I was looking and what an inspiration (etc. etc.) I was so embarrassed at having interrupted the conversation (all my ‘polite’ consciousness running rife) that I couldn’t appreciate the appreciation which was actually everything that any woman would want to hear. Luckily I saw through it all in time.
It’s interesting how we view appreciation for oneself. It’s almost viewed as an arrogant self-centred attempt to increase one’s ego or self-esteem. The poison of jealousy has morphed that into society very successfully.
It is beautiful to stop and feel a new level of appreciation for ourselves, and how that then allows a deepening of appreciation for others.
Perhaps I am so deeply loved and supported that I am being shown my worth has nothing to do with what I do and everything to do with the way I respond to what life presents. When we know that every moment offers an opportunity for evolution there can be constant appreciation for what we are being offered, even in those so called mistakes- this is really worth appreciating!
What a great metaphor, it’s entirely up to us.
What it vastly reveals is how the space that we allow ourselves to actually appreciate is our birthright and just a thing that we have missed or should I say abused and neglected where we are now able to live our lives with little to no appreciation for ourselves and even others. A great reminder to re-turn to our inner-knowing of what this appreciation is and get our ill habits and thoughts out of the way that we have allowed to be there instead of our very love (appreciation, space).
There are no coincidences, just moments on our path of evolution with signs that can tempt us with diversions or rest areas for us to fill up our self-appreciation.
Beautiful Steve we constantly have moments to deepen our appreciation or be tempted with other diversions.
It is easy to trundle along in life not appreciating all that there is to appreciate and sometimes it only takes a little reminder like this blog and we are away appreciating everything that there is to appreciate.
When we have a solid foundation built on our gentleness first, and with having decency and respect for others, then we start to get a simple understanding of appreciation.
Is sounds like things we were taught to us before the electronic world descended like a fog that has obscured our solid foundation. When we tune in to ourselves the fog disappears and is something to appreciate.
Seeing and understanding the true essence of the fog, that is no different from us, will deliver appreciation in a downpour.
I sometimes think I can’t write on something until I’m doing it all of the time… like appreciation, I don’t appreciate myself or appreciate experiences that happen all the time so what can I write, right? But I’m realising this is not true! There are so many parts that I appreciate about myself that I never even considered were there in the past. I even appreciate the so called sticky and confrontational parts of life now, and see the potential blessing and healing… without being a victim, that’s pretty big! So that’s just a snippet of what I could write or share about.
In the confirmation of appreciation the whole of humanity takes another step forward.
More we confirm of appreciation the more we reflect to others to do the same, in this humanity moves forward another step.
“As a child, I did not understand that the shunning, withdrawal, harsh words, bullying and taunting were actually symptoms of jealousy. I chose to interpret these things as a sign that I was not ‘so crash hot’ after all, and I had used them to ‘take myself down a notch.’ Ah! … what a convenient way to fit in and be accepted. Everybody wins, or so I thought… (that’s where listening to my head got me).” This is brilliant awareness and so astute, the subtle ways we go all out to bring ourselves down.The first step to stopping it is acknowledging we are doing it to ourselves and clocking the ways.
I love how you say it is our Birthright to have Appreciation. This is something that has not been fostered or supported and when we do bring it back to the simplicity of who we are and the enormously powerful beings that we are what isn’t there to Appreciate. It’s when we don’t appreciate we start to dismiss what is on offer and our natural state of being.
Everyday I am realising more to appreciate – so many little things that one could easily react to and find annoying are actually , on closer inspection, gifts worthy of celebration.
Yes if we stopped to just reflect on what is being shown to us in everyone moment, then everyone is an opportunity to appreciate.
Yes, Leonne, the more I connect to myself and the love I am constantly held in, the more ridiculous it seems to treat myself with a harsh word or judgemental thought. There is indeed no reason to stop ourselves from falling in love every day.
I have found that when I am honouring my body and that what it communicates to me I am not only in appreciation of who I am and bring to this life, but too in appreciation of that grander whole my body shows me over and over again I am undeniable part of.
Incredible Leonne, yes every moment is worth appreciating, perhaps we are so dearly loved that even the moments we feel are the harshest and hardest are moments presented to us from love.
Sure Victoria, moments may feel harsh but mostly when we look back, these moments have always brought us a deeper understanding and awareness of what our life brings to this world.
Yes, looking back at some of the most difficult moments I’ve had I can’t help but appreciate my strength during these times and use that as marker for myself to know that I am strong enough to deal with anything. Ps. My name is spelled Viktoria.
Thank you Viktoria, I do know how important the correct spelling of names is and therefore now for me an opportunity to appreciate your feedback on this as it is a moment of deepening my understanding and awareness on this matter. It shows me how interwoven we all are with all aspects of life, from how we dress and look from the outside, but too how we are with ourselves, expressing the love that lives within to be shared with others, to how we spell our names. It all matters and is important to reconsider for me today.
As you say appreciation needs to come from the body to have the embracing and deeply confirming quality to the body and being, and cannot just be a mere mental exercise of knowledge that uses words without any resonance. It is the resonance in the body that vibrates into our being and empowers us to be who we are in full.
‘So today I have another opportunity to claim myself back. Appreciation is not just our responsibility, it is also our birthright.’ True Leonne, we are always given the opportunity of a fresh start.
Yeh I love this, every day we have the opportunity of a fresh start, and then it’s down to us if we taint it with yesterdays mistakes or we pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, learn from yesterdays mistakes and take our next step forward.
And I love how this can be applied to each moment too- to choose self judgement and bashing of making a mistake, or the learning and healing on offer, every time. One choice keeps us stuck, the other moves us forward.
Yeh it almost has to be applied to every moment, it’s easy to not be self critical once but that choice needs to be backed up and backed up again and again until that’s no longer part of the way we think.
I have suddenly turned a major corner in my relationship with the science of appreciation and once this happens there is just no end to the things we can appreciate and this is seriously a joyous step in the right direction.
Sometimes I notice how it is easy to get caught up in the appreciation of what we have in our lives, forgetting the appreciation of the stars and of how the universe seems to hold us in its perpetual light.
Appreciation the bigger beauty of the Universe and the stars and planets within, is a beautiful moment to reflect on how amazingly the Universe holding the space for everything to take place within it, including us within the earth.
As I deepen my appreciation of what I eat and how yummy it is, I am now also gained a great understanding that we drop our awareness when we eat. So to help maintain our awareness, is to express while at the evening dinner table or whilst having a meal in an evolutionary way.
Then is it any wonder that TV. meals help us check-out-even-more.
Thank you Serge Benhayon, life is simpler when we get an understanding of the way it is put together!
Appreciation is a way to confirm and validate ourselves as a part of the all and humanity.
We give ourselves a blessing when we appreciate ourselves regularly.
It sure does. Appreciation is like the cement – we can build our house but need the cement to keep it all together and make it super solid and unwavering. For me appreciation also brings in multidimensionality the fact the we are divine beings 1st and foremost and so much more than purely physical entities.
Appreciation is a great way to develop and deepen self love
Even voicing the word appreciation you can feel the quality of its resonance. Right now I am appreciating the energy carried in word.
Very beautiful Leonne. Appreciation is a confirming and expansive quality that nourishes our body being and beyond. I love how the answers you were seeking were right there with you, “I ask my body what the next step is.”
I agree Victoria, there are times I think I need to eat, but actually a good dash of appreciation nourishes and fills me up way more then anything I could have eaten.
Leonne, I love this, it’s great to turn this situation around and rather than make it self critical to make it an appreciative moment, reading this inspires me to appreciate more rather than focussing on the negative; ‘I could go into my normal judgment and self-bashing, but this blog reminds me it’s another moment to appreciate.’
I have days where I feel a similar void and I realised that what I am not doing is stopping and checking in to clock the many tiny moments that have presented during each and every day. When I don’t, I go into recall at the end of the day and think “ok so what do I want to appreciate about myself today?” This is not an activity that builds. Clocking the small seemingly insignificant things is what builds our consistency and changes appreciation into an every movement (or moment) opportunity. That way we can focus on the how we are as we move through our day. I find I am slowly moving out of appreciation being a mental activity to one that is a natural part of how I live day by day. I also change it to the word enjoy, I find this very helpful.
Appreciation as an every movement or moment opportunity.. I love this because then as you say it becomes our normal way of being in every moment that we just live without even trying, and not a tick box activity that we ‘do’
Thats great Doug as you have so much to appreciate about yourself. You are such a loving, tender man who cares deeply for humanity and would do anything for any-one if they are in genuine need. You have a heart of gold.
‘Every single moment is an opportunity to engage with the science of appreciation’. So true, as I sit and type this comment I am deeply appreciating the quality of my presence and the delicateness I am typing in.
Beautifully said how simple it is to appreciate if we just allow in every moment.
Jealousy is definitely a wicked trait that us humans have to get a handle on if we have any hope of evolving, how many of us stop shining our brightness because we feel the jealousy of others?
Our whole world lights up and lightens and everything becomes clear and vibrant when we appreciate ourselves. Then everyone else gets to feel and enjoy us as we live with the preciousness of us.
This is so true. I was struggling to begin a challenging task on the weekend when I was reminded to appreciate myself rather than beat myself up. As soon as I began to appreciate how organised and dedicated I had been I was able to begin the task and complete it fairly easily.
To embrace our divinity in every move is the key to true appreciation – without this we’re just left with a bunch of well meaning words. We save seeing our sacredness till the darkest moments, when we are born to live it every day of our life – thank you precious Leonne for sharing your insight.
To share our appreciation of each other is so valuable to both the person we are appreciating, and ourselves for actually expressing the way we feel.
‘Our worth has nothing to do with what we do’ this is so true. But gosh haven’t we created an ill belief thinking that it is to do with what we do! We need to completely let go of this one along with perfection .. there is no such thing. Just starting to take tiny steps to appreciate both ourselves and others is actually not tiny at all but huge.
When we can stop and just reflect on the gift of the word of appreciation and allow that in our lives, we can actually truly allow the love to flow through us.
Thank you, Ariana. What a brilliant reminder and point of inspiration… appreciation is an essential part of a loving relationship with ourselves and others… simple.
‘…I am being shown my worth has nothing to do with what I do and everything to do with the way I respond to what life presents.’ Oh my gosh, I love this sentence and have read it over a number of times this morning. The simplicity of it, and the invitation it is to really go there with my relationship with how I view my worth. Thank you.
Appreciation is like a surrounding fluid that when we understand it it will hold us till the next wave, which will lift us to the next level of appreciation as a normal part of our evolution.
Leonne I really like this blog because it asks us to stop and take a moment to look at how we are in the world. Growing up I watched as people got older they get set in their ways and don’t like change. This blog I feel is asking us to stay open don’t close down to look around us and always find even the smallest thing/object to appreciate as in the appreciation we are acknowledging the magic of God that is all around us that we seem to simply ignore as we retreat into our own little worlds.
“I know that the more I appreciate myself, the more that I will realise how important my contribution to the world is…” which is worth a whole lot Leonne… We treasure from knowing already the worth and value of what it is that we hold.
The science of appreciation is huge and this understanding that it is our birthright makes so much sense in the flow of life. A beautiful reminder of all we are and the responsibility we have to live this .
Bringing the pure joy of who we truly are is all we need do.
Every moment can be one of habit and repetition or one that has opportunities and evolution. When we appreciate all that is on offer from within and with the all then it is the later that naturally flows with ease and joy.
I like that Natalie, it feels very easy to work on moment by moment. When we have gone into a moment of habit, we can choose to change the next moment to something different and appreciate that we saw this opportunity.
In every situation, no matter what happens, there is something to appreciate – even when you burn your dinner, there is the message to appreciate that perhaps this was not the right food for you to be eating that night! If we live life from appreciation, things turn around in a wonderful way…
How we move now, plays a large part in determining how things unfold for us in the near future. Movement is key, and when things unfold a certain way it is about tracing it back to a certain movement. Now, knowing this is fantastic but the real key is to understand the quality of the movement, and also in giving ourselves permission to put this into practice, in other words live it and observe to see what unfolds – something I am learning to work with each and every day.
Yes, Henrietta, I agree and when I explore the impact of how I move on the way things unfold in a moment, day and/or week, I am inspired by the power we have to inform the quality of our work, interactions with others, relationship with ourself… actually everything. There is a joyful responsibility in this when we consider how this ripples out to our communities and beyond.
I appreciate that you were so committed to sharing this blog with us that your food had to offer a different flavour as well! I love the potential for the different perspective we are offering ourselves as we consider what holds us back.
What a fabulous statement… “my worth has nothing to do with what I do and everything to do with the way I respond to what life presents…” Definitely one that could be the topic of conversation for any women’s groups.
“So today I have another opportunity to claim myself back. Appreciation is not just our responsibility, it is also our birthright.” What a great reminder, and something we can come back to not just everyday, but every hour, every minute or even every second. We absolutley have the right to appreciate ourselves for simply being who we are, which has nothing to do with what we do.
This is so cool Leonne, what you say that ..”my worth has nothing to do with what I do and everything to do with the way I respond to what life presents.” we can get caught up thinking we need to behave in a certain way, or study hard to pass exams to be worthy, but it is totally false. Learning from what happens to us in life is a great way to progress.
We don’t have a problem with our essence or appreciation of all that we are. There is a reason for everything. Thank you for this reminder.
When we try to engage in appreciation in piecemeal, we miss the point. As you show Leonne it begins right from the start with us holding ourselves as divine sons of God and knowing that every single thing in life, is here to support us.
Spot on Joseph – sometimes it can be hard to appreciate some of the things that happen to us, such as an illness or a disease or a situation that crops up, but in each case you are so onto it by saying that every single thing in life is here to support us. In knowing this alone, it means we are far more open to what comes our way, and this is the blessing.
When I make a so-called “mistake” I can appreciate it hugely and get on with whatever responsibility and for me this is in life—to see the big picture, appreciate and get on with it, and not perfection.
I see glimpses of this and how marvellous it is when I appreciate a ‘mistake’ however I do find it challenging to get past the physical aspect of “I messed up”… Appreciation in this sense is still very much in development for me.
What a lesson in where to go for answers, the difference between the head and body is quite marked, the beholding love when you share “Bring some understanding to yourself – you are a deeply sensitive” is palpable.
Appreciation in its true sense has the power to elevate us off from this three dimensional plane of life and to experience that we are so much more than only a body and a set of brains. In this three dimensional plane of life we only have recognition and reward instead, that never sustains and therefore keeps us trapped in this realm. Therefore appreciation is important and to me it is the blessing for our soul and should be taught in every household and school and on every corner of the street.
Leonne, reading this I can feel how important appreciation is, I had a situation yesterday where I chose to appreciate myself and others and this felt very uniting and allowed a lightness and love to be in a situation which could otherwise have been difficult and separating.
Appreciation inevitably leads us to learn about our power, what can happen when we express. That can be scary, especially when we had glimpses of it.
What I love about what you are sharing Leonne is the revelation that we make things harder than they are or even complicate them or turn them into the complete opposite, all the while simplicity is at our side and we can chose to meet life with curiosity and playfulness.
Without appreciation there is no opportunity for love to be lived.
With appreciation, love is much easier. Exactly.
Our head/mind has seemingly all the solutions but without the body there is more often than not a hardness and coldness that point to the real impact and outplay of the actions that result from this split.
Indeed Gabriele, when we want truly to change the way we live in our societies and to stop the hardness and coldness, then we have to become aware of this fact that our bodies are the beholders of the love that in all its simplicity has all the answers to the problems we are facing.
Appreciation is huge, it brings the joy and exquisite simplicity of knowing who we truly are in essence, and also reveals how much we may have been de-valuing ourselves.
I have just taken the time to stop and really appreciate the choices that I have been making and how this is having an impact on my life, my body and all those around me. In the past I would dismiss and get on with the next but today was a fabulous moment of just how awesome I am.
I remember receiving appreciation from someone in a group setting. I found it so hard to let it in and found myself brushing it aside. Totally awful for the person who expressed it as by brushing it aside I totally dismissed what she said. I realised that the reason I could not accept what she said was because I do not appreciate myself, therefore what she said did not match what I allow. The consequence was that I blocked it. Much work to do on appreciation of myself and what I bring.
I love that I have been shown the importance of appreciation for it is a wonderful thing that we can often take so for granted. Whenever I walk around the lakes that are near my home I never fail to appreciate the beauty and nature and everything that is on offer but I can’t say I have always been like this. In the past I may have got used to the scenery and just carried on as it being part of my life without bringing to much focus to it.
Appreciation brings love very tangible back into my life as for me it is as an acknowledgement of that what is already there.
Everything is an opportunity to appreciate. I had a trial day at a different job and can feel all my old patterns and know that it’s asking for me to be a different way and not get caught up in sympathy or its polar opposite that I go into – hardness, for if I do I’ll get wiped out. I remember when I started my current job and how challenging it was but how it’s ok now. The parts I found challenged me to observe and not absorb that I didn’t master fully are what is being asked of me in this new role. I could stay comfortably where I am or I could choose to evolve in my job.
“Perhaps I am so deeply loved and supported that I am being shown my worth has nothing to do with what I do and everything to do with the way I respond to what life presents.” A beautiful expression of the fact that life is not about what we do but the quality we are in what we do.
I love working with people with appreciation… It’s such a simple thing, and yet it can open up so much, both within people, and with the possibility of discussing even deeper aspects like self-love… Appreciation is a wonderful doorway.
Appreciating well cooked food is a treat and if it is still full of flavour then I feel this is the best food Leone, and so if the settings are right then an extra hour just adds more for us to appreciate.
Dimming the light of who we are in essence is the opposite to appreciation and bringing ourselves fully and unashamedly to life.
I love this science of appreciation and the understanding you share of it as our birth right and the knowingness of who we are . How beautiful a sharing and how beautiful to share and embody for ourselves the simplicity of being who we are and appreciating this.
Yes Tricia, to me that is it, appreciation is the means to re-embody and to reaffirm the love that we already are but have forgotten about to live it for a long time.
“Perhaps I am so deeply loved and supported that I am being shown my worth has nothing to do with what I do and everything to do with the way I respond to what life presents.” This turns the whole notion of what we have been led to believe self worth is about. Learning to accept that we are worthy of being loved for just being who we are and not identified by what we do is absolutely key.
I love how you brought the over cruncy lunch into the sharing, how quickly we could have dismissed something like that and simply seen it as an accident. A great example of what is being shown to us when we stay aware and open.
Do we appreciate or make the effort to understand in full the purpose of even the ‘menial’ tasks in our day? What if filing forms, entering data and doing the dishes were the things that could change the world? A seemingly crazy suggestion, but we don’t realise how our actions affect other people.
‘Perhaps I am so deeply loved and supported that I am being shown my worth has nothing to do with what I do and everything to do with the way I respond to what life presents.’ I love the simplicity this brings to our choices in life. Just make the focus to respond in love.
I love that you can connect to so much of our sense of self being about how you respond rather than what you do. It turns the normal on its head.
I can feel how I still judge myself and put myself down for not doing better and how demeaning this is. In appreciation none of this has any space and I feel how great I am doing and whats more how great I am. When I stop to appreciate, really appreciate, I come back to my heart and my body.
Appreciation is knowing who we are, and accepting every bit of it.
Appreciating is starting with self appreciation and knowing who we are to then appreciate everything around us in every moment.
Appreciation has never been a big look at me moment. It is those small moments of just doing what feels right and moving on to the next moment. The small smile, sparkle in the eye or a hug that asks for nothing are moments of appreciation.
Rereading this I got to feel what life as child was like and how the slightest little thing hurt so much and then slowly I numbed my-self to not feel. Returning to my essence has shown me again what it is like to be young and sensitive to everything around. So it is possible to be child-like in our ability to feel again and to no longer numb our bodies.
I still don’t know what I want to be when I grow up? In 16 years I can retire… for the third time. Maintaining our qualities we are all born with is not something we lose and we grow up, there is just a bit more responsibility to ensure we appreciate what we bring to the table of life.
Yes Greg, I hear what you are saying, to be young and sensitive again to everything in our lives. To hold such childlike ability with ourselves in everything that we do and are being with ourselves.
And on reflecting on these comments maybe we are young in a way that we are always students of life and this will be never ending. So as a youth we are all about experiencing new things, then we can expand to the next, which is fore-ever waiting.
This afternoon I was feeling heavy and was about to go into overwhelm. I then stopped for a moment to feel this and I was cooking at the time, so I allowed myself to connect to my hands, to feel the delicateness in how I picked up a utensil and then allowed myself to appreciate this movement. Like magic, the power of appreciation and reconnecting to my body resulted in the heaviness and overwhelm to dissipate.
Leonne, I love this; ‘Woman discovering how wonderful she really is” this inspires to me to also keep discovering how wonderful I am. A woman claiming herself and knowing her qaulities and what she brings is a very beautiful thing and gives permission to other woman to also feel this way about themselves.
In appreciating ourselves we set a standard of living that we will not drop below. This is super important in an intense world that is constantly communicating to us to live less than who we truly are and innately deserve.
I am appreciating there is a science to appreciation, and a knowing that it makes a lot of difference when we appreciate the tiny moments in our lives.
Love this article. Love that it clearly defines that appreciation is something we embrace and accept as being our way to live. That it is not something we essentially have to ‘work on’ but a way that we already behold, if we allow ourselves to feel it.
I am discovering more and more that appreciating me is not hard the more I do this from my body the easier and quicker it becomes.
Love the curve ball Leone but what a fantastic example of how ingrained it is in us to judge and beat ourselves up, as opposed to seeing that when we take a moment to bring more understanding and awareness appreciation is really natural and easy.
Sometimes we can appreciate things in the head but we have not fully connected to the depth that is on offer that can be felt through the body. When this happens, we have not fully connected to the full appreciation. But when the appreciation is felt in the body first and then we understand it, our world comes alive and we feel the depth of life in our hearts.
Ha ha Leonie, I love how you were able to turn your “lunch in the oven too long” incident into a message with the magic of God! I would probably have missed that one, and been upset and hard with myself for making that mistake – instead of just shrugging my shoulders and accepting, and reading the loving message in it! This is inspiring me to have more fun in my day! Thank you!
Every moment of appreciations is a building for the next moment and each moments are deepened as we we keep building. Its a constant deepening and expansion of appreciation.
Beautiful Leonne “Yes – I see it now: every moment is an opportunity to engage with the science of appreciation.” we are forever given opportunities.
I remember this beautiful part in the blog you highlighted and it supported me to shift the heaviness I was in and allowed me to reconnect to myself again. It was amazing to observe and feel the power of appreciation.
I find there are so many things that easily distracts me from applying the science of appreciation to my life. I know how important and joyful it is to master the art and science of appreciation. So, I am going to set myself a little experiment, be playful with it and to bring more moments of appreciation to my day. To observe, take notes and allow myself to feel everything. To feel the abundance of appreciation that surrounds me and is in every cell of my body.
Leonne what is very powerful in your blog is the acknowledgement that there was a time when you had not a single shred of doubt about how awesome you are, showing how natural this state of being is. Yet when we look around and see into a world where most if not all around us have let go of that the first seeds of doubt are planted. It is for this reason that we need to be all of who we are, so that those that come into this world knowing exactly who they are have role models that reflect to them that there is no reason for them to let that go.
The more we appreciate the more we see there is to appreciate, the simplicity of choosing to drink enough water in a day or making steps to get the proper rest we require. It’s huge when I appreciate those simple steps as it confirms the value in them.
Apparently, adaptability and arriving at awareness allows us to apply appreciation, which always arrives when the student is ready??
“I let myself feel that underneath it all, I don’t have an issue with appreciation at all. In fact, I can see I am afraid of what will happen when I let the world know just how much I value myself. ” This opened up for me some of the beliefs I have taken on as a child, ‘such as who do you think you are ‘ and many other comments that have kept me from showing how much I truly love myself. So the beliefs taken on are the issue not my appreciation.
Me too Jill and also made me realise how I am steadily appreciating myself more and valuing myself more also.
I like that the title has the word science in it. I wish I had this in the syllabus at school!
Self-bashing is an immediate internal destroyer… self-appreciating is an immediate internal builder and supporter. Why then do we constantly make self-bashing our-go-to rather than appreciaitng?
Could it be because we see a lot of examples of self-bashing in life that then leads us to think this way of relating to ourselves is normal? Also, could it be that in a world where self-bashing is being celebrated and when we choose the opposite and apply self-appreciation, we stand out from everyone else? Perhaps this freaks us out to go against the trend, we could be disliked, ridiculed or even attacked for being different, for daring to stand tall with appreciation instead of wilting and playing small.
It can be so easy to slip into self-bashing and most of the time we don’t realise we are doing it. Introducing appreciation and bringing this quality and science into our living way in a conscious way can not only put a stop to the self-defeating and bashing thoughts but can also be restorative. Appreciation is as eternal living medicine.
I love what you share Jennifer about appreciation being an eternal living medicine… It feels like it strengthens and revitalises the body just as much as a good dose of minerals and vitamins. I feel an immediate shift in my body when I appreciate… a vitality and an aliveness.
‘Those judgmental thoughts, no matter how subtle, are all equally crushing. There is a reason you are choosing to have an issue with appreciation.’ This is so revealing of the harm we can do in our realtionship with ourself and this is so relevant to me – thank you for sharing this Leonne.
Appreciation is akin to the steps we take up the stairwell. If appreciation isn’t in our foundation, we will falter and take steps backwards, holding on to the handrail. But with appreciation in our livingness, it’s a solid movement to the next step up, and the next and the one after that.
If we were all able to appreciate what we have, by just stopping more often and doing just that, instead of being on some sort of rollercoaster ride with the need for more and more that never fills the void that is left by lack of love and of course the lack of appreciation in our lives.
“Appreciation is not just our responsibility, it is also our birthright.” When this is true responsibility should be something very natural to us. So why is it that in general we make such a fuss about taking responsibility while we are naturally equipped to live responsibility with ease?
Appreciation is the foundation for our livingness and the livingness and application of it makes living worthwhile.
A quote unto itself Gabriele – beautiful words with key ingredients to understanding and loving living life.
Where’s the joy in functioning and doing ‘really well’ at life without making obvious ‘mistakes’, when there is no appreciation of our role, responsibility, relationships and unique position in the world?
That is a good question Susie. As I have found that especially appreciating taking responsibility, that I value my relationships and that what I bring to the world in my unique expression is what truly matters. It brings a joy to life that is hard to describe but can be deeply felt in my body. So from my own experience I can say that avoiding these qualities in life is for me avoiding to live the joy of the grandness that living life to the full capacity of our being unavoidably brings to us and therefore make us to choose to make life about function without making any mistake preferably.
‘My head wants to jump in with all the answers.’ – This is such a great point – having the awareness that the head wants to take control, but knowing that you do NOT have to blindly follow it’s impulse but rather take your time to listen to the signals from your body, trusting it will show you what the true answer is.
“Perhaps I am so deeply loved and supported that I am being shown my worth has nothing to do with what I do and everything to do with the way I respond to what life presents.”This is such a great statement for me to read, as I often feel that I have an issue with appreciation, but when I look back at how I respond to what life presents, I have much to appreciate, thank you for your offerings Leonne.
Learning to appreciate ourselves, others and what is there for us when we align to more, is a great foundational tool that just keeps feeding us back.
“Perhaps I am so deeply loved and supported that I am being shown my worth has nothing to do with what I do and everything to do with the way I respond to what life presents.”
I love this profound reminder – The choice of how we respond to life is always ours.
“Every moment is an opportunity to engage with the science of appreciation.” – I love this sentence and it is a constant reminder that this is certainly a key ingredient in life!
Appreciation is something that I can sometimes be very neglectful of. To me this is when I stop smelling the roses. Or when I see only the faults in myself or another. Or a day when I cannot see the sun rise and guide my way. And yet, appreciation can be found in the simplest of things, and is essentially so easy to do when in the right space! So what governs appreciation? Could it be the energy that we are in? Could it be that when we are deeply connected to ourselves then appreciation is second nature, something that is so simple and feeds us right back? So when I am not feeling an appreciation for life and for me and those around me, the best thing I can do is stop to notice this, and then bring back that connection with myself, being gentle with myself and bringing back the having fun!
It ‘Is’ so True Leonne, fear brings in an energy that caps us and keeps us “afraid of what will happen when I let the world know just how much I value myself.” And may I add that self-evaluation is something that we end up doing as the divine connection brings with it a depth of clarity that can be rejected because it has brought us closer to the Truth of who we are and a disruptive energy brings in disconnecting thoughts. Like “who me I can’t feel like that” or “this is plain scary”, so we question the True feelings that a divine connection brings. So I am working on connecting and appreciating that is me and no thought can discredit the True value I can place on that connection.
This blog shows us the futility of bashing ourselves, because in that self bashing, there’s no learning or expansion, only smallness and contraction. Appreciation is the key to living more of who we are, and once we get the hang of truly appreciating ourselves and all that we bring, it sets a very steady foundation from where we can continue to learn and grow.
Appreciation is not a mental doing, in the way of ticking boxes, but a beautiful surrender to the Love and Honouring of all that we are, and that we can feel consistently in our body.
Great such a great reminder its not a tick box exercise it is about truly connecting and surrendering to the full love that we are and feel throughout our body.
What strikes me most is how simple and powerful it is to appreciate, however, what is truly magical is when we appreciate not what we do but the quality we’ve done what we do in.
Love this – and what a difference it makes when we appreciate the quality we did it in rather than what we did.
Me too Eva, loving this from DN. Humanity would be transformed if we connected the quality in which we did things, not what we did.
It is very much about the quality in our movements where the true appreciation comes in, like you say not about what we do,but the quality in how we have done what we have done.
‘Perhaps I am so deeply loved and supported that I am being shown my worth has nothing to do with what I do and everything to do with the way I respond to what life presents.’ Responding with no reaction, as we are, expressing truth.
So true Michael responding with no reaction, being open as we are and bring our truth to all.
I can sense a beautiful, depth of appreciation towards myself, an appreciation not for what I do – that takes me into my head but an appreciation for who I am. No self doubt can get in the way as I hold myself and know it is always there to tap into.
Appreciation is an absolute anti-dote to self doubt.
Thank you. I can really feel this to be true.
It really is fascinating how we can be super aware and appreciate of others but struggle with our own. This is such a great blog to read and be inspired by it actually is totally ok to feel how amazing we are and that this is worth appreciating.
Why are we so resistant to appreciating all that we bring – it feels as though we are delaying being the amazingness that we know we are, and have chosen to hide that part of us in case we shine too brightly and risk rejection.
Why is it that we can see how other people in our lives are beautiful, caring and ‘light up our life’, but humanity struggles So much with accepting the fact WE are all of these things and are totally amazing in our own way? Why do we fight and avoid true confidence.. do we indulge in the doubt in order to avoid bringing this ‘all’ of who we are to the world?
A really great place to start when we don’t appreciate ourselves is why am I avoiding it (all the time or at this moment)? It doesn’t really make sense on a practical level as it feels great and is also confirming something that is actually true about yourself. What we should do is spend a moment appreciating, feeling where that comes from and the ripple effect that can have. Then the next step will be laid out having this as our foundation.
As I was doing my exercises this morning, I was deeply appreciating my body and how incredible it is in the way it moves, and how all the different layers of it and all the different systems work together in perfect harmony to support me in my every movement. Our bodies are literally amazing!
We can always find something to appreciate in life, as you did when your dinner turned to cinders.
How true Kehinde – every moment there is something to appreciate, the choice is ours. To dismiss and/or disregard or Appreaciate what’s constantly on offer.
So true Kehinda there is something to appreciate in every moment, our every breath is a moment of appreciation.
It is for all of us to reclaim that inner sparkling divine child that walks with such command once again. It is never too late.
‘I start remembering my childhood and the confidence I had; the way I could command a room and feel how deeply precious I was’. How true this is. I met a two year old the other day the way we she entered the lfie with her mother and grandmother was deeply inspiring, She walked with her whole body, confident, open, sparkling, joyful, the difference between her and the adults was stark. If these qualities are in a child what happens to dull or destroy them as we get older?
When we truly appreciate ourselves and the qualities we bring to the world, it really doesn’t matter what anyone else thinks.
So true Carmel, when we bring appreciation to ourselves and our qualities we bring to the world doesn’t matter what anyone thinks, self appreciation is the first step.
Life is miraculous – from the incredible way the sun rises, to all the amazing lessons on offer in a day, to the intricate ways our bodies are designed – and your blog has me pondering why we don’t really appreciate it – I find life becomes grey when we stop appreciating, or could it be grey because we have disconnected from who we are and as a result do not see the truth in front of us and a lack of appreciation is a consequence of this?
I feel that when we do not appreciate ourselves then we are abusing and crushing the divine aspect of who we are. So my question has to be what is it about us as a race of human-beings that we are prepared to do this to our selves? What is the payoff we are getting in return for doing this? Why do we want to live in the separation to the being part of us and just see ourselves as humans?
I have come to realise that a lack of self-appreciation keeps me from feeling all the love and support I feel all around me. If God is loving me to the max, why am I not loving myself?
Yes, why not! Each day God says, “whohoo look who is waking up today! Lucky world”
Instant appreciation over instant gratification – as I’m learning to appreciate more instantly or more in the moment, I find this builds a body of buoyancy, focus and confidence … And that the latter (gratification) destroys into exhaustiveness and a hungry body in search of the next hit.
Yes appreciating in the moment builds and energises whereas gratification leaves us exhausted and focused on the next stimulation.
I love the fact that you call it the ‘science of appreciation’ because that gives us permission to be forever explorers, finding out more about things as we go along… there is an open-ness and understanding in this approach that is much more respectful and inspiring, leaving space for our innate appreciation for ourselves, others and life to take its rightful place centre stage. Thank you, Leonne.
It is worth the while clocking just how energising ‘appreciation’ is in the body… It also reduces the outward look for approval and acceptance, and when this comes come within, this energy is like a renewable source of ‘fuel’ for the body.
That’s a great way to consider self-appreciation, Johanne…a much better fuel for the body than coffee and sugar!
‘It tells me that by avoiding appreciation, I am simply avoiding my responsibility to be all of me.’ I feel this too – I don’t feel I deserve my own appreciation unless I bring all of me.
Appreciation is an innate gift we all equally have … and it brings so much richness, magic and beauty to life.
Naming things as ‘too hard’ supposedly gives us an out, an excuse to delay what will still remain doing… however when we are in the flow of life it is incredible how things constellate. It is simply how responsible we are willing to be in the choices we make.
I love the difference being looked at here between appreciating things outside yourself and holding appreciation within yourself.
When I hold the Appreciation of who I am and who we all are within myself, everything I do – the way I move, what I say, and how things are done comes with the mighty care and love that god (all of us) is – which we all know is seriously powerfull, we are all delicate, sweet, tender, joyful, endearing, vivacious and none of this is to be messed with and if someone’s intention is to mess with it, that ‘intention’ is to be seen for what it is. If there is any denial of the fact that we are living in an ocean of energy and that everything we do has an impact on everything, that this is how big we really are, then we can see that to deny and not hold this Appreciation is a deliberate way to stay small and not take loving responsibility for the ‘everything’ that we all are. And it’s not scary, it’s amazing!
“but the facts feel hollow and hard. My head is not helping.” I know this one Leonne! Knowing it all so well in my head but honesty not finding it helpful because it feels so hard in my body. True knowledge alone really does not do it, it needs to come with understanding of our situation and our choices only then we can say ‘oops’ and feel it so in our body too.
Our heads never help, they always hinder, whereas our hearts never hinder but always help.
Every moment offers something to appreciate – how true, and your ‘well done’ lunch is a great example that when we are open to what is on offer, even if at first it may seem to be a ‘mistake’, it usually is a gentle warning that it is time for an adjustment in one way or another.
With being open to learn and appreciate everything and anything that presents itself during our day, life gets so joyful, as joyful as it truly is.
I love how you described appreciation and how this allows you the fine tuning of what’s required in the day for your body.
Once we start allowing ourselves to feel appreciation for the small things in our lives it becomes easier to appreciate everything, because everything supports us in our evolution when we understand what is truly going on
I was reminded today that I can appreciate something and then kill it by saying something negative. For instance I appreciated how much I am able to surrender in a session and then I say but there was a lot of mental energy before that. Why bring in the past if all it does is dampen the present?
Why is it so hard to appreciate? I asked myself this question and I can feel how much I hold back even when the thought is there I don’t express it. It really isn’t hard but I make it hard by not expressing what I have felt. As I read your blog today Leonne you have reminded me that I should express to one of my relations how much I am beginning to appreciate what they bring and who they are, rather than just keeping it in my thoughts.
A great example here about how instead of the self bashing and self depreciating thoughts when something does not look as we expect, we can use the foundation of appreciation to observe, go deeper, learn and expand our amazingness.
A couple of residence were extremely upset over an incident that happened in the morning at my work place. When I was told I immediately went and talked with them both and completely diffused what could have been a very volatile situation. What I appreciated about myself was how immediate I responded, how I was able to bring to them understanding of why what happened, happened, with out negating that they had every right to be upset and angry and the fact that they both felt met by my response, listened too and satisfied by the outcome.
Beautiful blog and understanding of the importance of appreciation and the love it truly is ” Appreciation is not just our responsibility, it is also our birthright.”
When I truly look honestly at myself I realise that in the past I didn’t need any outside influences to keep me down as I was doing a fine enough job of crushing myself with constant judgement and put downs. Enter a bit of self appreciation and let that seed grow and watch this space blossom. What a great science!
I love coming back to your blog Leonne. I have not yet mastered the science of appreciation but I definitely have my student hat on.
Negative self talk is regarded as ‘normal’ behaviour whereas self appreciation is often seen as being up oneself and can make others feel very uncomfortable.
What a gorgeous blog and so much that I have also felt about appreciation. Thank you for bringing this to the fore Leonne.
‘Yes – I see it now: every moment is an opportunity to engage with the science of appreciation.’ – beautiful reminder, Leonne ….. we always have a choice in each moment about what we are choosing to take us into our next moment. Are we choosing to align with the love that we are, or something else?
With returning to this blog a couple of times and also reading the comments, the meaning of appreciation, the practicalities and it’s wide impact become clearer and more accessible each day. And my body is enjoying it a lot.
Love that you found out you didn’t have a problem with appreciation and to bring love and understanding to yourself.
Leonne, I love your approach with appreciating everything that happens including the unexpected such as forgetting your lunch in the oven for too long – after all there is a message and a blessing in everything no matter what comes our way, and if we allow ourselves to read it this way we are on our way to really making the most of life, with a willingness to grow!
Beautifully expressed Henrietta. I find appreciation is like the fertiliser for life, without it, we seem to wilt, look lifeless and sick, and as a result we do not grow into full bloom.
Leonne, I too have been finding lately that I am having trouble deeply appreciating myself and the qualities that I bring – not all the time, but I sense it happening quite easily, and when this happens I also find myself falling into looking at other people’s qualities, loving what they bring but then feeling like I fall short or feel inadequate in some way because of my lack of appreciation of myself. What I have realised from this is how important it is to deeply appreciate oneself and then from here be inspired by the qualities of another, and in this way allow the growth to naturally unfold.
So the foundation of anything (love, appreciation, respect, care) is based on the way we approach ourselves with it. This makes sense of our responsibility to attend to ourselves first and the simplicity of this.
‘I can see I am afraid of what will happen when I let the world know just how much I value myself.’ – It is crazy to see that we start out in deep appreciation of ourselves from the moment we are born and then slowly but surely learn to crush ourselves as we grow older, based on projections and expectations from the outside world, that all ends up in a picture we try to live up to.
The journey of discovery and embodiment of accepting All that I am /we are continues for me too Leonne. If my mind leads the way, the day is far less harmonious than when being present with and listening and responding to my body .
I love how you turned around claiming all of you from a responsibility into a birthright, very inspiring.
When are not appreciating ourselves and what we can bring to a situation, its no wonder we end up drained from the experience.
Spot on Julie, because then the criticism can kick in more easily, as can the judgement and the feeling that we are not enough! Hence the feeling of being drained. Whereas deep appreciation of oneself and of everything around us, is something that gently but powerfully feeds us back the very love that we are and fuels us for what is needed to be done.
Very true, Julie and Henrietta …. when we are appreciating ourselves, if something doesn’t go to plan, rather than feeling as though we’ve done something wrong, judging ourselves on ‘how we could have done’ whatever it was – our perspective is very different. The appreciation allows us to pause and feel into the learning being offered, deepening our appreciation even further in ‘appreciating’ the opportunity to gain more understanding, taking our appreciation to a whole new level, expanding our awareness and insight even further.
Appreciating our selves and letting the world know how much we value our selves is actually a gift as we reflect that it is ‘safe’ to’ do so, to embrace how gorgeous it is to be our amazing selves and how much joy there is from living in this way.
‘I can see I am afraid of what will happen when I let the world know just how much I value myself.’ – a fear that most of us share to some degree or other, which is what keeps us complicit in this game we play, fitting in with each other so no one rocks the boat and risks exposing the reality of what we are agreeing to when we keep ourselves small.
Admitting we are deeply sensitive and tender is a big step to take for some. It was for me and sometimes I feel the temptation to go back to hold patterns of toughening up. Today through Serge Benhayon’s teaching and the Universal Medicine modalities I have re-connected to these qualities and am choosing for this to be my everyday normal and calling it out when it is not this.
It’s amazing how different the answers we get when we ask our body vs our head, in our head, we are full of complexity and the unknown, in our body we are full of the simplicity of truth. As your body shared “Bring some understanding to yourself “
You beautifully illustrate Leonne how us changing one simple thing, like the way we see ourselves transforms everything. The way so called disasters turn out to be great educations shows perfectly how we’ve had for too long ‘the wrong end of the stick’. Turns out it’s not a stick at all but the outstretched arms of life giving us a warm, loving hug.
“I ask my body what the next step is. It says, ‘Bring some understanding to yourself – you are a deeply sensitive, tender being’. You don’t have an issue with appreciation and you are not a ‘bad,’ ‘irresponsible’ person. Those judgmental thoughts, no matter how subtle, are all equally crushing. There is a reason you are choosing to have an issue with appreciation.” This is brilliant, so much so that you can put a blank in space of the last word and use it with any other area of life that we are taking issue with. We can so easily convince ourselves to play less than who we truly are. Appreciation of ourselves is the first step to letting this debilitating pattern go.
“I know that the more I appreciate myself, the more that I will realise how important my contribution to the world is..” In saying this I realise why I choose not to appreciate myself, because it means I would have to take more responsibility and I am able to instead, convince myself that I have a phobia of taking too much on.
What is it so hard to self appreciate? I have also asked myself this question and realise that it is so easy to take for granted the beautiful aspects of ourselves, but when we do acknowledge this quality, the way we do, or say or act, it is such a huge confirmation that fires up the body that feeds you back with love… And the science of this is that it is like a renewable source of energy for the body that keeps feeding you back.
‘it is like a renewable source of energy’ – How true, self-appreciation is a natural power well worth investing in.
What really resonated here for me was to comment about not having an issue with appreciation itself – just an issue with allowing myself to show my appreciation for myself. This was a reality check for me as I realised how I have assumed I have an issue with appreciation itself when this is simply not true. But I have told myself this story so often that I have come to believe it. It’s quite freeing to simply drop this illusion – it serves only a diminishing purpose – and instead get on with allowing self appreciation the chance to reveal itself.
Being taken a notch or several down because those around us are uncomfortable with the reflection of someone who just naturally shines and especially in a child, can be devastating as it opens the door to self-doubt and the need to fit in and turn that light down to an acceptable dimmed version of the former self.
Appreciation is an essential part of our everyday life and it needs to be brought into all families between siblings as well as between parents and children. It is also greatly needed in schools, not just as a tick for being correct but appreciating every child’s qualities as a being.
I agree Carmel, in schools it is just brushed over or paid lip-service to but there are very few real programs designed to nurture and confirm true appreciation in and of children.
Leonne, this is gorgeous to read; ‘I start remembering my childhood and the confidence I had; the way I could command a room and feel how deeply precious I was.’ Reading this I can feel how children do this, they have this light, playful, gorgeous presence and they light up wherever they go, I can feel that this is our natural way – as adults too.
In appreciation there is no self-critique or reaction, only observation, understanding and forever learning.
Leonne loving the duvet of understanding and support you have wrapped around imperfections, unburdened by self critique but like a baby learning to walk we simply get back up and go again.
Love your analogy, Lucinda, here. It is very warm and supportive to give yourself plenty of understanding and allowing through the learning.
Appreciation is just one of the million or so things I have come to look at since becoming a student of life, of the Way of the Livingness of Universal Medicine. I can’t ever remember even contemplating appreciating myself before this. What an amazing thing to look at and make part of our daily routines!
And what an amazing thing to appreciate!
Leonne what I am discovering is that there is another energy at play that constantly wants to crush our natural sensitivity and grace we feel as children so that we grow up contracted and withdrawn, so that no one sees or feels the reflection of true love in another. I’m discovering for myself that there is so much more to whom we truly are and this is what this other energy is trying to annihilate. It may sound like something out of science fiction, but while we many may scoff at the ridiculousness of it all it is actually taking place and we are being robbed of our natural birthright.
“… perhaps I have an opportunity to look at the way I am doing things and change some behaviours that aren’t working for me and are impacting others.” A true inspiration on how we can turn our errors around and instead regard them as a golden opportunity to evolve our choices and behaviour, always in consideration of the impact we have on the bigger picture too.
Appreciation of ourselves and others is a healthy sign in society, one where we are willing to know our own worth and that of others, understanding that we each have our unique place within the whole, and that it is with each other we learn, grow and evolve.
I hadn’t heard about appreciation before meeting Serge Benhayon, especially towards self. I remember my first session with Serge about 9 years ago and one of the first things I said to him was how bad and terrible I was. Thank God he did not hold back the truth, and today I know who I really am.
I read this comment and thought “wow – you hadn’t heard about appreciation – that’s crazy”. But then I stopped and really thought about my experiences. And they are the same. Sure, I knew the word and if you’d asked me whether I practiced appreciation, I would surely have said yes. But what Serge Benhayon has shown me, and countless others, is the true art and science of appreciation and how, when lived and expressed in its truest form it is the super-fast highway back to our souls.
I laughed when I first read this Otto, crazy yes. If I look back, I saw appreciation as appreciating what someone has done for me or what I have been given but not the importance of appreciating ourself and others and the amazing qualities in which we express and live.
Indeed Leonne, our worth has nothing to do with what we do but more so with how we are with ourselves in that what we do.
Appreciation opens up our body for more love.
I’m not quite sure why this should be described as a ‘Science’ but the experiments are repeatable: when I appreciate someone I cannot judge them. Simple fact.
When we choose to self appreciate, the ripple effects are huge.
This is a beautiful blog that reminds me to constantly come back to appreciation every time I want to make the slightest bit of an issue about something. Let it go and appreciate instead and the energy returns 10 fold.
Appreciation for me was not something as a child I was even aware of, or ever heard anyone appreciate me or another. There is so much to appreciate about life, ourselves and others it seems crazy that I had to wait for many, many years before I was introduced to the science of appreciation from Serge Benhayon and how valuable and life changing appreciation is to all aspects of our lives.
I didn’t get the job I applied for yesterday, they favored the other candidate. And although the negative thoughts wanted to enter saying I failed ect., I couldn’t feel it in my body. I have been appreciating all week, so I had sort of a buffer inside me and I simply had a gorgeous day yesterday with meeting so many beautiful people. And like a wise friend said: ‘it is great that we evolve either way’.
We are all so deeply held and loved whether we appreciate who we are or not. However the more we appreciate who we are the more we realise this and feel it in our every move.
I couldn’t get to sleep the other night, my body was restless, I couldn’t settle. So I asked myself why is this, nothing obvious was there then I realised.. where was my appreciation? I started appreciating and everything opened up with a lightness and warmth, my body settled and very quickly I went to sleep.
What a gorgeous example Ruth. How grateful your body must have been for that. With appreciating you also completed what was there to round up and made way for a restful sleep.
Hi Ruth, your experience with appreciation proves to me that appreciation is a blessing for our body while all the thinking from the mind, which is its counterpart, crushes the body by overruling the delicateness and tendernes and instead tries to make it hard.
Love this Leone along with the comedy line! So great what you have shared how it isn’t about the what is wrong but embracing every moment with an awareness and openness to see what is being shown to us. This is a game change for sure.
It is wonderful to read about you exploring what it would be like to let the world see how much you value yourself. And I can see how this starts with being open with oneself first, being honest with your own love which is then what is brought out to everybody else.
Yes. For if we are not honest with ourselves then there is a tension of mistrust in our bodies (because we KNOW, without question, that we are not being honest with ourselves), which of course then perpetuates into our relationships with others.
It was a revelation when I heard Serge give an example of appreciation, it was the smallest of moments in a very everyday situation, one that we could so easily override and not appreciate – that there, in that very ordinary action, was something to appreciate – – as you go to walk out of your house you remember to pick up the umbrella (and all that that signifies), a moment of appreciation!
One of the blocks I find towards appreciating myself is carrying old past hurts and choices and focussing on them rather than what is with and before me. The moment I look outside of myself I find myself trying to be better or more rather than appreciating myself right now and everything I am and bring.
I don’t think I recall jealousy being expressed towards me but I did argue regularly with my nearest sibling and I did shut down my ability to read situations. My feeling is that disapproval came more from my parents and boarding school teachers. Appreciation was not a natural way of being for us girls.
It’s true Carmel, we are not taught what appreciation is or how to appreciate. We have grown up with a skewed understanding of what it means to appreciate, when all along it is part of the loving process of relationship with ourselves in our everydayness of life.
Appreciation is so cool to accept that whatever we are given, it is for a reason. Even when it doesn’t seem that great at the time, we will be able to look back if we gave accepted and appreciated it, that it has supported us to grow. I love knowing that we get everything we need.
Appreciation regurgitated from the mind carries no truth and is empty. As it is not from our body it can never be felt in another’s body.
Appreciating in full in the moment or when we get the impulse to appreciate is all that is needed. True appreciation is a whole body experience and can not be felt from the mind.
These words are pure gold Leonne ‘my worth has nothing to do with what I do and everything to do with the way I respond to what life presents.’
“I ask my body what the next step is. It says, “Bring some understanding to yourself…” – wonderfully simple Leonne. Understanding always brings forward the perspective and simplicity that’s there.
Appreciation is such a simple thing, it costs nothing, and its value is priceless. To bring that into our lives, and everyone else’s is such an easy and super important thing to do…. to remind us to be everything we already are.
When we bring understanding to ourselves, not only does this feel so loving but it also opens all those doors we kept tightly shut. The light can pour in and we are free to listen to our wise bodies.
What a great loving observation you have introduced for those moments that can throw us:
“Perhaps I am so deeply loved and supported that I am being shown my worth has nothing to do with what I do and everything to do with the way I respond to what life presents.”
I find how we choose to respond to life is so important. Do I draw on the energy of love, appreciation, and oneness or do I draw on the energy of reaction judgment and separation. It is my choice of that energy which I will thereafter walk with and experience coming back to me.
I have always found self appreciation hard and that putting myself down and beating myself up such an easy thing to do but I am finding also that over a number of years since meeting Serge, other practitioners and other students of the Way of the Livingness that the tide is turning and I am able to appreciate all that I am and all that I bring.
To me, the fact that you are able to see this pattern, accept it and then choose to start reversing it is the most giant cause for appreciation. In that we can only know that our way is not true by connecting to our truth…which is super, super cool and to be deeply appreciated.
And, since I’m here, there is also something else; I want to appreciate you and what you have said here. It is so huge to have men in the world like you that are expressing transparently, showing their vulnerability and opening themselves up to their brothers. This kind of stuff smashes the protection that us men have surrounded ourselves with. It’s gold and it makes me love being a man.
‘I know that the more I appreciate myself, the more that I will realise how important my contribution to the world is, but the facts feel hollow and hard. My head is not helping.’ – our mind will always come up with very convincing arguments and rational reasons for why things happen, however, we know, when we want to know the truth, whether something feels true or not.
“Perhaps I am so deeply loved and supported that I am being shown my worth has nothing to do with what I do and everything to do with the way I respond to what life presents.” The more we love and appreciate ourselves, the less we ‘need’ from the world, which in turn frees us to a greater awareness of what is truly at play, rather than being hooked into the whole game of life, and thus this love and appreciation is in fact our ticket back home.
‘The more we love and appreciate ourselves, the less we ‘need’ from the world, which in turn frees us to a greater awareness of what is truly at play, rather than being hooked into the whole game of life, and thus this love and appreciation is in fact our ticket back home’ I am finding the same Otto. There really is not that much ‘out there,’ being with, appreciating me and my everyday is enjoyably plenty for me.
Confidence is an embodied foundation of truth, and to build and nurture that requires a constant dialogue of appreciation. It’s not rocket science – if you appreciate yourself for something, then it builds your confidence.
Master appreciation and we are steady on the way back to love.
Not appreciating, lack of appreciation are a momentum, an old habit, yesteryear’s garb – if we have to have an internal dialogue at all (and we don’t, but that is another matter altogether), why reserve it for criticism, self bashing and put downs?
One of the benefits of appreciation is that we can stop at any moment and appreciate what is there. That is even possible when we don’t feel too well. Appreciation does not need an outcome as it is about our connection, about how much we are with the All.
Absolutely. In fact appreciation is a great way to fill the reservoir for when times aren’t going too well.
Beautiful Leonne. Appreciation is a quality that confirms what is, and allows for an expansion of the same. It is nourishing for all.
As a “child” we understand the True-Humbleness that is an integral part of our deep appreciation and it is up to each of us to hold that level of appreciating. Learning from a child that is fully connected and is still fully appreciating who they are is such fun.
When you look at life in a series of little moments, and then look how much is on offer in any given moment, there is much to appreciate.
I love this blog and how it sums up the real meaning of appreciation.
Appreciation brings expansion and if we were all to look at every thought, spoken word and action as bringing either expansion or contraction and only chose those that offered expansion, then we would transform ourselves and our world overnight.
I am finding it is much harder to let go of the constructs of life rather than surrender to love. I understand it all but like you it needs to come from my body and a truth that is undeniable – you never see a tree questioning its worth it really is that simple.
I love your honesty here Vanessa. It is crazy how we find it hard, what is actually the easiest option, and instead choose struggle .. something I know very well but thankfully am starting to choose love more and more even though at times it does not feel like it!
When the ‘son of man’ begins to appreciate that he/she is indeed a Son of God, then the Son of God can appreciate that he/she is in-truth equal to God. Lack of appreciation is simply a very human reaction we often have to our innate godliness. Our re-turn to this divine expression is an unfolding path for us all.
Sometimes I get caught up in thinking appreciation is about what we do and what we bring. When we truly appreciate ourselves and others in each moment for who we are and not necessarily for what we do, then the quality of appreciation feels very different.
Bingo Ariana. it’s super simple. I realised exactly what you are saying a little while ago. It truly is a game changer.
I am on an appreciation program, which is completely opening me up in ways I have never imagined. it’s really helping me see and feel what there are many many things to appreciate about me as I travel through my day. Yesterday even though I was tired and drained I could still appreciate what I brought to my day. It’s really assisting me to observe much more through life.
Great blog Leonne. Appreciation is not an ‘extra’ or a reward that we give ourselves. It is a beautiful and powerful quality and part of the responsibility to be all that we truly are.
Yes, and one we can do any time.
Appreciation is something that confirms hence it comes after the fact or moment that is appreciated, but an attitude of appreciation we can choose to have all of the time and thus bring appreciation to our every moment in advance. It is an open-hearted approach towards life that sees the potential and then confirms the potential being expressed and activated.
It is a very uplifting science, as the more we perceive and appreciate the potential in us all and in all of life, the more we lift everyone to a new awareness and understanding. When lived in full it is simply the wisest and most beautiful poetry in motion.
Mmm that’s beautiful Alex, it’s like a ‘yes of course!’ posture.
In that sense we cannot escape appreciation; that for once is a circle worth being stuck in 😉
Appreciating ourselves feels natural when we are enjoying the love we feel when doing that.
There is no greater platform building material than appreciation.
Yep, I absolutely agree Michael. It feels like the glue that holds every part together, connecting, binding and secures each part making it whole. So, appreciation is like the glue that holds humanity together as one.
‘Last and certainly not least, I’ve had more things to appreciate than I would have thought possible since I discovered Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine ‘ Hear hear Leonne, since discovering Serge and UM my life has been ongoingly filled with gifts and blessings, words I would not even have used in describing life prior to that.
Every moment is an opportunity to appreciate – whether it be what we may call ‘good, bad or ugly,’ because there is always a learning in every situation.
‘perhaps I have an opportunity to look at the way I am doing things and change some behaviours that aren’t working for me and are impacting others.’ Seeing the things that ‘happen’, like your lunch over cooking in this way, there is no judgement or blame, just an openness to learn from and feel what this is showing us and the changes we could make.
I find it’s so easy to appreciate other people, but not so easy to appreciate myself and all that I bring. I need to remind myself over and over again of the power of the qualities that I offer. It’s so easy to dismiss them and believe that other people offer more. We need all kinds of expression in this world, and each and every one of them is important and of value.
“……. my worth has nothing to do with what I do and everything to do with the way I respond to what life presents.” Self-appreciation is invaluable in establishing a solid foundation this in how one lives.
Leonne, since reading this article I have been inspired to appreciate myself much more, particularly at work, so instead of the critical self talk that can be there I have been appreciating myself instead.
We think we are alone, that we have to do everything and to a certain extent this is true, we are the only ones who can rescue ourselves from the pit we have descended into, but we are supported. We are given tools to help us reconnect and the wisdom held in our bodies is always there if we choose to listen.
I decorated our lounge over the last few days and I was able to appreciate firstly how spectacular it looked and then how great it felt because of the care that I took, now it wasn’t such a long time ago that I wouldn’t have appreciated myself all that much for doing a similar job.
Delicious Leonne, I don’t know you but you just come across through your writing and sharing as such an amazing woman. I cannot imagine you now wanting to share that with the world, and shame on a world that did not celebrate that in you when you were a child because we all lost and continue to lose out when we behave in that way. I will be far more aware of my response to that reflection in all the wonderful people I meet from here on in.
The more I deeply appreciate my delicate, tender way of being the more I bring this way of being into every-thing I do. Appreciation is key in being able to know your self intimately
We are cradled by stars, held by moons, supported by birds and lifted by their sweet tunes. The whole universe is geared to Love us. So how can we exclude ourselves from this divinity? ‘I’m not enough’ – makes no sense does it Leonne?
Beautifully said Joseph, and put like that one can only say, indeed it does not make sense at all. A great reminder to take into the day to not hold ourselves any less then the universe does.
Appreciation is the ultimate form of renewal energy, that when practiced and lived on a consistent basis, keeps on feeding in more positivity that enables us to realise more and more of our potential.
When I live and express holding myself in appreciation life is full, expansive and evolves.
To a certain extent our next moment is an ever ready opportunity, an empty space that is available to be filled, however we are not quite as free to choose what to fill the moment with as we might like to think we are, as our choices are governed by our preceding choices. What this therefore means, is that how we choose to think, talk and move, in turn governs our next thoughts, words and actions. The key is to consciously fill as many moments as we can and this will in itself change the very consciousness of the next moment.
‘every moment is an opportunity to engage with the science of appreciation.’ – we can get used to a very linear way of looking at things, which keeps us very blinkered and focused on one path. What I love about this blog is the invitation to surrender and be open to a completely different perspective. To let go and allow ourselves to truly appreciate all that is on offer. What a gift.
It is something I’ve always wondered, ‘why is it easier to see the magic in someone or something else other than myself’ what i’ve come to in recent years has been the more I see the magic in myself the more the magic is a normal part of the day and the more I don’t need that magic outside of me as I am deeply connected and appreciative of myself.
Something I have found very interesting to observe with regards to appreciation, is the fact that I find it relatively easy to appreciate others, and the things around me and the things I do and all that is happening in my life including the people in my life, and also, appreciating divinity! But the part I really struggle with is that I still tend to see it all outside of myself rather than completely from within me – the appreciation is thus limited as I do not embrace it fully as being part of me. Not sure if this makes sense to anyone reading this, but this is something I have been working on in terms of knowing and accepting that I am a large part of this and it is not just God’s hand at work but it is God’s hand at work through me. And hence in comes the deeper appreciation of myself, so that I can then more deeply appreciate others and everything around me. What a blessing!
Yes, I can very much relate to what you are sharing here, Henrietta. Allowing the appreciation we feel for others and everything around us to include ourselves as an equal part of the whole. For me, it comes down to self acceptance, to truly value, honour and claim my own divinity and in this lies the responsibility to then live it, which comes back to Leonne’s point about the fear of reaction when we do. However, as you share, when we get our self out of the way, we are simply allowing ‘God’s hand’ to work through us, in full.
Makes sense to me Henriette, I am still working on appreciating that I am a divine being equal to all others.
Awesome, honest and refreshing sharing Leonne! Thank you!
I have a job interview for a new project tomorrow and I realize that when I get the job there is something to appreciate and equally so when I don’t get it. Appreciation is not attached to the outcome but to how I am, how my body moves and supports me and how I am being taken care off, maybe by not getting this job but another one.
Beautifully expressed Monica the quality we do any thing in is so much more important then any out come.
What a beautiful blog. A friend recently told me that appreciation is more difficult when I am identified with an outcome – the identification stops the appreciation. Appreciation is separate to outcome – a confirmation of the love and truth I am expressing in that moment.
This opens up a whole new level. Thank you.
“As a child, I did not understand that the shunning, withdrawal, harsh words, bullying and taunting were actually symptoms of jealousy”- these are great words of confirmation for myself as to this day I can feel this same dynamic going on in my life, but I many times will contract and lessen my natural expression to blend in again and not be a target. However, I now know this to be holding others back as well, because they don’t get a chance to then be inspired by me being the full me.
Yes I agree Susan that it is fascinating to discover that actually we are all naturally very good at appreciating so we are making a deliberate choice to suppress this natural ability or quality in us because we want to enjoin the ways of the world rather than appear different or stand out as living our way that we really sense is true for us and that we really want to live deep down.
You can really feel the difference in the quality of how your head speaks to you versus your body when I read the words of your blog. The body aka the heart is so much more loving, holding and understanding and infinitely more wise.
It was great to explore the contradictions of what we appreciate and what we struggle with. Most of us appreciate nature, friends, etc but struggle to appreciate our own qualities.
Spot on Fiona! I can certainly relate to this, and it is something I am working on – and the beauty is that I am finding that the deeper I allow myself to appreciate myself, then the deeper my appreciation for those around me actually can go too!
And often even struggle to recognise our own qualities!
Maybe when we eat too much or to often we end up burning our food so we eat something that does not serve us? Historically I never could eat before the late afternoon as eating early made me feel sick.
‘Perhaps I am so deeply loved and supported that I am being shown my worth has nothing to do with what I do and everything to do with the way I respond to what life presents.’ Beautiful Leonne, and so true.
Thanks, Leonne. I love how you chose to bring understanding rather than judgement of yourself. Just this simple choice can turn things around.
‘Bring some understanding to yourself – you are a deeply sensitive, tender being.’ That’s where appreciation of our qualities start, an understanding of who we are by being in connection with the body, our precious and wise body.
Appreciation sure is our birth right and blows any negative or doubting thought right out of the water. The power of it is huge and it is very infectious the more I appreciate myself and walk with the authority of knowing I am worth every bit of love that I am I also share this with others and appreciate them without even trying – I see their beauty 1st and the words flow.
I find that when I feel in a very loving space with myself, appreciation of both myself and others is perfectly natural and there is no resistance to it. The converse is also true – when I am struggling with myself, in a space of self-denegration perhaps, appreciation is very hard work and more of a ‘show’ rather than anything innate. The difference is in my connection with myself. When I am truly connected to my natural essence, appreciation is the most natural thing in the world. When I am not in that connection, there is in fact no true appreciation being expressed.
I love that you are firstly looking at appreciation as a science, and secondly that each moment gives you the opportunity to engage with it, very cool way of looking at it. I shall have to try it myself.
The way science is generally presented can make it feel quite elitist and therefore most of us feel very distant from it. However in recognising that science is innate in all of us given that we live in physical bodies, that our particles belong to the universe and that we live on a planet in a cluster of other planets in a universe of billions of them and that we are governed by cycles and constellations, we would have to pretty much say that everything can be boiled down to science. How cool to recognise that everything has a reason, a purpose and, is in short, planned; everything is everything!
“worth has nothing to do with what I do and everything to do with the way I respond to what life presents….” This brings a greater definition of the word ‘Appreciation’
Yes, and what we initiate and how we do that initiation.
Even just the fact that we are prepared to look deeper at a ‘slip-up’, needs to be appreciated, because that is not the norm, that is not how many of us are. Many will protect, deny or bury and blindly protect their bubble of life rather than open themselves up to even the possibility that there is more. So, yes Elizabeth, I agree, there is something to appreciate even when we have ‘failed’ – which, by definition and very cutely, immediately stops it being a ‘failure’!
It, literally, blows my mind how things constellate to support us to take the next step on our evolutionary journey. Whilst I can’t ‘understand’ how it all happens, it doesn’t matter, it’s what is felt that is important. I have looked back at a situation and have realised that ‘seemingly’ random things that happened months before were actually all happening for a reason, as a part of a much larger ‘plan’. As someone who loves detail, I find it hard to find the words to express how much I appreciate the way this all happens, there is a Universal flow, constantly inviting us back to being the love that we are – how exquisite is that ….
Alison, the joy and wonder you are feeling is gorgeous. When we realise how deeply taken care of we are and how everything that happens, happens at the right moment for us to learn or deepen our awareness is really cool!
Yes I can feel your wonder at the awe of the plan that we are working within. There is so much more going on than we choose to be aware of.
I love this too Alison, and was pondering on the very same thing just yesterday. When we are open and ‘surrendered’ to what life has to offer/show us, and we are willing to simply say yes, it is astounding how everything flows in the most natural way. There is so much to appreciate on so many levels.
‘When I speak to people I find it easy to tell them how much I appreciate them, the way they light up my life and what they bring to the world, – I do it often.’ – I love feeling how openly you are able to share the love you feel for those around you.
Gorgeous blog Leonne, I have read this many times and I love it. I am learning to connect to myself and to appreciate every moment is an opportunity to appreciate some more.
Life is constantly reflecting back to us lessons we can learn from and especially when they are uncomfortable we know it is a big thing we need to let go of. Appreciating life as a series of lessons helps us to feel more supported instead of going through life as a victim.
I agree Carmel. When we are ‘at school’, we are not expected to get it right all the time. It is a space for us to learn. In this ‘school’ we are given the space to learn about who we are and when we appreciate this, there is a deeper purpose that supports our everyday experience.
I agree Carmel well said. We are to learn and so when things gets overwhelming or intense if we can bring some appreciation in it seems to lift and we get to see things much more clearly and as you say no longer go around walking as the victim.
To be full of appreciation for ourselves, as divine beings, asks us us to let go of our little lives, the individual will no longer reign, this is why I resist full appreciation, I make it about myself and not the bigger plan. A habit of thinking about self before the All, it is something that ‘I’ am working on….Appreciation is a big one, it literally changes lives, our own and others when we live it.
Self appreciation is such a divine way to confirm ourselves and where we are from.
So very true that the power of appreciation is a moment to moment opportunity for us to deepen our relationship with knowing all that we are and are here to live. And to realise just how held, loved and interconnected with God and the universe we are, in order for us to bring all that we are to life.
Self appreciation feeds us back so much more than loving words, it confirms us as that absolute love and adds to our foundational love bank, and of course the obvious, our nadis love it.
“Perhaps I am so deeply loved and supported that I am being shown my worth has nothing to do with what I do and everything to do with the way I respond to what life presents.” Oh my this is beautiful Leonne, I am going to write your quote out an put it somewhere I can see it.
‘Perhaps I am so deeply loved and supported that I am being shown my worth has nothing to do with what I do and everything to do with the way I respond to what life presents.’ What you are sharing here is such a world away from how most of us experience life, which is to say we are in constant reaction to it. To learn to embrace it all and to see the value in each situation as it arises is a much more evolved way to live.
“Perhaps I am so deeply loved and supported that I am being shown my worth has nothing to do with what I do and everything to do with the way I respond to what life presents.” Beautiful! It’s not what we do it’s the way we respond. How beautifully refreshing to read these words.
When I read this part, it reminds me how much we are all constantly being supported and loved by God.
Is it self-appreciation we baulk at or is it our power itself? We know that if we did appreciate ourselves, not for anything superficial or for our actions and good deeds of a particular day, but for the qualities we innately bring, for the essence of who we are – that these qualities, our essence would magnify and be expressed more and more in all of our movements throughout the day. And this has an impact. It is noticed, clocked and felt. And with this, our own awareness expands – of how much this reflection is needed, of how little appreciation of the truth of our essence is actually in amongst humanity at this point. We realise we have an important role to play, and it doesn’t involve time-out in the corner!
I know for me, that’s the key – it’s accepting this role I am here to play fully. Not appreciating is a get-out clause to stay here and there in that corner…
So true, thank you for this Katerina, those corners can feel safe and easy places to hide and we can fool ourselves that we are comfortable there and everything is all right when in truth we know that we are avoiding the glory that is when we allow ourselves to express in full.
‘I know for me, that’s the key – it’s accepting this role I am here to play fully.’ And how play-full it becomes when we play fully this important role we have to play.
So true Katerina… lack of self-appreciation is an avoidance of our power. Each one of us has the same innate qualities and therefore we are equally powerful. To stand fully in our true power is to stand out in todays society… however that reflection is desperately needed in the world.
Leonne, I love the way in which you’ve written this. You really offer the reader some things to reflect on.
it is lovely to position this as a science – something we might not naturally associate it with and yet it is, in fact, a science – a communication and experiment with the body that is so expansive and an ongoing journey.
This is lovely, if we take appreciation to be a science, then it is something that can be continuously explored in an ongoing relationship and communication with the cycles of life.
The world is full of such fake appreciation. I see it everywhere. People being nice to each other, to their face, but I know and can feel that it is utterly empty and very often totally the opposite to what they actually feel. It’s everywhere and we feel it. We feel the energetic punches and barbed hooks of these fake compliments and praise. So, is it any wonder that we are a little tentative when it comes to self-appreciation? Thus we need to appreciate that, appreciate where we have come from and what is all around us and appreciate that it is a re-learning that will take time.
True appreciation has none of the buffing up of oneself or nice comments made. Nice comments may be a by product, but appreciation is something much deeper – it is feeling a quality and choosing to be with that.
I like the example you offer about how you respond to leaving lunch in the oven much longer than you prefer – will it be judgment and self bashing or will it be simply observing if there is something to be learned from the experience. Not only does the state of appreciation stop us poisoning ourselves with our reactions, it helps us stay open to opportunities to build our awareness.
I was part of a yoga and connective tissue course last night and I loved hearing the instructor speak about appreciating the lengthening of our spine and realized it was something that I would never even consider appreciating. It made me realize there is literally always something to appreciate.
And imagine how your spine would have felt?! It’s kept you upright for forty? years. It’s lifted, bent, danced, run, twisted and turned for you for all those years. Quietly and steadily and amazingly holding you together, whilst at the same time being a fortress of protection for your spinal cord – the cable of communication that makes the whole of your body function. It is the most awesome and amazing and incredible piece of magic in your body and all of this it has done for you, without ever being truly appreciated. But now, you have connected and appreciated it….I reckon it’s gonna show you a whole other level of amazing?! Because in truth, we are only really seeing a tiny percent of what our bodies offer….start appreciating and connecting and the whole thing expands.
This blog has bought on an appreciation party that everyone is invited to!!
I agree with this point Leonne “Perhaps I am so deeply loved and supported that I am being shown my worth has nothing to do with what I do and everything to do with the way I respond to what life presents.” and its one that sends tingles through my body as I connect to the love that I am too held in and by,
‘Perhaps I am so deeply loved and supported that I am being shown my worth has nothing to do with what I do and everything to do with the way I respond to what life presents.’ – this is so gorgeous, Leonne, to feel your appreciation of all that is around you, supporting you to be the amazing woman you are. There is so much support there for us all, but it’s up to us to let go and allow ourselves to feel it.
The more I appreciate myself the less room there is to judge myself as right or wrong.
“Bring some understanding to yourself” What tender, loving advice to keep at hand in our pocket for when self judgement creeps in.
Yes, jealousy from others and even from parents can be crushing for a young person and a good reason to dull our light, however it is ultimately our choice to abandon our natural radiance and exuberance to fit in as you say, Leonne.
I feel we would be surprised at how many of us shy away from who we are and the shining lights that we are because of the jealousy we feel from others.
Every moment is a moment to appreciate – just choosing to move through life like this changes everything. Appreciation is incompatible with judgement, so is a great antidote to the tapes in our heads that constantly berate us with what we are not doing. Appreciating ourselves and what we bring certainly highlights our responsibility, but it does not have to be a heavy burden which was how I tended to view it in the past, instead it connects us to the joy of living life as an integral part of the All.
This is so beautiful Leonne and a joy to read and feel the appreciation for ourselves simply being who we are and the loving warmth that flows throughout my body from allowing this appreciation to be confirmed.
Reading your opening line Leonne got me wondering on why I delay in appreciation, holding it back for special occasions when in fact appreciation should be something we do throughout the day whether we are appreciating the amazingness of who we are or the amazingness of another. Appreciation is the key to so many of our issues because we don’t stop to appreciate nearly enough.
After reading your blog Leonne, I found myself appreciating me and others more and more because you’ve reminded me that every moment is an opportunity for a deeper level of appreciation and how magical and healing this is.
It’s inspiring to read how you appreciate the things that didn’t work out, i.e your lunch in the oven too long, and how you read into what this was showing you. I can see how this opens us up to seeing what each experience offers, what we can learn about oursleves from it with no judgement.
Know yourself and appreciation is a deepening of yourself, don´t know your true self and appreciation can be an approach towards yourself or when misunderstood and thus misused not more than make-up to make up for the lack of self.
“As a child, I did not understand that the shunning, withdrawal, harsh words, bullying and taunting were actually symptoms of jealousy.” This needs to go in some kind of ‘Manual for Life’ for kiddies to enable them to hold their bright light and joy in the face of this energy that seeks to diminish the amazing love they are.
Those judgemental thoughts can creep in with me sometimes but I am learning to change my movements when they do. First I’m learning to be honest and nominate when I have gone into judgement and then from that moment I begin to appreciate. I appreciate the awareness and in that understanding. Most of all I appreciate I am not perfect and will never be and that I will always be a forever student.
Beautiful Leonne; ‘Yes – I see it now: every moment is an opportunity to engage with the science of appreciation.’ I will take this into my day, it feels great for appreciation to be the focus, thus not allowing negative self talk any room to enter.
There are now thousands of people who can appreciate Serge Benhayon, Universal Medicine and what he offers to humanity, which is a simple way of living that unites us all back to our soul. History is packed full of information about soul and spirit, however Serge Benhayon has a way of presenting on this subject and more, that makes total sense to our bodies. Using our whole body to experience life is far more rewarding than just using our minds. Unfortunately we have compartmentalized our bodies to our detriment.
By feeling and appreciating ourselves, the world becomes a smaller place and brings us all closer to each other.
Appreciation is huge, because it’s not what we did but what we did with what we did that counts.
We are all constantly choosing what to fill each moment with and our choices determine the life that we then experience, it’s really very simple, if we want to experience something different then we have to make different choices. But, buyer beware, making different choices from the same energetic ‘gene pool’ won’t bring a different experience, it will only bring more of the same, loosely disguised as something else.
“So today I have another opportunity to claim myself back.” Its funny how we generally think that if we lose track of where we are, it will take us a long time to get back on a straight path. Whereas infact all we have to do is make a different choice, and we can come back in a moment – its really very simple. Our lives are only as complicated as we choose to make them.
We can deliberately choose to make life complicated by where we put our energy, or equally let go of that control and manipulation and allow instead a flow and simplicity that is not exhausting us.
Judgemental thoughts – I get a lot of those but when I make the effort to look with appreciation at anyone or any situation, judgement becomes impossible in that moment. It is such a sickly energy and serves no-one except to create a distracting drama. Appreciation is inspiring whether or not it is expressed out loud.
Appreciation is the cornerstone and foundation for further development and expansion; without appreciation we have nothing to fall back onto when the going gets a little tougher.
What an awesome way to look at it ‘every moment is an opportunity to engage with the science of appreciation.’ There is always something to appreciate and choosing to commit to this activity then builds a bank of appreciation that is ever expanding.
I realised recently that there is so much to appreciate in the little details of the things that I do for myself. These things have become part of my everyday rhythm, so much so that they have become my normal and therefore I don’t really think about them. It’s a great exercise and practice to stop and appreciate the little things as I do them. It gives me a warm cozy feeling, and it means I am less in automatic.
That extra level of awareness where we read what’s beneath another’s behaviour can be so supportive. I reinterpreted many reactions/responses to me as being my fault and doing so that somehow I was defective and deserved it. Many years ago I remember reading about how children tend to interpret behaviours around them in this way so they could say, ‘if only I changed some aspect about myself then the other person wouldn’t do what they do.’ It said if they made themselves the problem then the world wasn’t so out of control if the main carers were off. I can really relate to this technique because growing up it used to feel chaotic, anything goes or could happen. However, reading this article and reflecting on growing up, the truth of what is truly at play in life for people actually brings far greater acceptance and love for all parties. When I don’t live the lie that I’m defective I can bring true appreciation of myself and others.
This holding back from reading what is truly going on creates hurts and is no protection at all. I know I have bought the conceit that not reading a situation in full is better than feeling the truth, the belief that the truth hurts and I cannot handle it. There is a loving understanding to truth, yes they may be people who are in positions where they are meant to care for you (as parents for example) but are acting unlovingly when they are feeling insecure.
Leonne, I’m glad you have bought this up; ‘As a child, I did not understand that the shunning, withdrawal, harsh words, bullying and taunting were actually symptoms of jealousy.’ I see this a lot with children – those who have a natural confidence and adore themselves, being told that they are ‘big headed’ and others trying to put them down, if children knew there wasn’t anything wrong with them, that it was jealousy from others, this could help stop the crushing that happens to children who naturally adore themselves and are naturally confident.
Equally, It would be super supportive for children to understand what jealousy is, what causes us to feel jealous, how it feels in the body, how it affects us and the affect on the other person.
We would seem to be more versed or comfortable in critique than appreciation at this point. We can see where the critique leads us and how it turns out while appreciation puts us down a different track with a complete view of life. What ever your thoughts you can’t deny the living fact of what appreciation brings and with more and more people walking this part we may see a shift in how life is viewed.
Once we start looking at this can of worms it really is quite shocking to realise how the vast majority of us worry about sharing what we truly feel and then rather than go for it, we hold it all back. It really is no wonder that society is so sick and dysfunctional.
You show that every moment can be appreciated, it is just a matter of how we look at it.
A day without appreciation is like not wanting to see and confirm the beauty that is always there.
Beautifully expressed Monika and I absolutely agree. And, a day without appreciation feels like a struggle and heavy. I much prefer a light and playful day full of appreciation, but I tend to forget and switch back to my old habits of function, drive and disconnection. The beauty is, reading comments and blogs like this supports me every time. Such powerful expressions here on this site and they are always amazingly supportive.
“There is a reason you are choosing to have an issue with appreciation.” – I really like that you put your finger on the issue, it makes me stop in my tracks of ‘yes, somehow looking at an issue’ but not really going there. Just in the stop I can already feel the answer because it is just the tendency to avoid it that keeps me from facing it.
The appreciation we have for ourselves, or lack thereof is a product of our how we maximise the moments of the day to be present with who we truly are.
Taking self-reflection with such lightness and understanding, void of judgement or ideals to live up to, is a truly joyous thing to do and is in itself a very appreciative approach to oneself as a student of life.
Self-appreciation isn’t a serious thing, although I for one have tried to make it so at times!
I love … and appreciate… the fact that you call Appreciation a ‘science’… as once we start becoming aware of this ‘substance’, it is like it was always there under our nose just waiting to be discovered, and when we take notice,,,, life goes from black and white into full bloom of colour… This transformation from one state to another, like ingredients in a chemical equation, awareness and appreciation have on-going results that has the potential to keep producing more and more appreciation… a renewable source of quality…. now thats science!
It is so worth valuing the quality in the way we do things and appreciating the ripple effect of this because then as you say it helps us to connect with the importance of what we each bring to the world.
Yes, connecting to our innate qualities and moving with presence in everything we do brings so much more purpose and value To life — and if we move without the awareness of this inner connection, it is just a temporal tick box lacking the depth of who we truly are- the grander multi-dimensional being.
Exactly what I needed to read in this moment, lots to do and I feel I cannot make it all. The judgements are already there in my head but yes, there are things to look at, I could have done it differently but more important and true is to value what I bring and appreciate my quality in whatever comes along.
Yep to even appreciate what we could have done differently as we learn from this.
Love this – that it is not about what we do but about how we respond to what life presents. Wow there is such opportunity here to bring more love, more understanding, more appreciation to all that we are.
I have avoided appreciating myself for a long time, it is like I am afraid that if I say something good about myself, I will curse myself and that good thing won’t be there because I will jinx it. It sounds so weird I know but if I say I love how clear my face is and that I never get pimples, sure enough, the next week, a pimple will appear. The other day I was saying how I haven’t been sick in like 3 years and then two days later, I could feel a cough coming on, it passed and I was relived and it gave me some restored hope that the curse may just be in my head. Realising that I am not going to combust if I say appreciate myself is a myth that I am slowly working through.
haha Yes Sarah, I’ve done the exact same thing. With my clear face but also with how my life is going in general. What i’ve found is that not appreciating actually leads to me letting go of my rhythms and movements that support me, completing the self-fulfilling prophecy. When I do appreciate I have the opportunity to build on what i’ve already got.
‘In fact, I can see I am afraid of what will happen when I let the world know just how much I value myself’ – this line really rang some bells, as I have some vivid memories of feeling amazing as a young child and not getting a favourable reception. Don’t we then go on to hide our light due to that rejection?
Thank you very much for your blog Leonne – i really appreciate it and you, and myself as well of course!
Its absolutely the mind that tells us it is all too hard, because when you surrender to your body and being present with it with no thoughts, something that could potentially be a major thing, is beautifully supported by that love that we hold ourselves in, and then just seems easy to move through.
It is indeed amazing how the universe is laying out this path for us to learn and dis-cover. Just this morning in a chat with a wise woman I realised that my lack of appreciation is mostly through how I fear people will react to me being awesome and successful. reading this blog today is giving me an opportunity to look at it from a slightly different angle and brings in the playful approach.
I love the playfulness of your bog as the only way to find out what is truly going on for us is from a natural, playful curiosity and never can truth be found from a harsh or judgemental place.
I love your line about how we shouldn’t be measuring ourselves on what we DO in life but instead can focus our attention on how we RESPOND to what’s shown to us and presented. A day can never be purpose-less or wasteful.
Hi Leonne. . . Oh how I love this blog . . . I am clapping my hands and smiling . . . and still strangely enough finding ways to avoid appreciating myself . . . oh its gone. . . the blog blew the lack of appreciation out of the window! Thank you for your honesty, your joy and your great sense of humour. These qualities are always appreciated.
Yes, it is the lightheartedness that simply lets you bounce when reading Leonne’s words.
“every moment is an opportunity to engage with the science of appreciation.” a beautiful point Leonne, moment by moment appreciation.
“Perhaps I am so deeply loved and supported that I am being shown my worth has nothing to do with what I do and everything to do with the way I respond to what life presents” – what a gorgeous understanding of appreciation Leonne, it’s not the act ‘good or bad’, but the quality in which we deal with the act that allows a space for appreciation.
We haven’t grown up with appreciation and self-apprecation being the norm and it can feel unnatural when we begin, but the benefits are enormous and well worth doing. The foundation this builds for living life is extraordinary when we compare it to how we live within ourselves without it.
Absolutely Leone, I know when I let something catch or burn while I’m cooking that I need to look at the way I am when cooking – for example I might try to ‘squeeze in’ an extra little job – It really doesn’t work!
Yes, we like to avoid and delay by thinking that its all too hard, when in reality it is really very simple – especially when we take one moment at a time.
Yes when we literally get ‘ahead’ of ourselves we lose connection and become more separated and isolated even if we think we are not.
The amount we criticise and bash ourselves is crazy, I was thinking this morning – you’d never catch a cheetah or a lion criticising themselves for not catching an impala – they simply go on to try and catch another one. Yet as humans we’ve made the process of self bashing and being immensely critical on ourselves normal. This process also negates the fact that life is about energy and the outcome of our choices is simply an outcome of the energy we choose, not a result of being a bad or rubbish human being.
Appreciation brings a feeling of loveliness to our body and to our day, as it is beautiful to experience.
‘Perhaps I am so deeply loved and supported that I am being shown my worth has nothing to do with what I do and everything to do with the way I respond to what life presents.’ This is really beautiful, Leonne. If we accept that our worth is nothing to do with what we do, we can surrender to who we are and the joy of what we are a part of.
There is a gorgeous simplicity in appreciation that is enabling me to really see that when I make life complicated and hard, I have just stepped away from treasuring and enjoying all that I do have in my life. Appreciation stops us from taking things for granted.
Yes I agree that the honesty and transparency in this blog is super refreshing and very inspiring.
Any opportunity to learn and evolve has to involve an expansion of the moment, so even a ‘mistake’ is an opportunity to evolve. Hence, in truth, if one perceives a ‘mistake’ in this way then there is no such thing as a mistake.
Leonne, I love how you appreciated what your lunch situation had to offer you and what you had already sensed about what you were cooking rather than the self bashing that it was over cooked. It’s inspiring to look at life this way and the opportunity to feel what is truly there from situations such as this.
“every moment is an opportunity to engage with the science of appreciation.” … I like that Leonne… science of appreciation. Appreciation is the antidote to negativity and comparison and all that follows on from these two reactions, yet I don’t ever remember it being taught to me at home or at school, not in its true meaning anyway. Imagine if we had a subject at school called The Science of Appreciation…now that would change the world, as we all learn to appreciate ourselves and others not for what we do but for who we are.
I absolutely agree with your bodies understanding of what is playing out with the lack of appreciation, and the deeper desire to fit in. I find this to be a very pernicious energy that has me wrapped up in knots a lot of the time. It feels embarrassing to admit to as a 40+ year old! To care or want to fit in with the crowd but the way I have come to understand this need to be part of the crowd is there is safety there, no one is going to kick you out or persecute you if you are one of the crowd. You also don’t have to be responsible, I feel that the desire to live becomes all pressing rather than to live truth with the knowing that we never die. I have bought into the physicality of life more than the energetics of life and the universe and in that reducing I will do anything to remain safe and secure. Surrendering to love and light being the make up of the universe is what I feel the next step is for me.
This is a super blog as it shows to me that we are all coming to the same understanding no matter where we live in the world and maybe we have never met. This to me is the science of group work or brotherhood resurrected.
What a beautiful blog! I can definitely relate to what you share here about the mind being right but it feeling hard and cold meaning that the thoughts are not loving or coming from a place of true support.
It’s amazing how something as supportive as truly loving and valuing ourselves is often something crushed or seen as arrogance, selfishness, weird, over confidence, self-absorption. But true value for ourselves is not any of these things, it is a simple but profound steadiness and care for ourselves, something deeply lacking in much of society and something we often crave to be provided to us from the outside
You start the blog with the appreciation of all those things around and outside of you… but as you note, the depth of that appreciation is defined by (and limited to) the appreciation of ourselves.
The beauty is that when I am expressing appreciation towards myself I don’t need to tell the world; it can be felt in my every movement.
Yes and there’s no need I have of the world when I appreciate myself and the magic of God around me.
There is always a message in everything we do. How often do we just pick around the crunchy bits and accept less in other areas of our life?
Leonne, I’m glad that you used the word ‘science’ in conjunction with the word ‘appreciation’ because there is a science to appreciation. Life is governed by science, the vast majority of which has yet to be rediscovered and then proven but looking at what we have, so far rediscovered and proven, we’re not that far out of the dark ages.
Growing up appreciation had connotations of being full of yourself or thinking you’re all that, so much has come up when first starting to appreciate myself again. Coming back to appreciation can change any situation from one of tension and conflict to understanding and awareness.
I love your comment about lunch burning – I left my slow roast lamb on the high setting by mistake the other day – only remembered three hours later just before I returned home. I had an anxious 20 minutes worrying about it till I got there but all was well – yes it was a bit hard round the edges, but inside it was still fine, just not so juicy as normal. I couldn’t do anything about it till I got home but it amazed me how much energy I wasted worrying about it when the previous three hours I had forgotten it altogether. Anxiousness is all in the mind, my body would have known it was ok because I’d have felt it. And if I’d been truly connected when I left home, I would have remembered to turn it down.
Thank you Leonne, for opening up my world on appreciation, and reminding me that in fact maybe I do not have an appreciation issue at all, maybe I just need to be with each moment and see the gold in it and understand that in the past I (too) have decided to fit in, and in doing so I lost some of my sparkle and now I’m learning to love and appreciate the sparkle again.
No one wins when we self bash. Everyone wins when we appreciate because appreciation doesn’t stop with ourselves, it includes the beauty in everyone and seeing that, and reflecting this beautiful appreciation back to someone is divinity in action.
If we don’t love and embrace ourselves for the beauty we are, it leaves a gap that is filled by things that just aren’t true. You show us Leonne that in the experiment of life the lab results are very clear – we are here to appreciate and cherish ourselves with every move and every step.
Today I am appreciating how open and sweet my expression is. This blog reminds me how important it is to appreciate the truth of me in every moment.
I love the way you have turned on its head that most of us think we are not good at appreciation and self-worth: this is not the case at all. We have actually been ‘choosing’ these as a strategy to avoid feeling other people’s reaction to our amazingness. It is a choice, so we can un-choose it! That is huge.
‘My head wants to jump in with all the answers.’ …. our head is very quick to come up with answers and solutions that it ‘thinks’ we want to hear, or that will, at least, satisfy us, so it can move on to doing what it wants to do, thereby, masterfully avoiding going deeper which is so often a ‘painful’ experience. However, our body will always be pulling us to feel the truth as this is the only way to deal with our issues and move forward.
I read this with three fingers in a bowl as i burnt them on a hot plate. Ouch indeed! Looking back there two moments that i knew something was not right with the hot plate but did not give them my full attention. But now – with burnt fingers – it has my full attention! i went to give myself a hard time, and still am a little but then I went what is the bigger picture here?
And i felt it was showing me that when I don’t listen to the little signs, I get bigger ones until I listen. And often the more bigger ones can be more painful!
That there is the support around me to listen at the early stages, and that I make choices in these moments to do so or not. The lesson for me today is to listen more and stop in those moments to see what is being shared with me and to see what action needs to be taken then, and not later when it has escalated. Even if the lesson hurts a bit today, I appreciate what it showed me.
It is crazy we feel or think this ‘I am afraid of what will happen when I let the world know just how much I value myself.’ That is why it is so important to live our lives not wondering or worrying about what other people think.
This blog has been so timely to read this morning. I have been ‘struggling’ to stay with appreciation – I can feel it easily but not for long – so easily going back into my head, but here there is a pathway to deepen by looking at how we respond rather than react (which is the struggle!) “…every moment is an opportunity to engage with the science of appreciation.” Taking it one moment at a time – no pressure.
I notice how stuck I get when I try to appreciate from my head, it doesn’t seem to flow, feels insincere, and doesn’t feel true or expansive. When I connect and listen to my body, naturally appreciation flows effortlessly, gracefully and beautifully in every way.
Appreciating from our head is like a trick to not go deeper and truly feel the value of ourselves.
I love it Leonne, it is true we can choose to appreciate ourselves or bash ourselves. Unfortunately, we know the self-bashing all too well, so maybe it’s time to try some self-love for a change – after all what have we got to lose.
My worth has nothing to do with my what I do and every thing to do with my essence. That can only be a great thing to realise.
And means there is no need to try to be or do something, we just have to be ourselves in every moment, with every particle of our being.
What a gorgeous lighthearted blog about such an important topic, especially for us women with (often) our lack of self-worth. I had a similar conversation last week with a dear friend about not appreciating myself to the detail and by choosing to not do that not giving myself the platform to grow upon and to be the great and loving light, who so much loves to hold people in love. We are all masters in appreciation, just as much in avoiding what it could bring to us: more responsibility.
‘but the facts feel hollow and hard. My head is not helping.’ yes listen to our body and there is the truth “Bring some understanding to yourself – you are a deeply sensitive, tender being. You don’t have an issue with appreciation and you are not a ‘bad,’ ‘irresponsible’ person.’ the mind takes us off track with it’s chatter but the body stays strong in it’s knowing. Thank you Leonne.
Beautiful Leonne, you inspire me to appreciate myself more deeply, it is very lovely how open you are to appreciate more and keep developing, I have found for me that appreciation of myself is key and then I naturally appreciate others.
“So today I have another opportunity to claim myself back.” – Everyday (every moment even) is an opportunity to be more true to who we really are, to deepen our responsibility and commitment to life and to keep learning and unfolding as we go, regardless of what has gone before…
When I appreciate myself, I confirm who I really am
and the am-ness expands.
until all there is, is am-ness………..
Wonder-full Leonne Barker! I sincerely appreciate the line about leaving your lunch in the oven too long haha 😂 while writing your appreciation blog — pretty funny!
Appreciating another -> cherishing their being -> is a part of the science of appreciation. What’s super-important here is appreciating how you appreciate celebrating another .. and so on …(without getting heady). So I appreciate how … appreciation never ends.
I’m off to turn my oven on .. in appreciation of Leonne Barker and Me Rik Connors 😳💕
Appreciation and celebration are potent building blocks of life, in the true meaning of this word.
Appreciation of ourselves can be really confronting, because we have often built up ideas about ourselves, about who we are and how we are allowed to be in life that won’t bring us the jealousy of others. It gets in the way of letting go and allowing ourselves to just be appreciative of who we really are.
Leonne, I love this point you make “Appreciation is not just our responsibility, it is also our birthright.” What a different way to approach life, as you share though so many of us avoid appreciating the quality we are, and make things about what we do. I know that’s what I’ve done most of my life so today reading your blog is a great reminder of how I am and what I bring.
Appreciation allows us to truly feel the qualities we bring to the world, in this we feel how much the world needs every single one of us to express their true qualities and there is no time to delay!
You are so right, Leonne, the head does not help at all. When we understand that life is to do with the way we respond to what presents to us, this puts a whole different light to it. Then the appreciation is 100% there because we have everything we need.
I love how you turned burning your lunch into an opportunity to look at what possible tweaks were asking to be made, rather than feeling you’d ‘messed up’ …. everything happens for a reason.
Brilliant blog, Leonne, I love how you thought you knew the answer, then felt into your body, where the truth was revealed, and you were lovingly offered a very different answer. It shows how easily we can satisfy ourselves with AN answer, but without a commitment for truth and the loving support of our body, which never lies, it’s not necessarily going to be THE answer.
Perhaps I am so deeply loved and supported that I am being shown my worth has nothing to do with what I do and everything to do with the way I respond to what life presents. I so needed to read this at this very moment Leonne, thanks for the wisdom.
“Perhaps I am so deeply loved and supported that I am being shown my worth has nothing to do with what I do and everything to do with the way I respond to what life presents.” Superb Leonne and shows how much there truly is to appreciate as human beings and not human doings. Thank you.
Love how you asked your body for the truth your mind was saying it did not know. A simple lesson for a simple way to live a true life.
It seems that it is all in how we read or interpret what happens. Thank you Leonne for a fun loving and light -hearted blog and a reminder that I/ we are still that child that could command a room with her innocent purity and freedom of expression, her preciousness.
‘Judgment and self-bashing’ really don’t feel like they bring anything of any true value. My thoughts can argue that one if I let them. But no, I trust what I feel and what I sense, which is self-appreciation is a very loving way to be – not arrogant, but just truly appreciative.
‘Appreciation is not just our responsibility, it is also our birthright.’ It is and yet not so long ago I found it almost impossible to appreciate anything about myself. My focus was so heavily on doing that I completely missed all the amazing qualities I bring. I was completely shut off to what now feels so incredibly natural.
The thing about appreciation is that when we appreciate something we are automatically pulled to what’s next and the expansion of what we have just done. We fight this constant developing and deepening and the knowing that our beholding and quality can keep getting grander and grander.
Yes, Leonne, so many of us contract and stop shining when the world tells us we are shining too brightly, and this is something for us to seriously review, not only in the way we treat one another but why we choose to shut down our amazing fiery essence.
Awesome post Leonne, an enjoyable read to light up my morning : ) .. your expression is wonderfully descriptive, raw and real. “I know that the more I appreciate myself, the more that I will realise how important my contribution to the world is” – so powerful and so true, i feel like printing this out and sticking it on my office note board.. it really has the power to move you.. (deeper) into the depths of appreciation.
I never gave appreciation a thought, let alone look at it as a science so it is just another of the infinite gifts that Serge has opened me up to so I can now appreciate all that I am, all that I have and all that I know will be. And yes I wasn’t expecting the crunchy lunch line.
‘In fact, I can see I am afraid of what will happen when I let the world know just how much I value myself.’ Thank you for sharing this because it highlights in myself why I hold back too from expressing myself in full, being torn down as a child when this used to happen. However, that said I can also feel how comfortable it has been to run with this giving myself an excuse not to shine. In doing this I have absolved myself of my responsibility to reflect something back to others who may benefit. In having had that reflection shown to me by others who have not been afraid to go there I have had direct experience of how powerful it can be to be in the presence of someone who has no such compunction.
“I let myself feel that underneath it all, I don’t have an issue with appreciation at all. In fact, I can see I am afraid of what will happen when I let the world know just how much I value myself.” I imagine this is true for the majority of us Leonne, which is actually quite a sad reflection of our society. Why would we not want to celebrate each other for bringing all that love and joy for others to feel and share in, but prefer to judge, criticise and basically be jealous of because we are too afraid to be that too for the same reasons. Its literally crazy!
I have found that it is in the little moments where something appears to go ‘wrong’, like overcooking your lunch, that we can learn so much. We can either go into reaction and give ourselves a vocal telling off, which is not going to change anything except make us feel worse, or we can stop and appreciate there just might be a valuable lesson waiting to be learned.
‘…my worth has nothing to do with what I do and everything to do with the way I respond to what life presents.’ Now, this is a teaching that needs to be presented in schools worldwide! Imagine if we grew up with a sense of self worth that was fostered on our innate inner wisdom rather than being ‘good’ in chosen subjects and getting high grades?
Leonne I love the playfullness you share with about appreciation. It can be all too easy to make life hard and rigid, yet that is one of the very things appreciation brings in, a sense of awe and wonderment and joy! We all deserve to appreciate ourselves and the more we do the more enjoyable life becomes.
Living life from the perspective that, “every moment is an opportunity to engage with the science of appreciation.” brings ease and a natural flow to life which is joyful and enriching for oneself and others.
“Appreciation is not just our responsibility, it is also our birthright” This is the kind of statement that should be nailed up above the entrances to all our homes, schools and work places, to remind us that when we appreciate our selves and one another, it establishes a positive foundation for everything we do. Appreciation enables us to understand that life is one giant learning curve and although we may make mistakes, (torch our lunch and so on) we still are and always will be wise and wonderful beings.
I have read a huge amount of articles and there are several themes that run through them, for me the most glaring is how we are treated as children. As children we can feel our sensitivity and we can feel the grandness of who we are, its as natural to us as breathing. But over the years this gets crushed, we contract away from who we are to ‘fit in’ with the rest of society. So how important is it that instead of crushing children we support them to connect deeply to their sensitivity and encourage them to just be all of what they feel. I have met some children who are being given this support and they are the most delightful and naturally intelligent children; so it is possible.
When we appreciate ourselves it invites us to appreciate everyone and everything around us.
Self-appreciation is the cornerstone of our foundation to stand upon to express to the world our light.
If we do not appreciate ourselves, we will never be able to appreciate life for what it has on offer for us. Life that is designed to lead us back to our natural state of being we all have that remembering of, but think we do not know how to return to.
‘I start remembering my childhood and the confidence I had; the way I could command a room and feel how deeply precious I was’. Something happens in life that takes this away without us realising it’s even happening. Beautiful to know you’ve now re-claimed yourself.
Tender, open blog Leonne and as lovely as you are. Finding our way back to self appreciation is a walk back to freedom and the fullness we’ve always had deep within us.
Gorgeously written Leonne. Appreciation is so underrated while self-deprecation is championed as the norm, especially in Australia where we have the ‘tall poppy syndrome’, which is nothing more than a group agreement to live less than the everything we are.
Perhaps if more people would “leave their lunch in the oven too long” without bashing themselves, our world would look differently. Perhaps we would have more joy and ease and less stress and anger. And perhaps more people would be less ill and the illness and disease rates would be sinking and not raising. Appreciation is so important – it is time to “wear it as our new black”.
It certainly is Leonne. How we relate to Life is how we relate to ourselves. Whether we are solid or not. And appreciation is the science to bring solidity and with that we have all the tools needed to just be ourselves.
I love how you turned overcooking your lunch into an opportunity to appreciate what you are being shown – this simple example from life says it all – and shows how we can be oh so lightly playful with ourselves …..
Inspiring Leonne! Thank you for your honest approach to appreciation. In a way learning or re-learning to appreciate tells me that I am living far from the grandness that I am and only through appreciation can I walk back into the fullness that awaits me and in fact is here within me always… life is an oxymoron really – we already have what we want and need to fully express our glory and I can feel that I don’t access this understanding and knowing. Appreciation therefore is the first step to me recognising that I am already enough, already the everything, is it not?
I can agree with you Bernadette, I also start to recognise that actually through appreciation we can open the doors to the grandness we already are, but too to the grace life brings to us in providing us, in loving repetition, the opportunity to evolve back to that grandness we already are but which we are only able to access if we can appreciate life as such.
Without appreciating ourselves we do not realise our part in what we are here to bring to others.
“My worth has nothing to do with what I do and everything to do with the way I respond to what life presents” – this is beautiful, Leonne. I have been noticing how I am actually finding it hard to accept and appreciate myself and how that lack of appreciation was affecting my relationship with the world and its people, and I can totally get how the head brings in the rationale of why that is so and creating an issue out of it. It is a bit like freezing a moment in a frame as if there’s no before or after and dissociating it from where it came from and where it is going, a bit like taking words out of context and presenting it as if that was the whole truth. But the thing is nothing is ever standing still. We are constantly moving, the whole thing is.
Through appreciation we are able to let more love out and more love in. The more I appreciate the less there is to react to, have issue with or judge and it confirms my foundation and supports what’s next.
“Perhaps I am so deeply loved and supported that I am being shown my worth has nothing to do with what I do and everything to do with the way I respond to what life presents.” This is gorgeous Leonne. A perfect reminder that it is who we are and how we engage in life that really matters.
So beautiful Leonne, I appreciate the wonderful way you unpack this topic like a present. The way unloving thoughts and criticism try to come in is something many of us will be able to relate to as well. I love the way you trace it back to how other people react. But the truth is, being awesome is what we are here to do and certainly that is what you inspire me to do.
I agree, Joseph, Leonne is super inspiring in being awesome and she makes it fun, really practical and easy.
The science of appreciation is a huge topic with so much depth for all of us to go to. In appreciation I say thank you Leonne.
Leonne I have never met you but so so appreciate you – loved the line about the oven! Love your permission to be you and there are no rules!!! only love to be impulsed by. Very inspired because I’ve let myself be afraid of being judged as ‘weird’ because that’s what one boy said to me 30 years ago at school when I was desperately wanting to belong to the world and feel I had a place. I too felt the jealousy of being young and very confident in what I knew to be true. And then I choose to feel hurt because I didn’t read the jealousy was from their choices of not honouring and appreciating themselves. Now I’ve got everyday a choice to be me and shine, which maybe considered ‘weird’ by some but from what I feel, it brings lovely connections with anyone who’s willing to connect and is great fun.
I love the line about leaving your lunch in the oven too long. It made me smile because no matter what is happening in our day we can always appreciate ourselves within in because we do not need to be affected by the outside world when we cherish our inner world.
Thank you Leonne, a blog that reaches my heart simply because it is so true & loving and recognizable. All that is shared is for us, me, to live and go beyond what is seemingly ‘limited’ (by its so called view).
Love how your share so openly your experiences and learn so much every time, you’re also very sweet and lovely.
To appreciate all we are is the way we get to bring so much more consistency in our life. So as we have a moment that we connect deeply and feel our essence this is a time that we can appreciate and then hold that appreciation until the next point in time where we have another moment that full-fills our being and then we have more to appreciate until the next and so on. Is it possible that we could live in the appreciation that is holding us between glorious moments, and then we can humbly live this in pure Joy of our own evolution?
I like what you present about how appreciation is a way to move in the responsibility of what we are here to bring, that we all have a greater responsibility to each other and when we appreciate ourselves we connect to this and bring more of it out.
The moment we stop and appreciate all that we are and the all there is, is the moment the next part of the plan reveals itself unto us. Thus, our ‘lack of appreciation’ is simply the brakes we apply when we feel we are not ready for the expansion on offer.
Great subject and great article. We are far too hard on ourselves and others. When you take a moment to truly see, there is much to be appreciated, and in that your view of what is there expands. How we are, our quality at every point of life is the key, and in that, if we are moving around critical of every step then that is what will be waiting for us at every turn. Move the view around by seeing appreciation as a moving part of life and not just a word that you touch in with every now and then, it’s a great and timely reminder.
Leonne this is totally gorgeous, your tenderness and love you offer yourself is felt in every word. Appreciation is the foundation upon which we build, accept and honor the next offering we hold within for humanity.
If appreciation was part of every moment, then every moment would be free to expand.
It is only by clearly recognising the value in something or someone that we are able to truly appreciate it, therefore if we’re not able to appreciate ourselves it simply means that we can’t see ourselves clearly enough.
With the act of appreciation we activate life, without it life remains dormant.
I love the part where this blog looks at the jealousy that comes towards someone living in Appreciation – I still react and get effected sometimes. I am learning that the more I deeply appreciate myself the less I am effected by the odd person who is having a hard time with my brilliant reflection and to not take it personally – all the more reason why I need to stay appreciating my sensitivity and my presence, and the responsability I hold in sharing this way of being with others.
It’s great to recognise if we’re having judgemental thoughts about ourself (or another) no matter how subtle or familiar they may be, because I agree as you say, they are crushing and just lead to us stagnating in something rather than learning from it…
“My head is not helping” – totally and I am not sure it ever really has? My head, your head, all of our heads. It only ever really helps when it is inline with the body and considers it as a whole not as a separate part. And i type this as my poor stomach feels a bit off after my head decided to eat more than my body wanted.
I agree we do not have an issue with appreciation per se but with the reactions that can come when we are choosing to appreciate and value ourselves. In a world where the silent language says to play small it is no wonder that playing big gets attacked, yet we can work on it when we know we don’t have an issue with appreciation itself but with being ‘attacked’ or reacted to in a negative way.
We can still be in appreciation of ourselves, even when we make a mistake. Its specially important during this time and in fact a foundation of appreciation prevents us from going into the energy that we think we are a failure because we have made a mistake. Appreciation is true medicine, not only for ourselves but for others, so that they can see that we can be another way with ourselves.
Dismiss and delay come to me when I ask the same question Leonne, about why I avoid appreciation. But it is so empowering to dismiss those thoughts and shine our value of ourselves out to the world.
I love the playfulness in your writing Leonne. So curious and compassionate towards yourself. Something to appreciate right there!
Always a joy to read your words Leonne. You make me smile every time.
I second that Esther, reading Leonne’s blogs is a true joy.
I find if there is a picture, ideal or belief about how I’m supposed to be and I’m not that then the self criticism can come in, as opposed to being appreciative of myself. Appreciation is definitely unconditional.
Yes, love your comment Melinda. And boy have I felt how hard the self-criticism can kick in. This week, in my mid-forties, whilst feeling pretty rough with a heavy cold, job changes I’m initially not so keen on, other uncertainties, I’m judging myself against not achieving and leaving a fair few major tick boxes blank because I focused on getting recognition through activities that I had to give up because they were so false. Last night, after great upset, I let all of this go. I could feel, yes I’ve poured self-loathing into my body and can feel this poison, yes I still struggle with aspects of life, but I truly feel the importance of life is the quality I live it in.
And this is about appreciating me for me, not anything I do, any certificate I gain, but seeing I belong exactly where I am because all that surrounds me is not me; yes, it’s a reflection to learn from but it’s not a personal criticism of me being defective!!! So I don’t have to move back to somewhere familiar because I have a yearning for home. I don’t have to keep seeking for my place in the world. I am with me anywhere I am and I can bring me to wherever I am. There is no heavenly moment when the clouds part and I’ve achieved any amount of picture ticking achievements. Letting this go is amazing. I can just breathe, be me and appreciate whatever is before me to respond to without a right or wrong attached.
Wow Leonne, thank you so much for this amazing, amazing blog. I too got caught up in my head around appreciation and I had similar experiences and thoughts as you. I love your entire blog and want to highlight this part ‘Yes – I see it now: every moment is an opportunity to engage with the science of appreciation.’ it is absolute gold. When I engage with the science of appreciation in every moment, it leaves no space for frustration, resentment, sadness, regret, judgement, jealousy and the list goes on, because the gift of appreciation is a reminder that we are all already divine, and we are here to learn in life and to learn from each other.
‘As a child, I did not understand that the shunning, withdrawal, harsh words, bullying and taunting were actually symptoms of jealousy.’ Perhaps if we understood more clearly the reactions of others, when we are truly our-full-selves, would this support us to stay full? Would we stop diminishing ourselves so that others would feel more comfortable being lesser also?
Appreciation certainly does take a new form when we take it beyond what we do and start to feel and appreciate the qualities behind it. Life is never perfect but that does not have to change our quality, what we bring to it and our state of being with ourselves and with others.
Acting like the amazing things that happen in our life are no big deal and they just happen for no good reason is a way of avoiding appreciation of what we bring.
It is indeed interesting how much you stick out if you truly appreciate yourself and especially when you talk about it. ( Although movements in appreciation gets communicated all the time also) I can see people are often irritated and because they don´t live any kind of appreciation in their life, they try to put the way I express in a box they know. If they react it might be: how much is she up herself, arrogant, self-centred etc….
Not getting affected by reactions from others is the only way forward for me. Because if we don´t start to reflect something different, who will?
Appreciation is actually giving yourself a birthdaypresent every moment you do it. Birthday gifts are in common sense something beautiful, so why do we not do it more often?
Because appreciation leads to expansion and the world is purposely set up to pounce on anything that expands.
Reading this is making me wonder about current avoidance behaviours (avoiding accepting that I am adored, supported and loved from many angles) ….is there an avoidance of jealousy at play? Hmmm…thank you Leonne.
I too have much to appreciate in my own life and find it easy to appreciate others. But I ask myself how much more could I appreciate others if I appreciated myself more deeply too.
That’s a great question sueq2012. The more we embody a way that is in deep self-appreciation it must naturally bubble up and out so that we are more of that with others too. Appreciation is such an important value.
” Appreciation is not just our responsibility, it is also our birthright. ” Love this line Leonne. When we deeply appreciate ourselves it gives others the opportunity to do the same for themselves.
A girl who loves herself can be described derivatively as ‘Up herself’ and we are encouraged to put ourselves down because nobody likes a successful woman if it makes them feel less. We go into comparison and, as Leonne described, the jealousy kicks in. What all women need to do is firstly appreciate themselves, then appreciate every single woman they know and then appreciate every single man. That would stop all the wars, murders, genocides and every other atrocity going on in the world. Appreciation is a huge science.
I love the insight here that it isn’t the appreciation we actually have a problem with but they way the world can react to a person standing in deep appreciation of themselves.
Brilliant Eleanor, very wise and true expression. I now understand why I at times struggle with appreciation. And, I understand that at any moment I disconnect to the science of appreciation, I am crushing the expansion and love that is available in each moment and this is where issues and drama is created.
Ah, yes. ‘In fact, I can see I am afraid of what will happen when I let the world know just how much I value myself.’ How confusing it was for me as a child to show how much I valued myself! No one around me valued me let alone themselves and I was made to feel like a thorn in their sides. And so I let the beautiful being I am wilt and fade into oblivion. It has taken years to peel back the layers of what, at the time, I saw as protection but were actually prison walls being put up. I am in the process of unfolding and re-embracing the beauty of who I truly am and in doing so, I am starting to come up smelling of roses 🙂
Leonne, I am appreciating this gorgeous blog (I can relate to the past critique and judgments) and deeply in appreciation of the reflection offered by you – now ‘the woman discovering how wonderful she really is’ – (nowadays I can relate with this too). What a powerful journey of re-awakening to truth that we are all collectively sharing together.
“Yes – I see it now: every moment is an opportunity to engage with the science of appreciation”.
I watched a presentation where appreciation was tangibly defined so simply, by the presenter demonstrating that even something as small as remembering to pick something up as you’re leaving the house can be appreciated. It really blew apart a lot of ideas I had about what appreciation was, how to do it and how often! I basically thought it was sitting down and looking back at my day at all the amazing stand-out moments and going “wow you’re great”. This new method however has given me the tools to appreciate consistently throughout my day, taking into account all the small steps that lead towards those big “whoopee” moments.
I thought the exact same that it was a sit and reflect activity but I too am learning it’s far greater.
If I see myself as divine before human, a vessel for God’s expression to come in human form, appreciation is foundational, a no brainer, something that simply is – because how can you not be in absolute awe, let alone appreciation, of Divinity? It is when I see myself as less than this, not worthy of it or part of it, that I’ll go down a self-critique spiral – a convenient game to banish myself further from being in the glory of who I am.
“Perhaps I am so deeply loved and supported that I am being shown my worth has nothing to do with what I do” I know I cut your sentence short here Leone but I just love the ring of this, and being loved and supported the way we all are is something to know and very much appreciate – for all that it reflects to us.
Do we wait for huge ‘YESSS’ moments like getting a job or into a placement/university to appreciate our life, relationships or quality of work, or can we see that the true magic is in our conversations and way we walk, talk and even sleep… The moments we associate with being ‘WOW’ moments are just a confirmation of all of these things, and can’t happen without this appreciation!
Beautiful blog Leonne. I love how you have hit the nail on the head so beautifully here: ” I know that the more I appreciate myself, the more that I will realise how important my contribution to the world is”. It has taken me quite a few burnt lunches to appreciate this one!
” Yes – I see it now: every moment is an opportunity to engage with the science of appreciation. ”
There is great truth in this and therefore great power . To sabotage this power society is set up to do the opposite as you beautifully described , jealousy , back stabbing expressions, tall poppy syndrome , fly under the radar and so on . We have the choice to be the saboteur or the person who lives the power that is ours, all of us as human beings.
A ‘Woman discovering how wonderfull she really is’ Love it ✨ Yep you have found the key to appreciation here ‘I let myself feel that underneath it all, I don’t have an issue with appreciation at all!’ This is exactly what I found as well when I could easily appreciate everyone and all around me but not me. I made it out to be like this huge mountain I had to climb and that it was really hard to do!!!! But come out of the mind and be present with all of me and my body and I found that appreciating me for who I am is super simple, really easy and really quick. There are no people clapping, no fireworks, no ‘oh my god that’s amazing moments’ it is just feel it, appreciate it which then becomes a confirmation and foundation in the body and move on. Although this has made me realise how little I do do this .. truly appreciate me.
Thanks, Leonne, I really enjoyed reading this blog and really appreciated (no pun intended) your deeper awareness of your own relationship with appreciation. Something for me to learn from.
Jealousy is absolute poison as so beautiful demonstrated by Unimedpedia Jealousy: http://www.unimedliving.com/unimedpedia/word-index/unimedpedia-jealousy.html
I didn’t know food could be too crunchy – you are right that did surprise me 😉
Isn’t it a bit weird that we hold ourselves back from being everything we can be when we know how amazing that is?
Love your blog Leonne and your sense of humour, I feel this is part of learning to appreciate ourselves and something we loose as we get older. We can take life too seriously, I know as a child I used to enjoy the lightheartedness I had with my younger brother and then life got serious and so did we. Appreciation for myself is bringing back the enjoyment of being with me and in turn is bringing back the lightheartedness.
Appreciation is something we can choose no matter what is going on in our lives. It isn’t reserved for the ‘great’ moments in life, it’s a confirmation of the love we are, the love we’ve always been and the love we can bring in future.
So true Leonne – every moment is to be appreciated equally-so, confirming the truth of our essence. The extremes of the roller coaster of perceived great /high moments to treacle type low moments is then seen as the control it is and can be discarded .
“it’s a confirmation of the love we are, the love we’ve always been and the love we can bring in future”.
Ah yes, Leonne, friends keep telling me that I am not appreciating myself enough. When we are so used to believing that our worth is directly related to our ‘doing’, it takes a bit of practise to honour and enjoy all the amazing qualities of our ‘being’.
When we emerge from the “doing” we realise that there is nothing like competition in this world. When you truly appreciate YOU, why compare or compete with another, that is the same, just in a different “colour”.
I find when I am truly in appreciation of myself I have no desire to compare or compete with others. The ‘way of appreciation’ extends beyond me to them too and is a very joy-full way to be.
The way this blog presents appreciation is is so simple and practical and I love the ligtness and way you have turned the overcooked lunch into a moment of refection and an opportunity for appreciation. Thank you Leonne – magical 🙂
When we are light with ourselves and see every opportunity as an opportunity to learn through reflection appreciation comes naturally.
I love your ‘sign off’ Leonne – ‘Woman discovering how wonderful she really is’ – how true and how very playful. Yes, I am discovering that appreciation is a way of life, not just something we do occasionally when we think of it. After all, what is life when we are not in appreciation? Deprecation? Why would we choose that?
I love that part too Richard, it is a blessing to read and feel the gorgeousness and truth Leonne brings to the world. And, brilliant questions you’ve raised here, it makes me realise how crazy it is to avoid appreciation. Your questions made me realise how much I choose deprecation instead of appreciation, mainly so I don’t rock the boat and avoid claiming how amazing we all are.
I see from your blog how appreciation can keep us fluid, being in the present and welcoming the future.