Are you so concerned with moving up in your career that you feel stressed and unhappy? If so, maybe it is time for you to stop and smell the roses. People who need to stop and smell the roses should stop working so hard. They need to slow down and take time to appreciate the many things that life has to offer. Often this means enjoying the wonders of nature — looking at stars in the night sky, feeling the wind blowing your hair, smelling flowers growing near a busy street.
While this expression relates to roses, it can be anything rather small or even commonplace. These things may seem small but they can give us great joy. The thing that you stop to watch could be an old married couple holding hands, a child jumping in a puddle or a musician performing by your bus stop. These are the things -- simple but beautiful things -- that we often walk by in a hurry to get to our next appointment.
Very ambitious, highly driven people often need to stop and smell the roses. We sometimes call this kind of person Type A. Such people often do not know when to sit back and stop working. So, they may have a hard time slowing down and doing something as simple as smelling flowers. But you know, maybe for a Type A person, the best thing in the world might be working. In that case, stopping to smell the roses may give them no joy at all.
Maybe smelling flowers gives them an allergic reaction. Maybe the person has many mouths to feed at home and does not have time to stop and smell the roses. Roses come in many colors and many are beautiful. Also, some of the flowers give off a wonderful smell. According to science, nature is a common source of joy. Just the act of appreciating a dandelion or a rose may play an even larger role in our overall happiness than we know. Stopping to smell the roses is an act of appreciation and recognizing the source of the goodness in our lives.
It means taking time to recognize the daily moments that bring us joy and really seeing what causes that emotion. The difference in well-being, happiness, sense of elevation, and level of connectedness to other people, can be significantly higher for those who spend time noticing and savoring these moments of joy. Once you have stopped and experienced the delight of something, expressing it to someone else grows the sentiment and spreads the joy.
Recently, a woman shared bouquets of Lilacs with her neighbors. Very quickly, they took photos of the flowers and shared them on social media, spreading the pleasure to others. Another neighbor dropped off a thank you note, grateful for the beautiful expression of generosity and beauty. In this case, stopping to smell the Lilacs helped an entire community experience a moment of happiness and gratitude. It is a reminder to slow down and take notice of the people and events of the day, to be present in every moment, seeing beyond the ordinary and perceive the movement of God.
My husband says that his life changed when once in a restaurant, we discussed appreciation. That was a decade ago. He had complained about something. I suggested that he consider the waitress. We were about to eat a wonderful meal because she was doing a good job of bringing it. Why not focus on appreciating that she knew her job and performed it well? My husband has told me since that it never occurred to him to appreciate such ordinary things.
Alexandra Hopkins pm, July 7, Link. The practice of gratitude is like a muscle that needs to be exercised - the more you look for things in life you can be grateful for, the easier it is to find them.
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