13 Ways To Make Money

Every week I look forward to reading the advice of Scott Pape, Australia’s “Barefoot Investor” who writes articles about finance in our Sunday papers.  He has a no nonsense and common-sense approach to building wealth.  It relies heavily on ways to better manage and save money, and invest in smart options for long term returns.  People can write in to Scott and he’ll answer their questions at the end of his article and on a number of occasions he has suggested to his readers that they should increase their income by taking a second job.  I’ve often wondered how people deal with that advice – I could not have imagined taking on a job in addition to the one I have.

Then just last week I picked up a book from Kylie Ofiu (www.kylileofiu.com) titled “365 Ways to Make Money”.   I thought at first it would be all lemonade stands, carwashes and dog-walking, but the ideas were actually  whole lot better …. I could even see myself getting started in a few of them.  It was quite exciting to read the possibilities so I’m recording the ones I am most interested in here:

1.   Rent a room to a boarder

This one is not for everyone, and really isn’t for me right now either, but a dear friend of mine has had several boarders share her house, enabling her to earn an extra $250 a week!  What a quick and easy way to earn decent coin.   She advertises for boarders on websites such as www.gumtree.com.au and interviews people, ensuring they sign a tenancy agreement.

2.    Host an exchange student

This would be a great way to introduce an overseas student to the Australian way of life.  Some programs will pay about $200 a week for the student’s room and meals.

3.   Rent your house out while you’re on holidays

I’m probably a little too suspicious of people to rent my house out to strangers, but would consider doing this for acquaintances or if someone I was close to needed a house for visiting family etc.  You could potentially make up to $500 per week – much cheaper than if the family were to stay in hotel accommodation.

4.   Be a product tester

Won’t probably make big bucks, but will save you some money on your grocery bill, providing some of the items you try are substitutes for what you might normally purchase.  Websites to try are www.freestuff.com.au and www.soup.com.au

5.    Record your shopping habits

This is one that is not featured in Kylie Ofiu's book but one that I currently do through AC Nielson (homescan.acnielsen.com.au.).  Each week I scan through the grocery, butcher and fruit & veg items I purchase with a hand-held scanning machine.  The information is sent back to AC Nielson who compiles it and sends it out to their clients.  I am rewarded for this on a points system and when I get to about 500 points, I can order a $50 voucher. You can keep accumulating points for better rewards, but I like to use the vouchers – it takes about 3 months for me to hit this target.

6.    Sell potted bulbs or herbs

I have recently planted some seeds, some of which have sprouted and I can see quite a few basil plants growing now.  I’ll need to split these out into individual pots and then, once they are mature enough, I’ll be able to sell them either on www.gumtree.com.au or www.ebay.com.au or www.ripenear.me .

7.    Type resumes

The friend I mentioned earlier who has a boarder is very astute, and always looking to improve her financial situation.  She’ll give anything a go – she has great drive and tenacity.  She has investigated Express Mobile Service’s franchises, and found that typing resumes was one she could do for little cost, and decent reward.  She’s a very good writer and has had experience in developing her own CV and resume with successful outcomes.  Once a template is in place it can be easily adapted to others’ situations and then tailored to meet the needs of the job for which the customer is applying.  Sounds like an excellent business idea, considering the current climate for jobs in Australia at the moment.

8.   Become an editor

I’m really interested to pursue this one, as I enjoy the process of editing for marketing material and tender submissions at work.  I’m pedantic about correct grammar, and find it so irritating to see spelling mistakes in published works (my own included!). Kylie suggests that a way to attract work is to contact websites where there are errors in copy and ask if they are interested in paying you to provide an editing service for future published pages.

9.   Design and print restaurant menus

The menus might also be used for a direct marketing campaign as part of a letter-box drop, so the order could be quite large.

10.                 Creating a local real estate website

This business has small start-up costs – just a domain name and some web design software – but may require some funds to advertise and get some traffic onto it.  By only showing houses for sale or rent within a specific area means you can provide more information about that area – what the amenities are, what the demographics are like, even some statistical information about property sales.  You could provide stories of families that have lived in the area for a long time, or are new to the area and are enjoying it.  You can make money through the property listings on your site, and possibly make commissions.

11.                 Become a household organiser or a “just moved out of home” coach

“Many people live in absolute chaos and could do with someone teaching them how to organise their home.…..Visit your client’s homes and help them to declutter…create a budget, and organise realistic schedules so that their domestic lives can run more efficiently.  You could charge around $20 per hour for your organising services.”

People who have just moved out of home could also benefit from a similar service, although tailored for their needs.  This might involve cooking, regular household chores, ensuring adequate insurance cover is in place and more.

12.                Prepare homes for sale

Many real estate agents are so keen to list a property that they don’t even allow time for the owners to make simple improvements before the first home-open or photo shoot.  I could offer a service where I advise clients what furniture to keep and where to place it, what needs to be gotten rid of, and complete some simple styling improvements.  It would be reasonable to charge from $800 for this service.

13.                 Offer your services as a frugal living consultant

This is definitely up my alley – I would love to build up the skills and knowledge to do this.  And I’m quite certain that over time I will have a stack of information and personal experience to draw upon to offer this service.  I could offer an in-home service and charge around $50 per hour.

There are plenty more ideas in the book, so try to get your hands on it or go to the website www.kylieofiu.com.au  to find out what might suit you.  If you have any good money making ideas I’d love to hear them!  You can drop me a post or send me an email: livewelllivesmart@gmail.com   

Is Enough Ever Really Enough?

Last week I celebrated my birthday, and much to the kids’ dismay I didn’t put as many candles on the cake as there are years in my life …. there just aren’t enough candles in the house (or room on the cake)!  A week ago dear hubby asked what I wanted for my birthday and after thinking for half a minute, I couldn’t come up with anything on the spot.  And I reckon this is a great thing!  I’m blessed with so many good things in my life, do I really need to add anything more?

It can be really easy to get caught up in the materialistic things in life.  We live in a consumer–driven society obsessed with obtaining more and more stuff.  As a society we are told that it’s the next thing we attain, earn, achieve or own that is going to make us happy, fulfilled or good enough. But Eastern philosophy, particularly the Buddhist philosophy of minimalism, focusses on life outside of the physical and suggests that we don’t actually need much of the ‘stuff’ we surround ourselves with. 

On his blog www.simplefamilyfinance.com, Chris Tecmire says that Buddhist monks were historically only allowed to own 8 possessions.  He says “Buddha taught that suffering is caused by desire (or craving), which is ironic since the TV tells us that we should crave particular products because they will end our suffering.”

While I have no intention of becoming a minimalist and selling up everything we own, including the kids toys (although I must admit I have thought about it, when they are strewn all over the family room), there are plenty of advantages in keeping the amount of “stuff” we own in check.  Some of these are:

·         Better Clarity

Having fewer possessions reduces the distractions that can make life feel more complicated.  The fewer distractions, the clearer your purpose in life can become.

·         More Time
Less time spent on shopping, and more time spent on more meaningful activities.

·         Less Clutter
Researchers at the Princeton University Neuroscience Institute published results of a study they conducted on the effects of cluttered environments on the brain.  They found that when your environment is cluttered, the chaos restricts your ability to focus. The clutter also limits your brain’s ability to process information. Clutter makes you distracted and unable to process information as well as you do in an uncluttered, organized, and serene environment.

·         More Money
If you are buying fewer things you are saving more money.  It’s as simple as that.

But while I can say that I have enough physical, material things in my life (a house, a car, clothes, TVs, computer etc), I think I will never have enough of learning.  I just love it and can’t get enough of it.  I need to learn new things and strive for excellence in the new thing.  Just recently I have decided on a change in career direction, and I’m looking forward to the challenges and learnings that this new opportunity and position will provide.  I’m hoping that it will also fulfil my goal of attaining simplicity – a simple concept and structure at work to complement the simplicity I’m striving to achieve in my home life.

Jessika Hepburn writes some beautiful words on “enough” on her blog http://ohmyhandmade.com/2012/businessy-goodness/we-are-enough/ : “Enough recognizes that our needs are vast and different and will shift as our responsibilities and lives do. It is not about an endless pursuit of more but of loving the stage we are at right now and growing with intention. Contentment does not equal complacency! More pushes us to feel inadequate, as if staying small or feeling your own slow way forward is unacceptable-leading us to frenzied business building, over consumption, overwhelm, guilt, resentment and insecurities. More says there isn’t enough to go around so take all you can get and hold tight to it. There is a brittle, frantic neediness to more and it feeds on fear, scarcity, and uncertainty.

On the other hand, enough is abundant and has lots of breathing room. It allows you to build your business and life while defining what you need and deeply want. At each stage there is space to expand and contract. Enough gives you permission to look clearly at where you are right now and forward with intention. Your enough might very well be a 6 figure income and a house in Hollywood but maybe it is a little farm and a sweet cottage biz making jam while your children play outside. Both have value and a place as does all the range of diversity in between.”

So, did I end up with any presents for my birthday?  Of course! And they were fabulously practical… vouchers for our local nursery to be spent on our upcoming kitchen garden, and a new lamp to read by in the lounge after the kids have gone to bed.  Just perfect!

Have you any experience in living a minimalist lifestyle that you would like to share?  Do you have any thoughts on "having enough"?  You can post them below or send an email to me at livewelllivesmart@gmail.com

Organised Sports vs Family Recreation

This morning we spent a leisurely three hours by the beach, basking in the sunshine, spending most of the time in the water swimming and waiting for a wave big enough to ride to shore, which happened very infrequently with the Easterly winds blowing today.  My youngest daughter was in her element “it’s like a swimming pool!”, as the lack of waves made her more comfortable to venture into the water, powering her body board with her legs in lieu of wave power.  It was a tremendously enjoyable morning, and it got me thinking about how lucky we were to have this time to ourselves this morning, not having to rush off to any activity or planned event.

Our morning was probably a huge contrast to that of the man I met last night at a charity auction dinner.  He told me that his daughter was in Little Athletics and for some reason this weekend they had to attend on both Saturday and Sunday from 8am to 12 noon.   What a chunk of time to be taking out of their weekend!  At the moment we have no planned activities for our 7 and 4 year old but many of our friends are involved in heaps of lessons out of school hours:  gymnastics, hip hop dance, ballet, art classes, swimming lessons, aikido, tee ball, drum lessons, piano lessons, guitar lessons …. The list goes on and on.  Do I think my kids are missing out by not being exposed to all these extra activities?  No, I truly don’t: and here’s why.

I think that parents get caught up in comparing their children with other children, and fear that if they don’t involve their children – even at a really young age – in extra activities then somehow they are robbing them of the opportunity to discover a talent, and that their children will miss out.  This “fear of missing out” is so prevalent in our society at the moment, affecting every generation, and I can’t help but feel it’s brought on by the constant barrage of social media which delivers up every minute detail of friends and acquaintances’ lives, so much that it’s difficult not to compare their lives with ours.  But in the rush to go from school to an afternoon activity a couple of nights a week, then one activity after another on the weekend the children end up tired, the family is constantly stressed out, and in the end the children aren’t even enjoying the activities at all!

My preferred approach is to spend time with the children at the beach, at the local park or even at home where we can exercise together, play together and have fun together.  Isn’t it better to run around and exercise with the kids keeping fit and healthy along with them, rather than standing or sitting for an hour or so while they run around in their organised sport?  The whole family benefits!

On the other hand, I do believe that learning to work as part of a team is an important element of team sports and I will encourage my daughters to get involved in one team sport each year.  This will expose them to the idea of working towards a shared goal, and the feelings of camaraderie and belonging which I think are important for them to experience.  It will also help to extend their social networks ... these are all excellent benefits.  The problem lies in involving children in too many of these activities at the expense of important down time, particularly on the weekend.

I firmly believe that boredom breeds creativity.  By constantly providing children with structured and organised activities we are robbing them of developing their imagination.  My husband and I make sure that there is some time on the weekend – usually Sunday afternoon – where we are all at home and the kids are left to their own devices ….. no television on.  They must entertain themselves and come up with something to do.  Yes, we get the “I’m bored” whine, but little do they know that when I hear this I glow …. They are just on the cusp of inventing a new game or getting involved in an activity they haven’t tried before or perhaps haven’t used in a long time and they’ll be better off for it.

My kids are really happy kids.  They are polite, gentle, kind, considerate of others, bold and independent and enjoy getting into life and trying new things.  These are the qualities and behaviours that my husband and I try to demonstrate and instil in our kids.  They are both very keen to socialise with others and share their time and their belongings with neighbours and friends from school.  They both enjoy school very much and put in 100% effort everyday- this year I’m amazed at how much our 4 year old has progressed with writing the alphabet and creating drawings.  My 7 year old just received a merit certificate at her last assembly for transitioning so well to her new school, working hard and being kind.  Our girls are not overly stimulated and have enough space in their lives for creativity, connection with community and invention.  I wouldn’t want it any other way.

If you have any thoughts on structured activities as opposed to sharing family recreation time, I’d love to hear about them so please write a post or drop me an email at livewelllivesmart@gmail.com .

The many uses of Epsom Salts

I never knew how many different uses there were for Epsom Salts until I read Christina Strutt’s A Guide To Natural Housekeeping.  From uses in the garden to beauty therapies and remedies for ailments Epsom salts are amazingly versatile! 

Epsom salt is actually magnesium sulfate, named for Epsom, England, where it occurs naturally in hot springs as a result of rock formations.  I must admit that I haven’t ever bought Epsom Salts before, but have put them down on this week’s shopping list and will eagerly try some of these uses over the next few weeks, particularly in the garden and the bath…..

Relaxing and sleep-inducing bath: Soak in warm water and 2 cups of Epsom salt.

Foot soak: Soothe aches, remove odors and soften rough skin with a foot soak. Add 1/2 cup of Epsom salt to a large pan of warm water and add a drop of peppermint oil if you have it. Soak feet for as long as it feels right. Rinse and dry thoroughly.

Soak sprains and bruises: Epsom salt will reduce the swelling of sprains and bruises. Add 2 cups epsom salt to a warm bath and soak.

Splinter remover: Soak in epsom salt, it will draw out the splinter.

Homemade skin mask: Apply the mask to damp skin. For normal to oily skin, mix 1 tablespoon of cognac, 1 egg, 1/4 cup of non-fat dry milk, the juice of 1 lemon, and a half-teaspoon of epsom salt. For normal to dry skin, mix 1/4 cup of grated carrot, 1 1/2 teaspoons of mayonnaise and a half-teaspoon of epsom salt.

Skin exfoliator: Massage handfuls of epsom salt over your wet skin, starting with your feet and continuing up towards the face. Have a bath to rinse.

Hair volumizer: Combine equal parts of deep conditioner and epsom salt. Warm in a pan. Work the warm mixture through your hair and leave on for 20 minutes. Rinse.

Fertiliser:  Studies have shown that magnesium and sulphur enrich the soil to benefit vegetable and flowering plants.  Epsom sales help seeds to germinate, promote bushier plant growth, encourage flower plants to produce more flower, increase chlorophyll production and improve the phosphorus and nitrogen update of plants.

Epsom salts can also correct magnesium deficiency in soil and plants.  Magnesium deficiency is particularly common in gardenias, tomatoes, citrus and other fruit trees.  It shows up as a yellowing and/or browning around the outer part of the leaf especially in older leaves.

Epsom salts can be used to produce successful crops of tomatoes, lettuce, broccoli, cauliflower, cabbages, and other brassicas and to promote leaf groth and plenitful flowers on shrubs, flowering plants and fruit trees. 

To use them in the garden, dissolve four handfuls into 10 litres of water.  You could also sprinkle around the roots of plants and water it in.  Epsom salts are not persistent so cannot be overused.

Clarifying hair rinse: Mix 1/4 cup lemon juice, 1/4 cup Epsom salt, and one litre water, leaving them to stand for 24 hours, and using the mix as a clarifying rinse. If you have product buildup that's making your hair lank, dry, greasy, and hard to style, clarifying rinses can really help breathe back life into your hair!

Tile cleaner: Epsom salt can pull up soap scum on til.! Use a paste to scrub bathrooms, sinks, and showers; the Epsom salt will lift up the buildup without scratching the surface beneath.

Weed control: A solution of Epsom salt, vinegar, and Dawn works like a treat for eliminating weeds without introducing toxins to the garden.  

Pest control:  Spraying a solution of Epsom salts on the lawn can control insects without damaging the grass, and it's totally nontoxic. Sprinkle some dry Epsom salt to deter slugs and snails.

Beachy hair:  Loose, messy locks that look like you've just returned from surfing? If you don't have the luxury of living by the beach but you want the look, you can use Epsom salt to make a hair spritz that works just like those expensive ones you find at the salon, for a fraction of the cost.

If you have used Epsom salts for another purpose I would love to hear about it.  Drop me a post or email me at livewelllivesmart@gmail.com .

Starting a Kitchen Garden

Last year we moved to a new house, which will be our home for the next 30 years (we’re hopeful)!  It is in a location that we think is just ideal, not far from the beach and with a 96 hectare bushland reserve only a block away.  The block came perfectly landscaped, with lovely screening plants to green in the surrounding fence-line and lovely lawns front and back.  There is a little hedge to separate our front lawn from the neighbours, a hibiscus hedge surrounding the garage and a white and red rose garden in front of our bedroom window.  We are lucky to have bore water to reticulate the garden which will save us so much money over time on water costs.  But the one garden element missing is a vegetable garden!

Growing your own fruit and vegetables has many benefits.  Not only do you benefit from knowing exactly what your crops have been sprayed and fed with, but it’s also excellent exercise to dig, weed, plant and water your garden in the fresh air.  The freshness of the food means that fruit and vegetables retain more essential vitamins and minerals, and they taste much better than those bought at the supermarket that have travelled from hundreds or sometimes thousands of miles away, and/or have been in cold storage for months.

Gardening is mentally therapeutic as well!  In a project conducted by Deakin University (http://www.hphpcentral.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/beyondblue_togreen.pdf) there was much evidence to support that contact with nature affects numerous facets of a person’s physical, mental and social life such as:

• reducing anger, frustration and aggression

• increasing a sense of belonging and acceptance

• a range of other aspects including socialisation, mobility, mental stimulation, touch, physiological benefits, and the fulfilment of basic needs such as love, respect, usefulness, trust, self-worth and nurturing.

Research on the physiological health benefits of gardening has shown that gardening:

• reduces the risk of cardiovascular disease

• reduces HDL cholesterol levels in elderly men

• improves the health of diabetes patients

• reduces risk of gastro-intestinal haemorrhage

With this many benefits to be gained from growing an edible garden how could anyone live without one?   I certainly can’t and so I have selected the perfect location for our vegetable patch, in a 4 x 3m section of the garden that gets plenty of sunshine, is watered by the bore reticulation and is covered with dappled shade from a large monstera plant that has grown as high as the house eves.  It’ll be perfect for protecting crops from the hot summer sun, as the area is also surrounded by the brick walls of the house on two sides.

In Australia it is autumn and so now is the time to plan the winter garden and get planting some winter seedlings.  My daughter and I spent an hour on the weekend making up newspaper pots to fill with potting mix and propagate plants from seeds.  The way to do it is to take several sheets of newspaper and fold them into three along the long edge.  Cut out the strips and then wrap a couple of pieces tightly around a straight sided jar leaving a 5cm overlap at the bottom.  Fold the bottom newspaper across the base of the jar and push down on a hard surface to form the base.  Carefully pull the jar out of the newspaper mould and fold the top inwards to help keep the pot straight.  Then fill the pots with potting or seed-raising mix, and push seeds into the soil.  Water lightly and keep the pots moist until the seedlings sprout.  I don’t expect the plants to be large enough to plant out for a couple of months, which is just as well as I’ll need to get moving to prepare the vege patch site!

Do you find it satisfying to grow your own edible produce?  Have you started planning your winter/spring vegetable garden? I’ve love to hear about it, so write me a post or send me an email at livewelllivesmart@gmail.com .

Budget Blowout

This month we’ve celebrated my daughter Emily’s 4^th birthday and we’ve done it in style – celebrating for an entire week, with her birthday falling on a Wednesday this year.  We began the week of birthday celebrations with a family dinner which was a bit impromptu, taking advantage of a long weekend and the fact that the extended family hadn’t already made plans that Saturday night.  We ended up with 17 people for dinner, with the cousins bringing entree and Aunties contributing salads to the meal, while we provided the BBQ meat and birthday cake (chocolate mud, made from scratch!) for dessert.  Everyone had a great night, especially my daughter who was in her element under the spotlight of all the attention.

Wednesday was Emily’s birthday, and also kindy day, so Tuesday night was spent making nut-free, egg-free, dairy-free cupcakes to share with her classmates (good reviews on that one!).  We held a present opening ceremony when I got home from work on Wednesday – it’s the best feeling when you pick a present that you know is the perfect thing for your child. 

Then Saturday was Emily’s party with her friends.  I had made some enquiries about holding a party at a local indoor playcentre, but the cost of this was $300 for 8 people including Emily.  With Emily having just started kindy over a month ago we thought we’d rather do something where the kindy families could get to know each other better and decided to invite the whole class (20 kids) to a local park with excellent play equipment.  While the venue was free, we still needed to cater for enough food, drink, plates, lolly bags and prizes for the group and there was little change from $300 in the end.  While this amount stretched to over 25 children (including siblings), and around 25 adults it did cap off quite an expensive week!

So, suffice to say, my savings this month have not met my goal but have been roughly halved.  I did set myself a tough target to save a third of my wage, which I moved out of my account on the day that I got paid.  But part of this has slowly crept back in to my regular account.  Still I can be grateful that my savings are heading in a positive direction, if not necessarily at the rate I had intended.

Over the next week then, it’s important for me to keep track of my spending, so that I don’t need to pull in any more of my savings to rescue the budget blowout situation.  I remember one lesson from Cath Armstrong’s book Debt Free Cashed Up and Laughing and that is to shop first at home.  You can be amazed by how much food is stored at home – in the pantry, the fridge and the freezer.  If you add it all up, there is guaranteed to be more than a week’s worth of food accumulated at any one time.  Think of the pasta, the rice and potatoes in the pantry  - there’s the basis for four dinners of the week.  Eggs and vegies make another meal, salad and meat yet another.  Even the flour can be turned into crepes and filled with a chicken based savoury filling for an extravagant panty-based meal. 

So that’s my challenge for this week – to see how long I can get by without having to go shopping.  Getting to the end of this week without having to purchase any more food items would be a terrific achievement and would mean that I don’t have to spend any more before I get my next pay. 

What do you do when your budget is straining towards the end of a pay period?  If you have any money saving or making strategies I’d love to hear them.  Send me a post of drop me an email at livewelllivesmart@gmail.com .

Practicing Gratitude

It’s a tough time for many people at the moment in Australia, with a succession of one company after another declaring that they are downsizing or moving their operations off shore.  Facing the prospect of losing your job and your income, not to mention on a deeper level your identity, sense of security and self-belief is very stressful and depressing.  I am usually an optimistic person, always preferring to see the glass half full and look on the brighter side of life.  But recently I have been experiencing some of the fear that comes from uncertainty about my own long-term job situation and I have sought out ways to put things into perspective in my own mind and find my way back to a happy frame of mind.  One of the ways I’ve done this is to concentrate more intently on practising gratitude.

In Joshua Rosenthal’s article, Gratitude: The Secret to Happiness, he says “Shifting the focus from what you don't have to what you do have can have a profound influence on your moment-to-moment mood and emotional state, and it can have a huge impact on your physical health, as well. In fact, there is a burgeoning field of research -- positive psychology -- devoted to looking at the contributing factors of happiness and well-being.

In a study by scientists at the University of California, Berkerley it was found that people who practice gratitude consistently report of host of benefits:

·         Stronger immune systems and lower blood pressure;

·         Higher levels of positive emotions;

·         More joy, optimism, and happiness;

·         Acting with more generosity and compassion;

·         Feeling less lonely and isolated.

In the past few weeks consciously thinking of what I’m grateful for has helped me immensely.  I’ve always subconsciously been expressing my gratitude -- whenever something good happens, I sent a silent “thank you so much, I appreciate this event, this day, this situation” to the Universe and God particularly if I have been yearning and asking for an event to work out a certain way.  But I never knew the profound impact that practising gratitude regularly can have on my life. 

In her books Simple Abundance and Peace and Plenty, Sarah Bran Breathnach recommends keeping a Gratitude Journal, a “polite daily thank-you note to the Universe.”  She recommends writing down up to 5 things to be grateful for from the day, and acknowledges that some days you could be grateful for simply having reached the end of that day.  By recognising these events, people, situations and feelings and expressing gratitude you realise how lucky you actually are, and feelings of positivity, if not optimism, start to return.

We can all learn to express gratitude regularly, rather than in response to major events taking place in our lives. In this way, we take the time to notice and appreciate what we have, rather than wishing for what we don’t have. Being able to appreciate the small wins and subtle gifts in our ordinary lives is what being this is all about.  Expressing gratitude brings forward in my mind the things are the most important to me, and I realise how little of the material elements of our world feature in these thoughts. 

Gratitude is the basic ingredient to create joy in our lives.  In her book The Gifts of Imperfection Brené Brown talks about how the practice of gratitude can lead to a joyful life.  She says “One of the most profound changes in my life happened when I got my head around the relationship between gratitude and joy. I always thought that joyful people were grateful people. I mean, why wouldn’t they be? They have all of that goodness to be grateful for. But after spending countless hours collecting stories about joy and gratitude, three powerful patterns emerged:

·         Without exception, every person I interviewed who described living a joyful life or who described themselves as joyful, actively practiced gratitude and attributed their joyfulness to their gratitude practice.

·         Both joy and gratitude were described as spiritual practices that were bound to a belief in human interconnectedness and a power greater than us.

·         People were quick to point out the differences between happiness and joy as the difference between a human emotion that’s connected to circumstances and a spiritual way of engaging with the world that’s connected to practicing gratitude.”

I have much in my life to be thankful and grateful for, and I am recognising and acknowledging this on a daily basis.  Do you practice gratitude, and if so has it created more joy and satisfaction in your life?  I’d love to hear about it, so drop me a post or send an email to livewelllivesmart@gmail.com