The 3L Movement is positive
- The 3L Movement is focused on celebrating the incredible freedoms we do have, rather than commiserating any lack.
- By celebrating freedom, we elevate it.
Gratitude in general
Love and gratitude are both about thankfulness and appreciation for others:
- Relating to others in a way that communicates our thankfulness and appreciation for the benefits we have received from them.
- We cannot love another person without first appreciating that person. Nor can we experience gratefulness without appreciation.
- Be thankful that you were born and have the opportunity, however limited, to experience joy. Be grateful for having the opportunity to consciously exist as part of an amazing universe.
The effect of gratitude on human happiness and well-being is now well documented. Humans often spend too much time wishing we had things we currently don’t have, while taking what we have for granted.
It could be worse!
- Contemplating the loss of these things can encourage a proper sense of gratefulness. More specifically, if you invest a few minutes each day thinking about losing your health, your freedom, your relationships with others, or even your material possessions, you will find yourself experiencing gratefulness for the current state of your life. This exercise is not to cause anxiety or fear but to increase your present appreciation and gratitude for the abundance in your life.
- Indeed, it is difficult to imagine living a happy life without love and gratitude. There is no downside to increasing the amount of love and gratitude in your life, and you will find that to do so requires only reflecting honestly about losing the things you presently possess. The value of envisioning adverse events occurring in advance was a strategy recommended by the stoic Seneca:
“We need to envisage every possibility and to strengthen the spirit to deal with the things which may conceivably come about. Rehearse them in your mind: exile, torture, war, shipwreck. Misfortune may snatch you away from your country… If we do not want to be overwhelmed and struck numb by rare events as if they were unprecedented ones; fortune needs envisaging in a thoroughly comprehensive way”
- We all lose everything eventually. This reality is the natural cycle of life. However, increasing the extent to which you appreciate your life will improve your gratitude for what you have now, encouraging a loving mindset toward others and the world.
Universal peace, love and gratitude
- Despite the news stories indicating to the contrary, love and empathic concern for others are pervasive. Is it so hard to envision a world in which all have a genuine brotherly love for each other?
- We should be grateful, love, and accept each other as fellow travelers through life while celebrating and learning from our interesting and exciting differences.