start monday with gratitude

This week is going to be fun. You can’t talk about smiley faces and not have fun, right?

So, let’s kick off this fun week by imagining a smiley face sticker being placed on everything that makes you feel happy, that makes you want to smile, everything you feel grateful for.

So, if your warm cosy bed makes you feel good, imagine it covered in a big smiley face sticker, if your first cup of coffee makes you feel awake and good, imagine a smiley face being drawn in the foam of your coffee... and so on.

Every time you’ve imagined a smiley face on someone or something, that’s an opportunity for gratitude.

Today, rather than pretend smiley faces, I’m going to invite you to share actual smiley faces.

Whatever opportunity presents itself for you to add a smiley face, I invite you to do so.

Sending a text to a friend, add a smiley face. Signing off an email, add a smiley face. Signing your receipt when you pay for something, add a smiley face. Leaving a tip for your waitress, add a smiley face.

See how many different opportunities you receive to add a smiley face today.

Every time you’ve added a smiley face to something today, give thanks for the opportunity to make someone feel special.

How many smiles do you receive throughout your day?

People say that smiles are contagious, and I believe they are. How many times have you smiled at someone you pass by, and they frown back you? It rarely, if ever, happens, right? When you smile at someone, they tend to smile back.

So, I invite you to count how many people you can make smile today.

Have fun doing this and express gratitude that each time you smile at someone, and they return a smile back to you that you’ve made them feel happy.

Isn’t it amazing to think that you can positively impact someone’s energy by simply smiling?

And because you’ve positively impacted them, more likely than not they’ll carry that forward and positively impact another and so the snowball grows.

Every time you express gratitude for someone today draw a little smiley face in your mind’s eye. In doing so you can see just how big an effect your expressions of gratitude have on the world around you.

Have you seen smiley faces in your dreams these last couple of nights, I wonder? To be honest I wouldn’t be surprised as you’ve been creating so many smiley faces in your mind’s eye that it may carry through to when you sleep.

Can you see that, through these simple exercises this week, how you have started to programme your brain into creating a smiley face every time you see, hear or experience something that makes you happy, makes you feel good, or that you enjoy.

You’ve spent quite some weeks and months working on gratitude, practising gratitude, and making it a habit.

Looking back to when you first started these exercises, can you see how much you’ve changed as a result of your dedication to your gratitude practice?

Can you see how far you’ve come?

Can you see how much you’ve changed?

Now that’s something to be grateful for. That’s something that deserves a great big smiley face sticker.

Let’s get creative today.

You’ll need some yellow paper (or yellow colouring pens or paint), a pen and a pair of scissors.

Cut circles out of your paper – the more you create, the better. If your paper isn’t yellow, you’ll want to colour it yellow after you cut your circles.

Then using your pen, draw a smiley face in each of the yellow circles.

On the back of the circles write something like “Spread a little happiness” or “Smiling with you” or “You make me smile”… something general that feels right to you.

Then go about your day as you usually would, only this time, hand out your little smiley faces to people who are friendly to you, people who smile back at you when you smile, people you feel would benefit from a smile.

At the end of the day express your gratitude for helping so many people smile today.

This week has been simple, childlike fun and I hope you enjoyed doing the exercises.

No doubt you were busy finding ways to create imaginary or hand-drawn smileys, or even counting the number of smiles you could create in one day.

I wonder, though, did you have time to stop and feel the impact on those smileys and smiles on you?

Yes, we talked about how a smile can have a ripple effect that moves from one person to the other. Yes, we talked about making others feel good because you drew them a smiley face. But what about you?

How did you feel this week as you made other people happy with your smiley faces?

Did you notice your energy and vibration rise as a result?

It would have been impossible not to have been positively affected by your actions this week also. So express your gratitude for raising your own vibration and energy by making other people smile.