A fresh spring look can enhance your excitement

Hope you are taking the time to fell the freshness of spring. After a seemingly long and wet winter, the light of spring is a welcomed anticipation. Most of us are excited about what it may bring.

Renew your excitement about where you are right now by simply being mindful of the miracles and abundance surrounding us that we have taken for granted. It is easy to take the beauty of freshly awakened earth for granted when you are busy and preoccupied.

I know. Life in retirement is giving me a humbling perspective about everything. Get out of the rut by mindfully experiencing the mundane and the common. Notice and experience the now, realizing how precious this time really is.

Commit to the intention that you will live every day as if each day is your last day. It’s easy to fall into the rut of the routine, but you can change that. Here are some of my favorite simple ways that you too can easily incorporate in your daily living.

• Take a fresh look. When you drive to work today, take notice of the road, the trees, the neighborhood, the birds, the clouds, and the windless (or windy) day. Marvel on the natural beauty coexisting with the wonders of man’s creations. Contemplate on the quietness or the noise that you have not even noticed anymore. Tomorrow, try a different route and notice in wonder the new scenery as if it’s the first time you are experiencing it. What did you discover? What did you notice? How did it make you feel? Take notice.

• Start your day with being grateful. Write down five to 10 things or situations that you are grateful about. It’s a mental squeeze at first but as you do it daily, your list can easily be much longer. Keep it simple and not laborious. Be thankful of a good night sleep, the morning cup of coffee that awakened your senses, your coffee machine for the convenience, the running water that is coming out of your faucet (in some places people have to travel a distance to fetch water before they can enjoy a cup of coffee, if ever). The list can go on and on.

If you start the day with a feeling of gratefulness, it is hard to be stressed or depressed. A feeling of serenity and life satisfaction are wonderful fringe benefits when you live in gratitude. Be reminded that everything that you have now were once a want.

• Be forgiving of you and others. When you forgive, you reap the most benefits. Carrying a grudge only hurts you the most. Freeing yourself with the hurt and unmet expectations is cleansing to your soul, your body and your mind. Because really, you have everything you need from within, regardless of what others do or what is going on in your environment. You are a marvelous creation and you only have to allow yourself to shine, free of limiting negative emotions and negative beliefs. You may not forget, but you can forgive. Yes you can. Set the intention. It is freedom at its truest sense!

• Simplicity is the word. Strive to have simple and mindful experiences and the next. Simple plan for the day, simple meals, simple celebrations — simple anything. The simplicity will take away a lot of the stress in your daily living. Material extravagance is not necessary to find your happiness.

Abundance is already all around you if you take time to notice. Just notice what stuff is available in the grocery stores, or the beautiful trees and plants in your neighborhood supplying you with the essentials of life in great abundance. The choice is yours.

Think about how lucky we are that our commute around town is not spent much in traffic and parking is abundantly free. In some cities, parking can be a big chunk off your paycheck.

• Incorporate daily increased activity without paying for gym membership. Park the farthest and walk in. Climb the stairs if you can, rather than using the elevators. Dance or walk in place while watching your favorite TV show. You can easily get your daily exercise in an hour or even more, if you watch more than one TV show. The family will think it’s weird at first but pretty soon, it’s just the norm. They may even join in. And when they do, it’s guaranteed to be more fun.

• And if you are retired from work, (or not) join the Movers and Shakers senior walking group at the Lancaster Prime Desert Woodland Preserve. It is a fun healthy way to refresh your journey to a healthy you.

Whatever you decide to do, find joy and peace always because you can.