“I encourage you to implement the Appreciation Perspective Experience (A.P.E.) at least once every day as you will be attracting new people, blessings and gifts throughout each day to acknowledge and appreciate. In other words – forgive the pun – encourage yourself to go A.P.E. with joy and appreciation every day to tap into the power of love.” – Energy Surge #6, The Power of Love, p. 127, Chi-To-Be! Achieving Your Ultimate B-All, by Stacey Hall (get your copy of the book here: http://www.gofundme.com/Buy-A-Book-To-Save-A-Life)
Almost three weeks ago, the four and a half month mark with my voice-less-ness occurred…and at some point in the past few weeks—I had a realization that God has a really great sense of humor—which reminds me that I, too, have a great sense of humor. In particular, as this condition persists, I’m able to find lighthearted moments and create laughter around them. For the past few weeks since making that realization, I have had outbursts of random pure laughter—for no reason at all! Now mind you, there are moments of DEEP frustration and SERIOUS heartache (among a multitude of other emotions)—I do have fear that this condition will persist and be permanent. However, if I dwell there—in the negativity—I could go down a cycle of endless doom and gloom—and that just isn’t who I am!
As I reflected on the quote above from Chi-To-Be!, I realized that the important part of why dwelling in frustration isn’t me is because I do use the A.P.E. process every day, a few times every day—and I do it with joy and appreciation—which connects me to the power of love, which I think taps into the laughter of a situation that really is one of the most difficult things I have had to deal with in my life.
I recently did a post asking for some help for an assignment, which asked people to share what they like, admire or respect about me—it was very eye-opening to learn what others shared. And those are items I can impart into my daily practice of A.P.E. For example, if someone says “You have a big heart.” I use that in my A.P.E. moments and say, “I DO have a big heart.” Or if someone shares “you are intelligent,” I likewise would mirror that with, “I AM intelligent.” I think it is the power of positive thinking and positive speaking—most importantly what you think and say to yourself about yourself.
I encourage you to take a few minutes and flip the coin on the other side of an experience where you may be feeling frustration or unhappiness and see what light you can shed on it in the way of positive thinking or sharing the A.P.E. process.