A grateful heart is never sad

 

living by eight spiritual values: positive attitude, friendship, simplicity and ordinariness, humor, forgiveness, gratitude, mindfulness and spiritual freedom. "People say to me, 'Why do you smile so much?' I say I need it," she said in her talk about positive attitudes. "We must esteem ourselves before we can esteem others." She also discussed the need to develop a loving eye with which to view the world. While discussing friendship, she said "Learning to be a powerful presence in another's life is just so, so beautiful." And she said people make themselves rich by making their wants fewer. "May I live simply that others simply can live," Mongeon said, quoting Gandhi. To achieve the value of humor, Mongeon suggested learning from children. "Children laugh 60 times a day, but we laugh six at best," she said. "They say six good laughs a day are as good as a five-mile run." Mongeon defined forgiveness as the capacity to go beyond our hurts and put them in the hands of God. "I cannot forgive unless I employ God," she said. And seeing the good God has placed in one's life can be done through a gratitude journal, she said, noting her belief that gratitude is the greatest antidote to depression. "A grateful heart is never sad," she said. "The expression of gratitude is the most powerful act we can perform to God, ourselves and others. ... It changes the negative back to the positive and takes away the hurts." Mongeon said savoring the moment creates mindfulness.

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