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>> Angela Irving
Hi everybody, Angela from "Love to Tell", and we are... I'm driving to work and I have
wanted to share this with you for a while. It's a practice that I have put into my life
a few months ago and I absolutely love it. It has changed the way that I view part of
the world around me. So, what is it? You're wondering, what is this? So what it is, is
it's a gratitude exercise. It's an exercise that I use to be grateful and I practice it
every morning on my way to work, and it's a bit of a game that's very easy to play and
it helps you to be grateful. So, what it is, is I've changed the meaning of the red lights.
So, when I'm stopped at a red light, it gives me the opportunity for the length of that
red light to be grateful. So, red light now equals gratitude. So, before I would be driving
to work, 'cause the highway that I drive down has quite a few stop lights on it. People
probably think I'm crazy 'cause I'm talking to myself in the car, but there are quite
a few red lights on the way. And, you know, what we generally associate stopping at red
lights with being frustrated, being held up, not getting to where we're going in as simple
amount of time, all these negative emotions attached to it.
And once I learned the perspective that I could change the way I looked at a red light
into having it mean that every time I stop at a red light it's giving me time to be grateful,
it certainly has changed my drive to work, my drive to anywhere. Now a lot of you might
not experience a lot of red lights, 'cause you might live in rural areas, so it can be
applied to four way stops, if you're in North America or if you're simply stopping at a
roundabout quickly, you can get one little bit of gratitude out, but, it is certainly
something that you can apply. So, we're coming up to a red light here. So, what I am gonna
do is I'm gonna show you, I'm gonna speak out loud what I'm grateful for and show you
how the practice goes. So, here we are, we're stopping. Both eyes on the road, of course.
So, today, I am grateful for my best friend and being able to have endless hours of conversation
with her. It warms my heart. It makes me [chuckle] miss her even more, she lives in Canada and
I live in Australia. And I am so grateful for our friendship, and for... That we have
no expectations. We can go six months without talking and yet nobody's upset about it. I'm
so grateful for that. I'm grateful for the belly laughs that I get every time I speak
with her and that's it. This has been a great practice for me because I am not an early
riser. I am the type of person that, if I work at seven o' clock in the morning, I sleep
as long as possible. I get up, I get ready, I get dressed, I make my coffee, pack my lunch
and if I haven't packed it the night before, and then I am out the door. So I don't give
myself time to meditate or I'm not a morning exercise person. So, this has been an awesome
change in perspective, because I'm utilising that car... That time in the car where I would
normally just be listening to the radio.
I'm actually using it to be a form of meditation, which is really for my two beautiful dogs,
Jasmine and Jake are their names. They are boxer dogs and I am just... I am so grateful
for them, their enthusiasm, their unconditional love, their ability to forgive, and yeah,
for them just to be themselves. I just, I truly do love them, and I'm so grateful that
they came into my life. I have had them around about nine years now and they are beautiful.
I am also grateful for the availability of fresh produce. I am so grateful to be able
to live in a country and I grew up in a country where food is, is... There is plenty of it
around and available. I am grateful for my loving husband. Very grateful for him. We've
got a good friendship and I'm grateful for that. I'm also really grateful for my co-workers,
who I am just gonna go and spend the next eight hours with. I work with some beautiful
human beings and I'm so grateful that I have a job to go to, where I'm surrounded by good
people.
So, here we are, it's Friday and we didn't get to record yesterday because we had a day
of extreme technical difficulties. So I had coolant problems with my car and then when
I went to go and record on my Go Pro, I ran out of batteries. But I continue to be grateful
and it certainly helped with any... Releasing any frustration I was feeling, by things not
going so smoothly. So, another benefit of practising red light equal time to be grateful.
So, how awesome would it be, to be, if you're a family, to say, it's Saturday and you've
got everyone in the car, if that happens these days. You've got mom, dad, all of the kids.
And you guys have started practising together. Everyone is saying something they are grateful
for. So, you're not waiting for Thanksgiving to be thankful? Or Christmas, you know? But
maybe once a week when everyone is in the car together going to soccer or hockey or
footies, as they call it here in Australia but everyone's thought they'd be grateful
for something. How awesome would that be? So, it was a great suggestion.
[music]
From my signed copy of the 'Voltaire Twins' CD that I have. Look at that. I am grateful
for the green grass. Oh, I'm grateful that winter is coming and we're gonna get lots
of rain and our grass is gonna get nourished. I am grateful for the green smoothie I have
this morning. Uh-hmm, it was delicious. And I'm really grateful for the cantaloupe I have
at the fridge, it worked... That I'm going to eat this afternoon. I am grateful that
I have the opportunity to learn something new at work, pretty much everyday. I'm grateful
for my feet and my toes. I'm grateful for my legs. I'm grateful for my whole entire
amazing body and that it's able to take me from place to place.
And I'm so grateful for my on-going good health but there is not a price that you can put
on that. I am grateful for my Facebook family, for everyone that's joining my page, I'm very
grateful for you guys. And from my YouTube subscribers, I'm grateful for that. I am grateful
for this very present moment in my life where I'm sitting here in Australia.
So, guys, this is the end of our gratitude at red lights series. So, I say, "Give it
a go." So, for one day or one week I challenge you to, at every red light that you stop at,
think of the things that you're grateful for. Say them out loud. If you're in the car with
your kids why not make it a game and have them express what they're grateful for. You
might learn something about them. Or even play it with your partner, why not? It's a
bit of fun. So, well, love you guys and I look forward to seeing you soon.
[music]