If you want to hear me interviewed by Nan Russell on her show Work Matters, go here now: 

http://www.webtalkradio.net/content/view/58/30/

We talked about a variety of topics related to a healthy relationship with your workplace and setting boundaries at work.

 Interview of Dr. Pam on Work Matters with Nan Russell: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Hi!  Just wanted to update you guys that The Power of Inner Guidance reached local best-seller on Dallas Morning News again!  Thanks for your support!

http://www.guidelive.com/sharedcontent/dws/ent/books/stories/DN-bk_bestsellers_0323gui.State.Bulldog.45fe127.html

Today, I opened an e-mail from one of my students.  She was congratulating me on the progress of The Power of Inner Guidance:  Seven Steps to Tune In and Turn On.  The only way I could see to respond was by borrowing a line from the Beatles:  I get by with a little help from my friends!  I am really very happy and grateful that so many friends and supporters have appeared to help me to get the word out about the book.  

Some of you have told your friends about the book, and some have bought multiple copies to hand out to others.  As so many of you have shown me that you are on my team and share my mission of helping others to lead lives of greater fulfillment, I want to update you on the good news so far!

So far, the book has sold over 500 copies!  I am so grateful that the book is getting into the hands of people who are reading it and benefitting!  It is a thrill for me that the book made it into the Dallas Morning News as a #2 on the Local Bestseller list!  The book was also stocked in a local Barnes and Nobles bookstore, out of which it has sold over 200 copies. 

If YOU want to help this book to keep going & helping others, I invite and welcome your support!  I believe that I’ve shared some of the key ingredients to long-term fulfillment in life in this little book.  MY HOPE is to reach all those who could benefit. 

So, I’ll share a secret with you.  I secretly expect that people who share the joy of creating more fulfillment for others will continue to appear to help me to move this book into the hands of those who want it!  This secret expectation has driven me to stretch out of my own comfort zone, making speeches, running workshops and getting onto the radio to teach what I know.  So, universe, hear this:  I am joyously reaching out, inviting, welcoming and thanking a great team of people who want to help me make this book a national bestseller!

Here are some ways to help this book to reach more people:

1.  Write a review of the book on bn.com and amazon.com.  You don’t have to write anything lengthy–in fact, simply writing a few sentences is perfect! 

2.  E-mail everyone in your address book and tell them to buy the book off of bn.com on May 1, 2008.  If you are planning on helping me in this way, let me know because I’m going to be offering special bonuses to all folks who buy the book on this day.  It will be great from them & they will thank you because they’re going to get access to bonus items that will outweigh the cost of the book.

3.  Connect me with others who might be willing to help. 

Here’s an event in which you help can make a world of difference.  Just think, it might be your efforts that help to change someone’s life.  And if you change just one life for the better, it is like changing an entire world.

Thank you again for your help and support!

 Pam Garcy, PhD

The other day, I was answering some questions regarding gratitude and happiness.  I thought that I would share what I compiled with you.  This is from a psychology perspective, so as to give you more information about how getting into the gratitude zone actually operates to help you to create greater happiness in life. 

As an REBT cognitive-behavioral therapist, there are a variety of things that I use to help people to shift out of negative unhealthy emotional states and into rational/healthy emotional states.  I believe that choosing to be grateful can often lead to improved mood.  I believe that there are at least three processes at play here, based upon cognitive theory and research.

Cognitive activation is a mental process whereby focusing upon a specific thing leads you to “activate” associations to related things in your brain.  When we focus upon something that we appreciate, for example, we will naturally activate thoughts and emotions that are associated with the thing we appreciate, leading us to feel happier. 

Similar to this is what is called the availability hieuristic.  This is just a fancy way of saying that as we notice things, they become more available for us to notice more.  (Sort of like when you buy a new car and everyone seems to have that car.)  A focus upon the abundance in our lives creates an increased awareness of what we already have in our lives, making the good that we already have more available to our minds and leading us to notice it even more (kind of like a positive cycle).

In addition, creating a mental focus upon gratitude allows us to make what are called “downward comparisons“.  Often in the process of downward comparison, our mood improves.  Specifically, we shift our attention to that which we already have, rather than that which we lack.  Our comparisons become downward comparisons (Others have less than I do; I have more than I realized) rather than upward comparisons (Others have more than I do; I have less than I realized).  The process of comparing downward also helps people to feel happier.

You could think of this as creating an abundance focus or a gratitude zone, so as to influence your mood state more positively.  Some tips for creating a gratitude zone in your life:
1.  Learn to focus upon what you have.
2.  Ask yourself questions that trigger a grateful mental focus, such as, “What is great about this situation?”
3.  Express appreciation to others in your life on a regular basis, at least once daily.
4.  List all of the things that you have to be thankful for whenever you feel yourself straying out of this zone.

Please feel free to share your ideas on this topic!

Pam Garcy, PhD

The weather was beautiful.  The sun was shining in a cloudless sky.  The air was cool and crisp, inviting people to feel it.  It was a weekday morning and I’d just dropped the kids off at school.  I was sitting in a Starbucks drive-through.  I was preparing to order my nonfat cafe misto and a fat-full cranberry bliss bar.  I’d never had a cranberry bliss bar.  It was time to try it out.  I was ready for a great day.

In the mean time, there were a bunch of guys with leafblowers walking with looks of confusion on their faces.  It seemed as though they didn’t know where to blow the bounty of leaves that nature had dropped before them.  Converging upon various piles of leaves, they seemed to wander aimlessly, blowing leaves in no particular direction.

Unfortunately, the sound of the multiple leafblowers was so loud and there were so many leaves blowing in the wind that I had to close my window on this beautiful day.  I thought about my neighbor who detested leafblowers and was often complimented by others for her use of a broom and dustpan. 

All of the folks in the drive-through were closing their windows, wishing these guys would just finish their job & stop blowing stuff through open car windows. 

There was also a car in front of me.  As the lady approached the window to pick up her order, she seemed very calm and happy.  Here hair was nicely done and her nails neatly polished in shiny red.  She smiled and seemed completely unaffected by the great noise and calamity that was going on around us.  She was having what appeared to be a pleasant conversation with the lady at the drive through window.  It seemed like it was taking a long time too.

I waited to approach the window and pick up my order.  Thinking about the details of my day, I had already entered a trance-like state focused upon the upcoming work I would do.

At the pick-up window, a healthy looking woman asked me, “Do you know that lady who was ahead of you?”

“No, why?” I answered curiously.  This was an unusual question and was waking me out of my trance.

“Well, she wanted me to tell you Merry Christmas.  She paid for your drink & breakfast.”

“Wow–really?  Are you serious?  That was really nice of her–that is really cool!”  This encouraged me to leave an even nicer tip than normal.  I then got my drink & cranberry bar and drove forward, looking for the manicured lady.  She was gone.  I couldn’t say thanks.

Later that day, I picked up one of my children from school.  We pulled into the local burger drive-through (guess this was my drive-through day) and I began to tell him the story of what happened that morning. 

“Mommy, I know how you can say thanks,” he said wisely.  “You can pass it on.”  Out of the mouths of babes.

So, as I pulled up to the window, we told the lady at the cash register that we’d pay for the person behind us.  I looked through my rearview mirror at the driver behind me.  It was a woman about my age.  She wasn’t so neatly manicured.  Her car looked old and run down.  She had gold front teeth.  I wondered if she would be as pleasantly surprised as I was earlier that day, or if her thoughts would lead her to a different reaction.  She was a different color from me–would she think that I was trying to be condescending or that I was racist if I did this?  Or would she realize that this was just an attempt to reach out to another soul and perform a random act of kindness, no matter who was behind me?

Somehow, though, as quickly as the voice of doubt and hesitation entered my mind, it was admonished by a louder thought, “This is the person who the wish needs to reach.”  I was the go-between.  I remembered that the universe works through each of us, if we’ll just pass it on.  So, I passed it on. 

As my son and I drove off, I tried to figure out which felt better–giving or receiving.  You know what?  They both felt great. 

Pam Garcy, Ph.D.

copyright 2007

Today, I sit before my computer, wondering what magical ideas will pass through me and onto the page before me.  I wonder what message I will type that might somehow influence a person who accidentally stumbles upon or purposefully seeks this site.  Then, I inhale deeply and allow myself to relax and type what appears in my mind’s eye.

I am free; an eagle, flying over the open waters, surveying the mountains surrounding the water, feeling the openness of the wind, coasting through the sky, noticing the tiniest rodent, respecting the limits of the ozone by flying beneath the clouds…  I travel, floating and embarking upon a journey with no certain destination, only that of an eventual landing somewhere on high; somewhere that feels like the right place to be.  I am perched.  I am waiting.  I look around and notice that I’m alone.  I am one of the great birds, and yet, alone in the midst of bountiful nature.  Intrigued, I sit and notice that the aloneness doesn’t translate into loneliness, as I know that I am a part of all of it and all of it includes me.

In my freedom, I make choices.  There is choice involved in my flight.  How high will I allow myself to go, how low will I allow myself to sink?  How great will be my journey?  How turbulent the path?  There are many choices before me.  I can seek the company of others as I travel, and then I can reclaim the stillness of my own quiet flight.

Once, I had a broken wing.  It took a long time to heal.  It is well healed now, and sometimes even stronger than the younger, more fragile wing before it.  But, every once in a while, it hurts.  Where I remember the injury, I find compassion for others whose wings are now broken.  I fly near them, reminding them that they will soon be flying again, reminding them not to give up, reminding them that their greatness is not diminished by their injuries, and then, at once, I’m free.