GOLING, IMAN HANNA M. T-TH-S 11:00-12:00 PSYCHOLOGY Live Life. Love Life.

Appreciation Learning Pepsi Commercial

I.

Introduction
We tend to forget that Happiness doesnt come as a result of getting something we dont have, but rather of recognizing and appreciating what we do have.- Frederick Keonig. This quotation is definitely true. Many people tend to forget that happiness is easy to have as long as you know how to value the things around us. Why seek for things you cant have, if you can actually be happy for what you have. Most of us make our lives difficult even if its not really hard at all. We are fond of looking things that are not within our

environment. What happens next? We become frustrated. And that is not good for us. To avoid frustrations in life, we can simply accept the things present in our life and there the appreciation comes next. Appreciation enables us to channel our innermost thoughts to overcome any obstacle in our way. We can unleash the power of appreciation so that our lives are free of fear, worry and anxiety. Our lives

will become satisfying and the rewards we seek will be manifested and we will start to enjoy every moment of our existence. All of us already possess the power of appreciation but in our growing up stage, most of us have been taught to concentrate our thoughts on how we go about stopping bad things happening to us. With our focus on the negative area of life we tend to forget to attract the good things around us. The art of being able to value the benefits of appreciation begins when we cast away the negativity in our lives, that is, we purposefully stop worrying about all the aspects of our existence that causes us grief. We stop being driven by our desire to improve our floundering personal relationships, our poor financial position and other negative situations. If we direct our mind to focus on the positive aspects of our lives, such as the simple acceptance that we live in a safe environment or own a car that works, it can put our mind into the state that it needs to be in for the power of appreciation to be called into action. Look at the positive of your situations rather than the negative. If you foster the concept, you will begin to enjoy the truly magical benefits in your life. You will become more

satisfied with what you have as well as more understanding of others and their individual circumstances and problems. At this point it is important to understand that it is impossible to switch on and off this force because it should be seen as a constant feature in our way of life more than the occasional tool to help us when we need support. The key to the power of appreciation is to begin to truly incorporate the concept into our everyday mind set. If you learned to do that then, Life is very simple. You can easily live and love life.

II.

Significant Human Experience

I can compare my life in the Pepsi commercial where the young boy became a grown up man before he found out the meaning behind the tattoo on the forehead of the monks there. When I was still young I didnt see the good side in every problem I encountered. What I see is the outer shell of the problem. As I get matured, the way I view my problems changes. One proof was when my parents got separated. I was just seven years old when that tragic event happened. It was a catastrophe in my life. It never crossed my mind that it would happen. I thought every ending was always happy. Unfortunately, my ending wasnt a happy one. At a very young age, I was forced to accept the sudden shift of my life. It was a nightmare and until

now, it haunts me. Out of desperation, I asked God why he has to punish me like that. I didnt see His purpose of letting that happened in my life. But that was before. Right now, I understand why my life has to be messed up like that because I wouldnt have my family right now. After two years of my parents separation, my mother married my stepfather. I was afraid that he might not love me just like a true father but that fear was now gone. He and my mother are married for ten years. My stepfather treated me very well. He has raised me like his true daughter. Without any second thought, I considered him more than my biological father. Every time I looked back to my past, I just smiled and thank God for letting that happened because Im very lucky to have another father like him. I learned to see the beauty of the big change in my life. It is a blessing in disguise though.

III.

Insight/Analysis
I have gone through several experiences before I realized the gift that

God has given me. And that is a happy Family. From this great experience, I started to be optimistic in my life. I always look for positive things in the negative things I meet. I feel happy when I get problems because I know that they will make me stronger. When I was in my younger years, I was easily drawn by my emotions. I had a very weak heart and couldnt stand an emotional problem but when I

reached the stage of a grown up woman, I learned to fight over my emotions. I did not let my emotions rule over my mind. Sometimes emotions seclude you from seeing the truth. Once you learned to control your emotion, you would easily accept the reality. There is no hard for appreciating because once you accept a certain fact and try to see the other way, you will then appreciate it despite of its bad impact to you.

IV. Conclusion
First, I concluded that the true learning occurs when you learned to value what you have learned. Learning is not just about memorizing and understanding knowledge. The most important phase of learning is the time you have seen the purpose of that knowledge in your life. You dont acquire knowledge for the sake of grades in class instead you acquire to shape your human self. Once you have valued the knowledge you gain, you can apply it in your life harmoniously. You wont be going to the wrong path. Second, appreciation is a component of attaining happiness since if you know how to use it, you are easily satisfied. You would no more seek for the things you cannot have. By that, you are happy for what you have.

Third, in every trial that comes along, you should be happy for it because it will test you. The secret to stay happy despite of trials is to learn to value the purpose of that trial in your life. Lastly, Life is like cooking. You began at zero knowledge about cooking. Then you start learning. After that, you tried a dozens of experiment to cook a certain dish. Not in one glance, you can cook a perfect dish but you have to gone through a series of experiments. But it doesnt mean that skill is enough. You should have a passion in doing it because cooking has also its secret ingredient and that is love. It is similar with life. Its secret ingredient is appreciation. So live life and love life.

V.

Recommendations
To my fellow youth, I want you to know that in our stage right now appreciation is great help to us because it served as a secret weapon that would protect us not to fall easily from different traps in life. These traps in life are the temptations existing in our surroundings. If we know how to use our power of appreciation then we could lead to a satisfied life easily without any frustration. Young people like us easily fell from the test in life. We usually gave up and do nothing about it. Remember, in every problem, there is always a solution. Just learn to enjoy life. Try to avoid cursing Life for giving you burden.

To all of adults, you are more knowledgeable than me because of your experiences in life. With that, you are more ahead of me. Learn to see the essence of every experience you had. Avoid being close minded. Open your mind to every possibility because it will direct you to see the goodness of that experience. Do not isolate your mind looking the negative side of your experience. You will never attain the true happiness without learning to be appreciative in everything. Appreciating one thing is very simple to do. You dont have to buy anything or do anything. You just open your heart like a bird flying freely in the sky.

VI. Acknowledgment
I express my deep gratitude to Professor Perlita Crisostomo who keeps on reminding us to be better people in our community. Through this project, I learned to relate the theoretical concepts that she has taught us with my experiences in life. To all of my friends in ISED, PWU, Assumption and PSBA, I want to thank you all for treating more than a Friend. I owe you a lot of things. Thank you guys.

I also want to show gratitude to my beloved family especially to my loving mother, Diana, who helps me to survive in every obstacle I encounter. They are my inspiration to strive hard in my studies.

And most of all, I want to thank Allah who never leave me and continually showers his blessings despite of my mistakes in life. Alhamdullilah!