Lemma Soft Forums

I alway hear the advice of appreciate everything before it's lost, but does it really leave a good result in the future in you? I would like to hear stories

Generally speaking, psychologically, people who focus on the positive tend to be happier than people who focus on the negative. So taking time to appreciate things...like the taste of that strawberry, of the voice of the singer, the beauty of the mountain...all of that is about pleasure and joy in the moment as well as making you more likely to be happier overall.

I find that after I started openly saying that I like something when I do and appreciating it more, it makes me feel... happy? I suppose, it feels good to know that you've made someone day or at least make someone feel good about whatever it is they're doing.
It's a hard feeling to express. I don't know, you just become more aware and see more good in a lot of things. When you appreciate, you feel happy too because this stuff makes you happy, you like this stuff, you're glad this stuff exists, this stuff makes this 2 minutes or something of life more enjoyable. And for me, when I appreciate, I notice more details too, when I appreciate people's deeds, I find that people /do/ care about me and they go out of their way to do this thing for me, so I must matter. This helps a lot, especially when I feel low.
When I appreciate art... This is hard to explain. I just, as a person who draws and stuff, I feel like appreciating art (writing, music, films, games, and more, art is a pretty broad thing!) is my part in supporting people like me. Sometimes, I feel low about my art and stuff, there's always going to be someone who reblogs or likes my art or even just goes 'wow!' and it makes me feel less... unskilled. I like to think that if someone can do that for me, it wouldn't be too much out of my way to do that for someone else who might need it. Also, appreciating art just makes you notice the 'nice' bits of your surroundings and helps you realise that, wow, someone did this on purpose (whether it's in a movie or videogame or whatever else), someone specifically did this, I wonder if anyone's noticed.
Yeah I'm not very good at articulating. But point is, appreciation, when it's directed to you or when you give it, is a good thing for all parties involved. It makes you happier, it makes other people happier.
At least, that's what I think, based on my experiences.
I realise why my friends think I'm an 'optimist' now... Haha.

Gratitude toward the small things in life does help improve the quality of it from my experience. Indeed, a bit of appreciation really helps one recognize when they have it good. And when one accepts this is just a transitory experience, its easier to watch it slide away from you without feeling as though something were tugged away from you. People love to be appreciated. Animals enjoy being appreciated. Heck, studies even prove that plants which are told nice things on a daily basis tend to grow faster and more healthy than ones which are subjected to verbal abuse... Don't quote me on this, look it up for yourself. The results are interesting to say the least. So while inanimate objects like you're car or computer may not have any sort of emotions, sentience, or awareness, would you really be loosing anything if you sat in your car and appreciated having it? Imagine how much trouble getting to work would be without it! Appreciation is not a matter of obtaining anything, but it does help improve the quality of life for those around you. And at the end of the day, humans are all in it together, so why not help others along?

Machiavelli recommends that you spread good things out a little bit at a time over long periods, but take care of bad things all at once.

He was talking about running a dictatorship... but I think you can apply it to other things in life, too.

Appreciating art that is to my liking, and observing high quality drawings has really shaped my whole art aesthetic.