I am using the subquestion what am I not able to appreciate when I believe that thought? more, which helps me discover things about appreciation. Mainly, that beliefs and identifications makes it impossible to appreciate certain things about the world. They filter appreciation as well as a great deal of other things.
When something falls within a belief or identity, I can appreciate it, but it is a slightly compulsive form of appreciation. I know that the world is only temporarily showing up within the boundaries I have set up for it, so I appreciate it, but also want to hold onto it. There is a tightness in it.
And when something falls outside of a belief or an identity, rubbing up against a should, it is certainly not appreciated.
When there is a release from attachment to story and the identity, there is a wider embrace of life and also a wider circle of appreciation. I can now appreciate what used to fall within the belief, but without or with less rigidity. And I can also appreciate, in a genuine and sincere way, what used to fall outside of the belief.
Said another way, I am free to appreciate life whether it aligns with that particular story and its corresponding identity or not.
There is nothing wrong with not appreciating certain things. It happens inevitably when a belief and its corresponding identity clashes with the world.
But after having lived with it for a certain time, there is often an impulse to move beyond. We realize we have created a prison for ourselves, which has helped us develop and get familiar with certain areas of this human self, but now it is time to move on.