Daily Gratitude: We have to remember this. It’s so vital right now. The worst thing we can do is pull back and away from others. When world circumstances are depressing, pulling away will only make everything more oppressive.

This is the time to keep in touch; check on others, really probing them to make sure they’re ok; volunteer more with people that need company (seniors and the disabled or people in nursing or care homes). If you think you’re feeling bad, think how a person who is already lonely and scared is feeling. Company achieves amazing changes in people.

Tell those you love why you love them and tell them every day.

Ask someone what you can do to help them. Ask them what worries or scares them. In case you think that is being too forward, you might be surprised. They may just be bursting to let some thoughts and emotions out.

Don’t allow yourself to be alone. You must reach out for your own sake too.

Connection, community, commonality.

Daily Gratitude: Take this wisdom from Maya Angelou. You need passion and compassion to round out your being. There’s so much in between but if you can bookend everything else with just these two qualities, your life has a greater probability of being successful.

And of course humor helps everyone get through the day more easily.

But most importantly you need a mission no matter your age. You shouldn’t just be content with surviving. Having a deep mission can change that to thriving. Once you figure out your current mission, you will begin to thrive.

This may seem overwhelming but it’s only a few things you need to cultivate and pay attention to. Work hard on passion, compassion, humor and your mission. That should come before all else.

Daily Gratitude: Do you know what kind of a difference you want to make? Do you want to make a difference? Have you ever thought about what you did today or last week or last month that made a difference (even if just to one person)? Perhaps you didn’t notice but I bet someone else did.

What if every day when you woke up, you said “I’m going to make a difference today!”

What do you think your mind would think? Would it be “you? Who are you kidding?” Or “oh yeah and we’re going to win the lottery too”, or “OK great – how are we going to make a difference?”

Perhaps your mind will go through all three scenarios but hopefully will end up with the last.

Once the question “how” has come to the surface you can start by making a list of possible ways. Start small and make them doable.
• I’m going to smile at 3 people today
• I’m going to check on 3 people I have been remiss in contacting
• I’m going to start doing x project (where x is something, some habit, you’ve been thinking about )

Pretty soon you won’t have to think hard or make a list each day. Pretty soon, your mind will be filled with things you want to do that can make a difference. Why? Because it’s something you want and your mind is becoming conditioned to produce what you want so while you sleep, it will be producing ideas. You can enhance that by saying before you go to sleep “tomorrow I’m going to make a difference”. That tells your mind to get to work on ideas.

Try it. It’s fun..and positive and we certainly need more positive these days