Daily Gratitude: Today is my 100th hotline (Talking With Dr Terrie) message. This is the daily call where people listen to a message from me and then can leave a response. You can also find it on YouTube and Spotify/Apple Podcasts or listen to previous calls at https://TalkingWithDrTerrie.com. The best part about calling and listening on your phone is that you can actually talk to me, not just write a comment. I listen to all the responses and summarize the audience’s comments at the end of the week. It’s been a lot of fun and it’s been hard and time consuming. The folks who have been faithful since the beginning have heard me chatter for 5 hours now. They’ve learned a lot of info in bite size pieces. I hope they have learned enough to make it worth their while. Some loyal Team Terrie members have joined in but I only really know the ones that leave comments. So maybe there are more. Anyway, I have learned more than I have taught and I am grateful for it. I have also realized how vital the practice of IFS (internal family systems) has been and will continue to be in my life. In the interest of brevity (relatively speaking) I will say that the absolute best thing that has happened is the development of an amazing friendship with a guy who has become the love of my life (life in general, not the romantic kind. I am 76 years old after all). His friendship is something that I will value forever and what he does is make me laugh and make me think. When you put those two activities together, there isn’t anything you can’t do. That, alone, has made all this worth it. Listen in – it’s just 3 minutes. 210-390-6100

Daily Gratitude: Can you imagine how your world could change if you really believed this? What if you could see what others think of as a disaster as an opportunity for people to come together and help others? What if, instead of complaining that it rained and messed up some Saturday or Sunday plan you had, you could see how it enabled you to do something else with the kids- something they brought you even closer together? How we interpret things is based on what we’ve previously experienced AND on how we’ve reacted to those things. Some people have Scrooge for a parent and others have Pollyanna. Why is that important? Because our parents/guardians are who have most likely taught us how to respond to things. Some people are fortunate enough to have a progressive parent who believes in and teaches that there is a pearl forming from that pebble in your shoe that is currently causing you pain. This type of person will learn to look for the good in everything and will be patient enough to wait for that good to show up. Therefore they don’t go ballistic when something “goes wrong “. They just look at it as if the oyster hasn’t opened yet but when it does, boy will that pearl be beautiful. What’s in your background? Can you change the way you look at things so that you just know something good will happen. Remember how I’ve told you that Catherine Ponder (possibly the First Lady of metaphysics) declares everything good! Can you try that for a week and keep track of all that happens and how often you say it. Then sit back and see what happens regarding the things you declared good vs the ones you didn’t.

Daily Gratitude: Most of the time this is up to you. You can make it a great day. There are even remarkable people who are disabled or who are dying can find something about their day or their lives to be happy about. Why not try to find one tiny little thing that makes you happy. Make sure you allow yourself to smile about the memory or thought so that your brain is actively engaging your muscles. That’s an “action” and all of the good things we experience have some sort of action associated. Anyway, have that one little thing be your “happiness factor” to start your day. Then the rest of the day, your job is to find other LEGO pieces to add to the “happy construction” you’ve got going. To start with they should be little things so you can find more and more. You can use the same ones on more than one day if you need to. But the more you practice, the easier it will become to find something right around you that adds to your happiness. Maybe a loved one is in the hospital in critical condition. But can you be happy they are getting great care, that the ambulance got them to the hospital in time; that there are people coming to be with you or calling/texting; that you are well enough to be able to endure this; etc.? You may have to go so little with something like “there are vending machines here”. Find something to smile about. It will increase your energy and allow you to have more strength to deal with whatever else is coming your way that day.