Daily Gratitude: Have you ever taken some time to write down your fears? It’s hard and not pleasant but it’s probably one of the most beneficial things you can do. Why? Because awareness/recognition is the first step in overcoming them. Once you’ve identified a fear it’s much easier to come up with a strategy to work on it. Staring it in the face makes its seemingly monstrous size quickly sizzle as if you’re letting the air out of a balloon. When it’s shrunk, it’s so much easier to say “what the heck am i afraid of? I am bigger than this!” If you can sweep at least one fear aside, the feeling of joy you’ll have is amazing. Then you’ll be able to look at your list and face the next one. Before you know it, that list will be minuscule. I bet your happiness quotient will be much higher by then too. Test it out.

Daily Gratitude: It’s so important that we hold onto this concept each and every day of our lives. It will help us get through the “stuff” that happens. It goes along with one of my favorite mantras – “This, too, Shall Pass”. If we don’t have something like this to believe, it’s so easy to lose hope. And hope is what gets us through each day. There will be a new beginning even when we can’t seem to see it.