Daily Gratitude: So much of what haunts us is monsters from the past. From when we were children and were helpless. Adults were gigantic and some of them remain just as large in our minds today.

It was “miles” just to get from the house to the sidewalk. And who knew was hiding in the bushes along the way.

The loud voices might not have been aimed at you but you didn’t know that then. The whole world seemed to revolve around you so, of course, they were yelling at you. Any raising of voices now makes you cringe, thinking someone is mad at you. You did something wrong.

You were told not to trust people. Now someone is being nice to you. You wonder why? What is it that they want from you?

What other thoughts, feelings and behaviors of yours can you see have come from your past? Once you can identify the source, there’s a way to correct that. It takes some work and I recommend IFS (internal family systems) as it’s the easiest way I’ve found. But there are other ways for you to respond in the present, not the past.

Daily Gratitude: use this affirmation when to make things a bit easier when they get tough.

It’s important to remember the hard times that you have endured already. Let that give you courage and strength every day. Those past days show you that you can make it through whatever is happening right now.

You are a survivor!

Daily Gratitude: We’ve talked about this before but it can never be discussed enough.

I was at breakfast the other day with a friend. We ordered and when the waitress brought our food she told us it had been paid for by someone. We were both astounded and had no idea who would do this or why.

But I’ll tell you how it made my day. It was a small act of kindness and neither of us needed the money. But it meant so much because this person just wanted to do something nice and didn’t care if we deserved it, needed it, or wanted it. They just did something that made him feel good because they knew it would make us feel good.

The positive vibrations in that person and in both of us were sent out to the universe and as a result more positivity is created. And Lord knows we need as much positivity as we can get.

Don’t just sit there and say “I should do something like that”. That’s an intention. But it’s not really worth anything unless you take some action. Without action it’s just talk.

What small act of kindness can you do today instead of just talking about an intention?