Category Archives: Daily Gratitude

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Daily Gratitude

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Daily Gratitude: Have you ever fallen prey to this? “I hope I can finish this __ (you can fill in the blank).” You keep saying and thinking this – over and over and over. But you never really sit down and figure out what it will take to “finish this”. You know it will be a lot of hard work and that’s scary. When people are scared they tend to freeze (that’s why it’s not just the Fight or Flight response but the fight, flight or freeze response. When I “decided” I had to keep walking at vol state this year, all I could do was “hope” that when I was doing the 60 minute miles that maybe I could get there. By the way, I put “decided” in quotes because I didn’t really decide anything. Jan did. I just went along with it. Anyway, hoping I could make it to the rock was not going to do it. I knew I had to rest and preferably sleep but I didn’t know how much time I could take doing that so I was pretty much immobilized- what if it’s too much down time? What if it’s too little? What is the Goldilocks amount of time so I could rest enough yet not too much. All these things were running around in my head. Nothing was being accomplished. I didn’t have any plan. Enter Ray K. He took the info I gave him which was just a bunch of estimates clouded by emotions and he ferreted out what he could and told me how to accomplish this even walking so slowly. In essence he made the decisions for me. Bottom lines are: you need facts to make decisions and you need to remove emotions from the decision making process. That’s hard but doable. You can talk to that side of your brain and tell it that you’re not ignoring your emotions. You just want them to wait in the wings while the decision making side of your brain takes over “for just a little while.” I find talking to the parts of your brain like this helps you separate the facts from the emotions. Try it some time.

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Daily Gratitude

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Daily Gratitude: I am pretty sure you’ve all heard this quote before. But the real question is “are you still trying to solve your issues with the same thinking as before”. Just because you see something either cute or profound doesn’t mean it’s automatically going to change your life. You have to work at it.

And in this case you have to become aware of a) what you’ve been thinking ; b) what the problem is that you’re trying to solve; and c) what you need to change in your thinking to solve that problem.

This takes analysis and work. And it’s not easy at all. You’re having to change your neural circuits and that takes time. But if you persist, it will definitely be worth your while.

Take my recent right shoulder injury. I have to do pretty much everything with my left hand. At first that was very cumbersome and I was clumsy. Now, though, after 3 weeks of practice, I will say I’ve become pretty good with my left hand. I had to persist because I had no other choice.

With the thinking process, you want to do the work before you HAVE to. Here’s a way to start.

List your problems.

Then pick the top 2-3. Maybe even just start with one so you don’t confused. Save the rest of the list.

Now list what your thoughts about this problem are – this may be a mixture of fact and emotion. Right now that’s ok. Just write them all down.

When you have that list somewhere outside your brain (paper or computer), go back and decide which are facts and which are emotions. Cross out the emotions. What you’re left with is the facts. You may be surprised looking at the facts without the emotional baggage attached.

The solution may just pop out at you. But it may not. Then look at all the ways this problem could be solved. No matter how ridiculous or “out there” a solution might initially sound.

Then take each solution and think about whether it is possible. If you write something like “i could rob a bank”, then I’d cross that off. Remember to just cross it off, don’t editorialize by saying “you fool that would never work. Get real”’or other negative self talk.

This is just brainstorming and nothing is a foolish idea in brainstorming. If you keep the emotion and negative self talk out of it, something might strike you as possible or plausible.

Take my situation for example. I am supposed to go to Boulder Colorado toward the end of this week – 1000 mile drive each way. Can i do it with mostly only one arm – safely and comfortably? I don’t know. Each day my right arm gets more functional. But 1000 miles is 2 days of driving (and no I’m not going to fly).

The most unique answer I came up with was: I can head on out and if it becomes too much, I can stop, rest overnight and then come home. I know you’re all thinking “that’s stupid. What a waste of money” and who knows what else. But I’ve considered all that and the money is a risk I’m willing to take because this trip is so important to me.

I’m not done coming up with ideas but if I hadn’t followed this process I’d have never even thought of this. Try it on something small if you’re hesitant. Let us know how it turned out for you.

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Gratitude is a powerful process

Daily Gratitude: Today is world gratitude day!! When things aren’t going so well, what do you think about? When my race was spiraling downward in July, I wasn’t thinking of gratitude. I was thinking discouragement, despair and disillusionment. That’s always a recipe for not achieving success. The universe was sending me signs that plainly said “be grateful” (the dog hit by a car, the cute kittens, the adorable little puppy) but I had my blinders on. Later I saw all these blessings for what they were. But our goal is to see them when they appear and to be grateful for what we have when we have it and not have to wait until later. Had I paid attention to being grateful, my energy and spirit would have been lifted so I could better address what wasn’t going so well. This takes practice and effort. It’s why I encourage all of us (including me) to focus on our gratitudes every single day. Stuck in traffic? Be grateful you have a car and a place to go. Something simple. Having to wait in line to check out in the grocery store? Be grateful you have the money to pay for your groceries even if you’ve had to cut down perhaps. There are people out there who can’t even afford a tenth of what you have in your cart. Take one day and devote time to this and see if your energy and outlook change.