Daily Gratitude: “The greatest achievement of the human spirit is to live up to one’s opportunities.”

I wish I could have believed that when I was younger. Sure, I heard it all the time but it seemed as if it only applied to other people, not me.

I had so many opportunities that I wasted. And they were wasted primarily because of fear. It’s truly amazing that I made it to this age being wrapped in fear my whole life. It was as if I was surrounded by plastic wrap with no room to breathe or grow.

This is why I think it’s so important that kids be exposed to IFS (Internal Family Systems) and continue their work with it throughout their life.

In the 6 years I’ve worked so much with it, I have become a totally different person- and still have a long way to go.

I have mentioned this before too. I was never happy until the last maybe 4 years. I guess I feigned happiness because I didn’t know what it really was until recently.

Never let fear keep you from trying something. If you can get past it and step out into a new opportunity, I bet you’ll be happy and proud. The confidence you’ll gain just from trying something new will shock you.

We are all here to continually grow and making the most of the opportunities presented is the best way to grow!

Daily Gratitude: “Hope is being able to see that there is light despite all of the darkness.”

This is often difficult to embrace. Even if you’re not completely a “everything is either black or white” person, sometimes the sky seems filled with clouds and you can’t spot even a tiny break.

This is why it is so helpful to have a “hope partner” or whatever you want to call it. This person can help “clean your glasses” or can simply look for the breaks in the clouds where there might be hope….despite the fact you can’t see any.

If you listen to that person and trust them (why else would you have picked them to be your “hope partner”?), and keep an open mind, you’ll be able to find something you can grasp onto.

Then your partner can continue to encourage you and help you hold on. The longer you try to see the hope, and the calmer you and your partner can make your nervous system, the clearer the skies will become.

Daily Gratitude: “We must be willing to let go of the life we have planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us.”

As usual this is a recurrent theme here. We really have to learn that the universe knows what’s best for us and if our planned out life seems to be getting derailed, there’s a reason and it’s usually that we’re not on the best path for us.

I can tell you that EVERY detour that my “planned life” has taken has been for the best despite the fact that I sure didn’t feel that way at the time. I was like a toddler kicking and screaming that life wasn’t fair and why me and all the pity party phrases you can think of.

It’s funny in retrospect because no matter how loud I yelled, nothing changed. Had I had the wisdom and knowledge I have today, I would have just said something like “I see. Must be I’m not on the right road. Maybe I should turn my GPS over to greater powers than me”. That would have been so much easier.

Talk to others – friends and family and see if they don’t agree that the way things ended up was actually better. This may not be apparent for a long time so don’t make snap judgements. Keep the faith though.