Daily Gratitude: Happy Thanksgiving everyone. I am so thankful for all members of Team Terrie! You have been through so much with me this year.
I have done so well with all the “issues” I’ve run into only because of you all.
What have i learned? That relationships (with people not things) is the most important aspect of your life. Also that often we put our attention into other things because we’re afraid of relationships or of getting very deep into them. I mean God forbid we should let others see who we really are.
People use the phrase Impostor (or for old folks like me – imposter) syndrome. But usually they are talking about it in terms of a career, a job. To me, it’s much more pertinent to look to see if you’re displaying it in your relationships. You know – that old “you wouldn’t like me if you got to know me” ploy.
Yes it’s scary but it’s so worth it. Be thankful for all the people in your life. Let them know that you are. Let them know what they mean to you.
Daily Gratitude: When things go in a different direction than you would like or you think they should (I avoided saying “wrong” because that’s an interpretation you put on something. You just may not understand it yet), instead of saying “why” start asking “what”
It shouldn’t be “why me?” or “why did this happen?”. Instead it should be “what am I supposed to learn from this?” And it also helps to ask “what gift is hidden within this?”
If you can start altering how you look at things, they will magically shift in your eyes. It’s not really magic, though. What you see outside of yourself is just a reflection of what’s inside of you and what you are thinking. And you know what? You are in control of what you think and you can change what you think. As you begin to do that changing, you will be surprised that you’re looking at things around you differently.
You can look at things as if they are all bad or mostly bad or maybe just somewhat bad. But what if you decided to try to see everything as good – or to find something good, no matter how tiny in what you’re seeing. Then focus on that tiny thing.
Let’s take a maybe gruesome example. You see a bad car accident. You could focus on the carnage; you could concentrate on the traffic back up; you could think about how lousy a safety rating that car has; you could be sad for the injured people. And so on.
How could you possibly find something good to focus on given that scenario. What if you concentrated on giving thanks for an exceptional first responder system – for the police, the fire rescue folks. The EMTs and paramedics, the people in the hospitals nearby, the modern day communications systems that have enabled quick response and cleanup. Why not concentrate and be grateful that it wasn’t you more or your family members.
Then ask yourself what lesson(s) am i being given? Maybe it’s a driving lesson, maybe it’s something you want to share with your children, maybe it’s that you should pay more attention to gratitude. Who knows. But I guarantee there’s a lesson.
Daily Gratitude: This is such an interesting concept. And one you need to think about quite a bit before you can just embrace it. But then it’s as if you slap yourself on the forehead and shout “of course.”
It gives you a better perspective on some of your pain. If you look at whatever you’re grieving or whatever is hurting you so much, take a deep breath and a few minutes to think about what information is coming from this experience and what it’s going to show you either as you’re enduring it or when it’s over. Think of labor. That pain must be unbearable. But look at the light that’s going to shine in your life after the pain.
Is there some hard time you’re going through right now that you can take a look at and realize the good that’s coming from it or at least how you can help other people (shine a light) when it’s over or even while you’re in the middle of it? You’ll be handing out wisdom and that’s a true gift.
