Daily Gratitude: I think that if we all could remember this simple saying, we’d feel more satisfied in our daily lives. You never know what will come from some action you take today. And that could be something good or not so good. Let’s say you cut someone off in traffic because you were late to work but just “had” to get to Starbucks to get your coffee first. How do you know that cutting that person off just wasn’t the last straw for that person. Maybe they are now falling off the deep end in their life. You’re probably thinking “oh Terrie, that’s BS. No one could be that affected by such a simple thing”. No? Do you think that all road rage is pre-planned? What, too, if that person has depression? Could that one act make them more suicidal? The point here is that not only can good acts turn people’s lives around but any act or words can change someone’s life. It’s not your job to figure out if or how. Your job is just to be kind and think about what you’re doing or saying because in just a second or two you may have planted a tree.

Daily Gratitude: I’m sure you’ve heard people tout the power of visualization. Athletes are always taking about how they visualized standing on the podium at the Olympics. I definitely believe in the power of visualization and encourage people to employ it. But what just came to mind recently was that worry is visualization too. Think about something you’ve been worried about – either now or in the past. What degree of detail did you put into that worry? How were you “seeing” what would happen (what you feared would happen anyway)? Our brains naturally take our words and convert them into pictures. That is visualization. Do you want to be bringing all that bad stuff you’re seeing into existence? Of course not. So try imagining the opposite and go into great detail about the good parts too. Detail and repetition are the keys to visualization. Do you want to manifest something you want (positive visualization) or something you don’t want (worry). You can control what you think about and what you “see” with your mind’s eye.

Daily Gratitude: I probably talk about this one too much but that’s because it’s one I have to keep reminding myself of. For some reason we don’t see anything as a success unless it’s either a) big and flashy (obvious) or b) complete and able to be crossed off our list. But success is actually making it through each day. There are some of you who will think that’s BS and others who will shout “yeah!” because they have been (or are in) that kind of situation. When I had the post shingles nerve pain (postherpetic neuralgia), making it through each day was a bigger accomplishment than anything else I’ve ever done. Did I celebrate that? No – I was too worried about when the next surge of electricity would come. Fast forward 9 years to yesterday when I was out on my training walk and i had to stop at a light at 3.5 miles. I realized how important it was for me to be grateful that at least up to that point none of the physical problems that have popped up lately hadn’t bothered me that morning. It didn’t matter what night show up later. What mattered was that I felt good right then and there. That was a success and it was my “job” to express gratitude for that success. Yes, later my foot and knee started to let me know they were there. But did that take away from the earlier success and the happiness that went with expressing my gratitude? For once the answer is “no”. I could still feel the excitement of that recognition and it was fun and made me want to repeat the process. One tiny little thing forged how my whole day went. I could have chosen to ignore it but fortunately I didn’t. What can you consider a success today?