Daily Gratitude: What is all the current tension in the country doing to your inner world? Have you thought about that?’”But,” you’re probably saying “what can I do about it? It’s out of my control.” That’s true. It is out of your control. So what IS in your control? Is complaining helping any? Not really. What activities can you participate in that will help you feel better and hopefully make a difference? Focus on those. When you’re in turmoil, you’re not helping anything are you? And it’s not healthy for you either. I’ve written before how so much stress and upset within my system put me in the hospital for a long time. I’ve learned to focus on what I can do at my small level and join when there is something that can make a difference but my system doesn’t need to live in a state of unrest every minute of every day. That does no one any good. Find things that you can influence. Join others when possible but otherwise don’t let the state of the union ruin your state too. I am not saying to ignore what’s happening, just to find ways to minimize the adverse effects on you. This takes discernment and control but it’s well worth the effort.

Daily Gratitude: Why, then, do we hurry so much in our lives? Perhaps it’s because we want to squeeze everything we can into the short time we have here. But, does doing more afford you the opportunity to enjoy more? What is enjoyment to you, anyway? Is it just ticking things off your todo list? Is it just being able to say “I did that”? Why do you hurry so much? Why is it so important that you “do” so much? How much do you actually feel? Do you feel at all? Why are you always in a hurry? I have had two days in the last few months that I called “do nothing” days. And I realized that meant “do nothing scheduled”. I just stayed at home and truly intended to do nothing. You know what, though? I ended up getting more done than on most other days. It was amazing and rewarding. Consider reassessing all that you do and why or what it gives you (and what you think it’s giving you). Can you change just one thing? What happens if you do?

Daily Gratitude: This definition comes from the PsychCentral website: “In psychology, a ‘trigger’ is a stimulus that causes a painful memory to resurface. A trigger can be any sensory reminder of the traumatic event: a sound, sight, smell, physical sensation, or even a time of day or season.” The key word there as it applies to this quote is “reminder” since that refers to something in the past. It often takes intense work to decrease the intensity of a response to a trigger but if you can just keep in the front of your mind the thought that you are being sucked into the past, it might help. Continue to reinforce (in your non-triggered moments) that this is the present and the trigger just shoots your thoughts into the past but you are still in the present. Maybe that can help keep your feet on the ground and make your “stay” in the past shorter and shorter. Think of it as fishing. Although the fishing hook has been tossed way out there, into the past, you are still standing on the shore (the present) and you have the power to reel your memory in and bring it back to the present. Sometimes you’ve hooked a whale and that experience will be more intense and take longer to reel in. Other times you will have hooked a small minnow that you can pull in easily and quickly. The thing about the whale, though, is that the more you practice reeling it in, the stronger and more adept you get at it and it will become easier. What happens to many, though, is that they just fling themselves into the ocean (or whatever body of water) along with the hook. They no longer have their feet on the ground – they are no longer in the present. They have tossed their entire being in the water. They’ve lost their ability to bring things (memories) back to the present to relieve themselves of that pressure. If the fishing concept doesn’t work for you, find some other analogy (or simile or whatever the right descriptor is) that contains something to keep you grounded so you’re no longer floundering around in the past.