Daily Gratitude: You all know about Vol State- my Tennessee race in July. Well, the wise meat wagon lady is always telling people to make sure they smile especially when things are not going so great. Smiling changes your chemicals by releasing endorphins, dopamine and serotonin. These are happy chemicals (yes it’s simplistic but if you want to know more you can look it up) so your mood will change and that’s what you want when you’re not feeling that great as frequently happens during the race. It works in life too. You can practice smiling and see how it works for you. If you do find it works then you can incorporate it into your everyday life! Smile – you don’t have to be on camera to smile.

Daily Gratitude: This is especially true when you realize we make our own happiness. This is why I use my “everything always works out for me” mantra. I don’t know what’s ahead but I know it will be a lot better if I go toward it believing it’s the best thing for me. Sure it’s hard when there’s a disaster in our lives but we have to go on. The recent hurricanes and flooding had brought terrible times on people but it’s also brought out the beauty and goodness of people. We can only control the controllables and the most important part of that is how we think about something and how we respond. Stay in the present but if you have to think about something else, pick the future and not the past.

Daily Gratitude: I have probably used this before but it’s worth repeating. What would you attempt in your life if you knew you couldn’t fail? How much fun would you have? Have you ever lain in bed imagining this for yourself? What if you used every opportunity to do this type of visualization. When thinking about it, don’t just see it. Feel it. The universe responds to your vibrations not your words. If you get yourself believing this, just think of all you can do. Do you think I believed “everything always works out for me” when I first started saying it? Heck no. But after constantly repeating it for months and years I really do believe it. And I can show you too. It’s taken work to get to to be a part of my life but it was worth all the effort in the world. Start imagining that you can’t fail at something you want. Feel the excitement. Do the work.