Daily Gratitude: This is such a valuable concept for each of us to grasp onto at this time in our lives. Things are chaotic. Things are stressful. We don’t really know what’s going to happen at any point in time. The people we thought were our leaders and who swore to protect us and our interests have abandoned us. We could let these thoughts overwhelm us to the point where we do nothing and just watch our lives dwindle away while we complain about things. We experience anxiety and fear. In some instances that fear is warranted but in many others it’s not. Knowing that when faced with a choice of thoughts, we can pick whichever one we want should be an immense relief. Awareness that you can have opposing thoughts is the first step. It’s not all black or white. How you react or respond to something is totally up to you. Several months ago i talked about contrast and clarity. This is another place where you can use that exercise. When you find yourself feeling anxious or down, take out a piece of paper and write your thoughts. One per line. When you’ve emptied your mind, go back to each line and write the opposite thought. Don’t question whether or not you can believe that thought. Just write it down. Do that for every item on your list. When you’re done with that, look this list over. Go back and select the thoughts YOU WANT to think (you can circle the ones you want or cross out the ones you want to eliminate- pick whichever method is more symbolic to you). Then it would be good to transcribe the ones you want to think onto another page (not necessary but helps to cement the feeling). Carry this page around with you all day. Refer to it frequently, reminding yourself they you can choose different thoughts. This won’t be easy at first because you’re accustomed to thinking those other thoughts automatically so give yourself some time to practice changing your thoughts. Then your world will begin to change too and you’ll see the power of intentionally picking what you want to think about. Let us know how it works for you.

Daily Gratitude: We’re all in such a hurry nowadays that i don’t think we take the time to think about the little moments and what they mean. Or, how lots of little moments add up into big ones. Take my recent injury. I’ve talked about this before but it bears repeating. I could spend all my time thinking about how painful and inconvenient this thing is, blah blah blah. Or I could have fun thinking about the little moments during that same time period that made me happy. A few years ago those moments would never even have made an impression let alone be considered “good times”. Let’s look at some. The morning after the injury I knew I had to get some bandages for the laceration. I knew where the CVS was so off i went. That by itself was intriguing trying to start my car with my left hand and move the gear shift. But I’ll come back to that. I was concerned because the low tire pressure light was still on. But which was most important? My arm or my car? I contemplated that as I drove to CVS. And guess what? Right across the street was a Toyota dealer. Voila- problem solved. Boy did I smile. Then when I went to the Toyota place, I was treated like a human being (not always the case) and the woman took great care of me. What a happy and comforting “little” moment. The same happened with each of my encounters or steps when i went to the ER. Lots of little moments to remember and re-experience. Every race I have ever done is overflowing with so many little moments. Isn’t it more fun to think back on those? I recommend making a “little moments” collection. Use a notebook or a notebook app and just jot them down as they occur. Whenever you’re feeling down or unsure read them over. It will brighten your day. And you know another side effect of paying attention to those little moments? You become more interested and invested in helping create a little moment for others. You can’t get more of a win-win situation can you?

Daily Gratitude: How often do we wish things were easier and that there weren’t so many obstacles? Sure that would make life easier – at least for a time being. But have you ever taken the time to review your life, listing the things you’ve had to overcome (you can call them obstacles or adversifies or challenges or whatever you want to label them). Create a timeline of these things and go back to list what the “problem/trouble” was. Then take some time with each to see what it took to get past them. At this early point in the exercise you’re just looking at each event separately. When you’ve done this, now it’s time to look and see if any of the old ones were connected. Did one choice give you “power” or skills that you implemented later on with another obstacle? Look for and list trends in meeting these things head on. Do you see a pattern? This can be a pattern involving new skills or perhaps old escape mechanisms where you find new ways each time to run away. Don’t put yourself down if you identify any trends. Just decide what you need to do about. What skills do you know you have that have been honed over the years? List them on one side of a piece of paper and then list your escape tactics on the other. Now you get to choose which skills you want to use or work to improve. Let us know if this helps you spot things or trends and if it helped.