Daily Gratitude: As I was driving to Colorado over the last two days, I was practicing being in the present moment. That was amazing. As I gazed ahead and saw the road laid out for miles in front of me and noticed power/telephone lines up the mountains, thoughts about patience came to me. I thought about the people that laid these roads where there were rocks a dirt and who knows what. They had to clear the path first and then do all the important things required to lay hundreds (and sometimes thousands) of miles of road. We look at construction zones now and see how “easy” it is (seems) but it wasn’t like that when they had to start from scratch. I kept wondering how they erected all those miles of poles and wires up and down the mountains without any road access – they are just there. The lesson here is that we need to relook our expectations when dealing with goals. Things won’t happen overnight. It’s step by step and sometimes you have to redo things while getting oh so frustrated. But it’s a process and in order to have an excellent product at the end, you have to do it in a stepwise manner pioneering your way just as those laying our roads had to do.

Daily Gratitude: Did you know you can change your memories? The accuracy of memory is questionable anyway. There are so many studies that confirm this. It would be fun if you Googled it and saw how messed up people’s memories are. This could be discouraging but it also can be liberating. You don’t have to be stuck with all the bad memories that are clogging up your bank (your memory bank). Felt that a good friend shunned you in high school? Why continue to be plagued by this. Change it. Make it funny. Make it that you heard your friend say something inaudible but imagined it to be something bad. In your remake, you can have your friend say something really nice to you or about you. Didn’t feel loved as a child? Create some loving memories using things you recall. I had a “hospital” in our house and I loved being in it. So the memories I create involve that room and all the fun and great things I did. I even had ideas that would cure cancer but that’s another story. The memories of the hospital (and my “lab” in the basement) supersede any of those that weren’t so good. I can accept this since I know that my memory may not actually be completely accurate. I choose to hold on to good ones even if I have to create them. Memories change every time you recall them so try putting in good things. I know many of you are cringing at this idea but it has validity especially if you suffer from PTSD or other effects of trauma. You can search for “can you change your memories” and see what you find.

Daily Gratitude: I may have talked about this before but I think this is so important to absorb and believe. Whenever things aren’t going great, remember to look deep at the “adversity” and see if it really is a problem. Look to see if there isn’t something there you can turn around into something positive. I might have bemoaned my hip pain that plagued me all during training for Vol State. But by having it i learned to think of Voltaren cream AND I practiced more with my trekking poles. Thus, when I fell on my knee on the steps in the first mile and 12 hours later I had lots of pain with every step. So what did I do? I didn’t have any Voltaren then but I made sure I got some at the earliest possible moment. And I immediately pulled out my poles and they helped. When I had the after effects following the race the benefit was that I made myself get extra rest and as a result I not only recovered more quickly but also felt good enough to consider going to the race over Labor Day. These are not really deep ideas but they are what I could think of quickly. The benefit when I got rejected at medical school was that there was time for my epilepsy to be diagnosed without possibly interfering with any schooling. If you look closely, you’ll find that benefit or something that can be developed into a bigger benefit. Don’t sit back and have a pity party. Examine the situation and you may be surprised.