Daily Gratitude: Remember “Don’t Worry, Be Happy”? This quote encapsulates the essence of life that we should be striving for. When you read it, you’ll smack your forehead and say “duh, of course”. if trouble comes, you’ll have plenty of time to be miserable (if that’s what you choose). So why steal some of that misery ahead of time? You certainly don’t need to “practice” being miserable, do you? Why not just go on about today’s business and deal with whatever is coming (if it is coming) when it gets here?

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.