Thanksgiving 2017 – It’s All About You

Past Thanksgivings I’ve talked about all that I’m grateful for:  my kitty, Kali, friends, family, living in a beautiful place, and pretty good health.

This year let’s talk about being thankful for ourselves, including our foibles, and imperfect thoughts and actions; let’s celebrate that we’ve made it this far. It’s easy to remember our mistakes and failures, but let’s change it up this year.

Let me start by asking:  where are you?

This is an open-ended question, but I pose it as such so you can personalize it for yourself. What does it mean to you to think about where you are in your life … in terms of growth and development, or happiness, or being the kind of person you always wanted to be, or just being enough? Only you can answer these questions.

If you’re not quite there yet, make a separate inventory of things you want to do in the new year that will make you feel better about yourself.

But today, acknowledge where you are and all of the positives you’ve brought into your life. Let the negative talk stay out of the jibber-jabber of your mind.

Here is an exercise to help you celebrate all your goodness. Get calm, find your openness, and quiet the mind chatter. Visualize an instance this past year when you:

~ overcame
~ let go
~ faced a fear
~ tackled an insurmountable project
~ connected with spirit
~ actively listened
~ forgave either yourself or another
~ performed a random act of kindness
~ didn’t interrupt when you were sure you had the right answer
~ didn’t judge your behavior or the behaviors of others
~ lived fully in the present moment
~ were authentic
~ were true to yourself
~ didn’t ignore
~ didn’t condescend
~ didn’t boast

Look at you! I know you’ve done all these things and done many of them recently! Be proud and celebrate.

This Thanksgiving do an inventory about where you are in life and then celebrate the hell out of that. No one is going to high-five you when you expose your vulnerability. No one. So do it for yourself. I guarantee it’ll be worth it!

Give thanks for you! It’s the one thing you can control, and I’ll bet you can always use more acknowledgement for your accomplishments.

Happy Thanksgiving!