Hope, Gratitude and Giving Thanks
By: Javan
November 26, 2014

Good, emotional health is about knowing what works! Knowing your own strengths, your own happiness, and where you feel grounded is important for good, emotional health. Do you know what works for you? Do you know how to connect to your own hopefulness? The good news is that hope exists!

Whatever your situation, hope resides in all of us. Feeling the “yes I can” among the stress of the holidays can be hard, but something being hard to do doesn’t change the fact that the possibility. Hope still exists. We have the power to create big and small hope in our day to day living. If you are feeling distress about Turkey Day, give yourself the gift of gratitude. Things don’t go our way. That’s true for everyone. We all have expectations and desires, but the gifts of life are all around us. Whether it is the nature outside, the voice of a friend, our favorite food, a great TV show, a pet, a family member, a song, and our greatest gift of all, yourself. Don’t forget that you are a gift! Having gratitude for yourself is probably the hardest thing to do. Does that conjure feelings of guilt, selfishness, or dislike? It shouldn’t, because life itself is a gift. The air we breathe, the experiences we have, and the knowledge we retain are all amazing aspects of life. Regardless of whether anyone else appreciate you, we are special because we have life.

Dog as PilgrimBeing grateful for the simplest life experiences like dreams, simply amazes me! Even though I have dreamt many dreams in my lifetime. Life and people are simply amazing! This holiday season, do what you need to do for yourself. That may sound selfish, but self-love can be life changing. Self-acceptance, appreciation, and love can become the greatest expression of outer love for the world. Be grateful for what is your life, your experiences, your heart, your S-E-L-F. Being grateful for yourself allows you to give to others with a loving, open heart. Having an open heart means forgiving hurts, accepting yourself and others as broken, and trusting you have what you need, instead of an expectation. When you love yourself, you can love others generously!!!!

I wish you peace, love, and hope during this Thanksgiving holiday. I thank you for reading my blog, for being a client, a friend, a family member, and mostly for being you! Be thankful for you. Be thankful for yourself.