 Thanksgiving is coming up. I know it is different. It may be challenging or you may be missing family members. And yet the opportunity for doing things a different way is good for our growth. Not always easy but important in the long run.
What is important to you on thanksgiving? Is it the food? The friends? The family? What are your favorite things about it? Make sure some of those things are included and if it’s “being with family” that are not present then thank god we have zoom. I know, I know everyone is sick of zoom. Believe me I have had 14-16 hour days of zoom hahahaha I get it. And yet I am sooooo grateful for zoom. The connection it has created and allowed is astonishing. If you had said last February, “hey in a couple of weeks you will only be able to talk to some of your family via the computer.” Everyone would have thought you were nuts! And yet here we are. We will be zooming on Thanksgiving to include family and I am so grateful that it is an option. They are safe and healthy and we can “see” them. That is a blessing. It is a perspective shift and reframing of our belief about what this day means. Here are 3 Things to help you on Thanksgiving: 1- Focus on the things that make you feel good and feel grateful. I will be focusing on the smells in my house and laughter and goofiness and zooming. I will be grateful for the health of everyone. I will be grateful for all the growth that has happened this year. I will be grateful for my tea and pie. I will be grateful for my littles that are now bigs. I will be grateful for love and joy in my heart. 2-You MUST You MUST you MUST take time for yourself. Please, self care everyday but during the holidays it is an absolute must. If you haven’t adopted this every day practice yet or you have let it slip then let me remind you to DO IT. Please. It is for yourself and for others because you are a better person when you give to yourself first. It can be small. Even a “time in” where you breathe with your eyes closed, focused on your heart and a beautiful memory from your life or it can be a walk but DO IT. It all starts with you. Let it begin there and radiate out. Fill your cup so you can give to others and not get depleted. Ok, I am now getting off the soap box. Hahaha. 3-If the “can’t, won’t, this sucks, etc…” keep showing up for you. Here is a little exercise you can do. Immediately replace it with the opposite. For example, “I just can’t have a good thanksgiving without my whole family” flip this to “I am learning new ways and new traditions to bring joy to myself”. It isn’t denying the feeling of loss it is reframing the moment. This is important for your brain. You know how we are always talking about training your brain, well this is a perfect time to put some of these skills to practice. Commit to having a good day and you will. I wish for you a thanksgiving celebration that is filled with gratitude and ease. Love you all.
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 Today I want to give you an exercise in focus.
Has anyone ever asked you what you want and you kind of stall and then list all the things you don’t want? You might be certain in one area of your life like work or finances but maybe another area like health or relationship feels like a mystery. Energy flows where focus goes so as you focus on all the things you don’t want your brain hears them and says, “oh those must be important. I will make sure to give her lots of that.” Seriously, this is a scientific fact. An example of this is when something becomes important to you, you start noticing it everywhere. It could be you just loved a movie and saw an actor you like in that movie and now you see that actor everywhere. Or you went to test drive a red Tesla and now everywhere you go you see red Teslas. Those things were always around you, you just didn’t notice them until your brain thought it was important to you. You can even test this out. Think of something and plant the seed in your brain, I wonder if I should start drinking celery juice? Read a couple of articles and then see if you start noticing stuff about celery hahahaha. What is exciting about this is that you can consciously choose what you want to focus on. Make it something that supports you and serves you. If you want to be healthier and eat better. Start supporting that with what you buy at the grocery, read about it and even when you are working out or walking repeat, “I am getting healthier and healthier every day!” Direct your focus. So here is the challenge. This week every time you think of something you don’t want erase it and say the opposite. Even if you don’t “know” what you want just use the word that is opposite of what you don’t want. “I don’t want to be tempted by junk food any more, I don’t want to over eat.” Switch that immediately in your brain: "Oops, brain, what I really want is to enjoy and love healthy and delicious veggies (and say it with excitement and maybe even jump up and down) and I will stop when I am full so I can run around and enjoy my kids.” Give this a go. You will be amazed at the results. Let me know. I love to hear how it is going for you. Thanks sweet family.  Have you heard the acronym K.I.S.S.?
Keep It Simple Sweety (it was stupid but I don’t like that!!!) By the way, never call yourself stupid. Ever, ever, ever, ever never ever!!! You can remind yourself, hey I need to improve that or I am growing in that area but please don’t call yourself stupid! Keeping things simple is such a game changer. How often do you complicate things and then don’t do them because they just seem soooooo huge?!!! Try to remember a time when you did that. Think about it for a sec. What happened? Did you still do it? Was it just too much? Could you have done it in a simpler way? Would it still have had an affect? Recently I had an assignment to deliver a random act of kindness. Something out of my comfort zone and I only had a couple hours and it was already late at night. I needed to run to the market and I was whizzing around. My normal way of being is to smile and acknowledge people so I couldn’t use that. It had to be something else. I turned down the next isle and there was a guy, who worked there, with his head down on his arm resting on a counter. Bing!!! Wow, normally I would think. Something is going on here and I don’t want to interrupt. However, the bing to bring kindness was louder. I crouched down and said, “hi”. He stayed down and turned his head pulled up his mask (which had been lowered to his chin) and just nodded. I was feeling good, energetic and happy so I was coming from that place and I just simply said, "do you know how late the store is open?" Well, wow!!! He stood up, in control, proud, “yes, we are open til 11”. I said, “isn’t that great! You are almost done with your shift.” He started laughing and we talked for a bit. He had been having a rough time, I didn’t know what was going on but just by talking to him from my heart and connecting I knew the rest of his shift was going to be great. That was it. Just human to human. Seeing each other and connecting. That can be an act of kindness. So I challenge you to do something, maybe a little out of your comfort zone. Keep it simple! And do it today. Happy happy Tuesday. |
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AuthorCourtney Gebhart, Life Coach, Kundalini Yoga teacher, and Human Being. Archives
January 2021
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