The Balanced Life, Huntsville Alabama

The expression of praise as thanksgiving, gratitude, and joy is among the most powerful forms of affirmation.

--Catherine Ponder

“No matter what age you are or what your circumstances may be, you are special, and you still have something unique to offer. Your life, because of who you are, has meaning.”  Barbara De Angelis

In lieu of the upcoming holidays, I felt compelled to blog about what it means to be thankful and furthermore, how to develop an attitude of gratitude. By now, you have probably heard the countdowns begin: 5 days until Halloween, 30 days until Thanksgiving and 59 days until Christmas. When hearing those numbers, it is easy for us to feel these days approaching quickly and often times, we feel stressed and crunched for time. With the Thanksgiving countdown, we are faced with planning a meal or organizing a family get together, while Christmas involves decorating our house, shopping for gifts, and many other special traditions. Even though these countdowns may prove helpful to some, I have recently found them to be more anxiety provoking, than useful to my life.

Most people are probably with me when I say, I’m looking forward to a new year! Possibly more than I ever have before. This year has been extra-challenging, to say the least. And while we still may have a ways to go before things are “normal” again, we have had time to adjust and stabilize to a certain degree over the last 10 months and things seem more hopeful with the introduction of the COVID-19 vaccine. I, for one, am optimistic that there’s a light at the end of what has seemed to be an interminably long tunnel.

Although my dad in 2002 died at 55 years and 10 months old, he used to say he was “double nickels”. Now it’s my turn to be the age of double nickels at my next birthday in October. There’s always been this dark cloud hanging over my brother, sister, and I since our dad and two other close extended family members died relatively young around the same time.

Gratitude is a word I’ve heard many times in my life, many of which I brushed aside while feeling like no one understood how I felt.  If they did, they certainly wouldn’t use the word “gratitude”, a word I felt minimized and brushed aside what I was going through.  Those times when I left home early to arrive at the office early only to find road construction slowing me down or when I was mistreated by someone are the times I had difficulty finding gratitude in much of anything.

However, did you know that when we change our attitude from grumpy to grateful, it can change our lives from miserable to genuine deep down daily happiness? It’s true and research proves it time and again that people who practice gratitude in their daily lives live longer and lead fulfilling lives. Now, instead of feeling angry when I get stopped in a long line of road construction, I feel gratitude that we have roads to drive on and the means to repair those roads. If I feel mistreated by someone, I brush it off and am grateful I don’t treat people that way.

Ok...so, I'm cheating this week. I admit it. It's my week to write and I've allowed myself to be stretched too thin and as a result I'm late writing and have one too many things on my plate! But, as I tell many a client, these are the results of my choices and while I don't regret all the things I've been doing, I do recognize that I need to take a step back and slow it down. I preach mindfulness...it's important to practice it as well!

So, one way I'm taking a step back is by cheating a bit with blog content. I have had this article in my inbox for a year now waiting for the right moment to share it and today seems like the perfect day! We are fast approaching holiday season and New Year's Resolutions, so it seems timely to talk a bit about healthy habits. I'm borrowing this from the foodmatters.tv website. It's a great resource for healthy living that you might like to check out.

Enjoy! (and I promise my own content next time!)

Over the past few years, I’ve become increasingly interested in the concept of mindfulness and how it can benefit those who practice it. There is more and more research coming out that supports the many benefits from a mindfulness practice.

In today’s world, we are often consumed by stress about completing items on our “to do” list. Instead of focusing on the little things in life that bring joy and happiness, we find ourselves pouring energy and worry into tasks and obligations.

Believe it or not, we have made it to November. This year has been anything but predictable. At the beginning of 2020, nobody could have imagined the way our lives would change.

As I prepared to write today’s blog, I reflected long and hard on the topic as I often do.  The word that kept coming to me was “comparisons”.