To Be Thankful Is To Be Powerful

November has arrived and the end of the year is rapidly approaching. We see it in a time change and the way darkness falls on earth much sooner than desired. We see it as it is being shoved down our throats through retailers nationwide with the push for Christmas to come earlier each year. We can feel it in the weather through the cold breezes and damp days that accompany autumn. Most of all we can feel it in ourselves.

When it is officially time for the holidays, we tend to feel our cortisone levels rise quicker than normal. We stress ourselves over finances, from being able to host extravagant family dinners to having the money to buy each person on your list exactly what they wanted. We stress ourselves over family dynamics, whether they be toxic or nonexistent. We stress ourselves by constantly looking forward and knowing that a new year is right around the corner. We begin wondering what more we can accomplish. We stress over what resolutions we can make that we will be inclined to actually keep this time around. We stress ourselves by looking back on the past year and the list of things we have failed to do without taking much consideration as to all we’ve managed to cross off our lists. Ultimately we stress ourselves over the expectations that are drawn up in our minds about what exactly this time of year means or should mean.

I’m here to tell you to stop. All of it. Just stop, even if only for 10 minutes.

Shake off all expectations of where you should be and simply accept where you are. You cannot go back and change anything that led you to right here and now, and acknowledging that is the first step.

Shake off all expectations of what is to come, and openly accept all that may.

Shake off all expectations you have inappropriately placed on yourself.

Shake off all expectations you hold regarding situations that may stress you, drain you, or do not serve you.

Sit back and think of yourself as completely lost in the present moment. Expectations do not live here. Do not stress what November is “supposed” to mean or what follows in the next couple of months.

Take this time to appreciate.

Appreciate the stillness that is found in the days before winter takes over and nature hibernates.

Appreciate the time this gives you to slow down and relish in the beauty that life really has to offer.

Appreciate the moments this season brings you with those you love the most.

Appreciate all you have been through so far this year, all the hurdles you have overcome.

Appreciate what this means for who you are as a person and how much you have grown because of it.

Appreciate where you will be tomorrow without stressing yourself over what is next.

Above all else appreciate today.

Be thankful for what this year has taught you and do not consume yourself with what it has failed to.

Be thankful for all you have accomplished and do not consume yourself with what you have not.

Be thankful for all of the blessings in your life and do not allow your thoughts to be consumed with the things that go wrong in between.

Be thankful for all that you have and do not consume yourself with what you do not.

To be thankful is to live a life of gratitude. Your ability to stay appreciative for all you have been given will allow the universe to respond with an everlasting flow of abundance.

To be thankful is to be powerful.