There were years when things were hard. I mean like a whole decade (if not more) that was really really dark. I got divorced, I was a single mom with four kids looking for a job that just wouldn’t come. I only went on one job interview after a year of searching and they gave the job to someone else. Finally I decided to go back to school. Just one month after starting school (full time mind you) I got that job. So now I was a single mom with a full time job and going to school full time and the hard continued. Then graduate school. Not to mention the struggles within the family. I share all that not to bring you down or for attention, but just to say I’ve had some tough years!
Through those years what got me through from one day to the next, one hour to the next, and honestly sometimes from one minute to the next was gratitude. At one point I started a gratitude journal. It’s a tool I often suggest to clients now. There’s a fair amount of research that’s been done about the benefits of gratitude on our mental and physical health. It’s good powerful stuff. I also suggest doing the Motivational Interviewing Card Sort and often do it in session with people. When I did it for myself my number one value was…you guessed it! Gratitude.
Recently I’ve found myself struggling with a completely different (and totally unexpected) struggle. Things are amazing! Like off the charts, completely surreal, totally surprisingly amazing. I started my new business and started seeing clients in May. I was thinking maybe I’d need to cut my hours at my agency job sometime late in the year. As of middle September I’m only going to be there twice a week because I’ll be doing three full days at my private practice. To say that this has taken off way faster than I ever imagined it would is an understatement.
While I am so incredibly excited and glad that things are going so well, I have to admit that at times it’s super overwhelming. I’ve been sort of lost in the success recently and feeling like I don’t know what to do with myself. I am not complaining by any means, it’s just that this is so outside of what I know that I’m not sure how to cope. It occurred to me that the coping skill that worked so well in the darkness might also work for me in the light. Maybe gratitude would once again be the grounding that I need.
Gratitude will shift you to a higher frequency, and you will attract much better things.
Rhonda Byrne
So I’d like to make a list of the things that I’m grateful for…. I’m grateful for the struggles that have made me who I am today. Someone with empathy and compassion and an ability to sit with the pain of others. I am grateful that because things were so hard for so long I can truly appreciate the blessings that I have today. I am grateful for my children who inspire me and give me something to work for every single day. I am grateful for this business. I am grateful for my job that’s more than a job, it’s something of a calling. I am grateful for the families that let me walk with them in some of their darkest moments. I am grateful for the practice of….
