A lot of things in life require attention to thrive and grow. We recognize that our children, our friendships, our skills, the garden, our pets all benefit from positive attention. The practice of gratitude is also one of those things that blooms with our consideration, and choosing to focus on appreciation as part of our daily routine can enrich the day and bring good cheer. The holidays are upon us and they offer times of celebration. What if this year we take the time to celebrate what we already have? Here are three questions for contemplation that might help make your holiday adventures more enjoyable this year.  

* Who are you grateful for in your life today? What person or persons bring a smile to your face or joy to your heart? Perhaps one of the gifts you give this season could be to let them know how much you value them. 

* What is one experience from your childhood that you are thankful for? Was there something that happened that made you stronger or smarter or happier? 

* What is something that you use every day, perhaps without even noticing it, that makes your life better? 

In her book State of Wonder, Ann Patchett cautioned, "Never be so focused on the thing you are looking for that you overlook the thing you find". Sometimes we are so intent on getting what we want or to where we think we should be that we lose awareness of what is around us. This time of year I practice gratitude for the beauty of winter light. The shortness of the autumn day makes it all the more valuable, and sometimes I feel like I don't get enough of the sun. So I choose to make a point of noticing the light, of taking a minute to stop and stand in it, soaking it up and being thankful for the way it spills into the room or dresses my garden with highlight and shadow. And when I do that, it does feel like enough at that moment, and I have brought contentment into my day.

We are at a position in the evolution of our species where we are learning more and more to live with uncertainty. Many of the day to day decisions we make have become so complex that we cannot predict the consequences. Yet, one point of power that we do have is the ability to choose where to direct our thoughts. We often cannot stop intrusive thoughts from popping into our mind, but we can choose to shift the gears and redirect our attention to cultivating gratitude for what we have right now. This day will never come again; use your thoughts to make it a good one. 
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We are always "thinking". Even in our sleep, the unconscious mind is sorting, registering, processing, dreaming. There is a constant conversation going on in our mind that  we may or may not be aware of. If we put our attention to listening we might notice the repetitive nature of our inner thoughts and the perspectives they support. If we take the effort to observe this conversation, we might be surprised at what we discover about our beliefs. If we take control of this conversation, we will find that we are indeed in charge of our emotional state. 

As an experiment, I spent 10 minutes consciously being grateful for everything I came in contact with during that period. I thanked the refrigerator for keeping my food cold when I took an apple, and my teeth for allowing me to eat that apple. This was on a day the temperature was in the 90's, so I was totally grateful to my AC for doing its job and I appreciated the roof over my head to keep the sun at bay. I was grateful to my terrazzo floor for helping to keep the house cool. I loved my Macbook for its ability to effortlessly connect me to people I cared about. You get the picture. I found myself smiling and being happy at the end of those minutes, flooded with  gratitude and happy with my life. 

So, then I took 10 minutes to think about things that concerned me in a worrisome way. Business is slow all over. Will I make enough money to buy what I need? The cost of gas is on the way up again. There is a war going on. I don't know if we are having hurricanes this season. The rugs are full of sand. The weeds have taken over the garden. My parents are getting old. Big Pharm is really getting scary. OK, you get the picture on this one, too. This exercise did not leave me smiling. I felt uncomfortable in my body, restless in my mind. And I did it to myself with my thoughts.

So what goes on in my head when I am not consciously choosing my thoughts? Old unconscious programs are writing the script, creating my reality, my emotions, my life. I can inhibit that process by choosing where to put my attention. And if I redirect my attention on what is working in my life, I can feel good. "Positive emotions create bodily sensations of openness and expansiveness. They invite the world in........ Negative emotions create a tight, contracted feeling. Everything pulls inward. The world is pushed away. Positive feelings invite unity. Negative feelings invite isolation."  Joan Borysenko, Minding the Body. 

So what goes on in your head all day? Abraham / Hicks encourages us to "work to improve the way you feel, not the situation." I can do that if I consciously choose to redirect my thoughts when they start heading for the dark side. (I can also use energy work to re-write those old scripts; but that's another tidbit.) 


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A young couple won a contest and were awarded an all expense paid vacation to a resort on an island in the Caribbean. They were very excited and happy until a friend told them that this particular island was known for having a lot of snakes. Not being fond of snakes, they had some emotional pause, and being brave, they decide to go anyway. But on the flight to the island their concern about running into snakes grew into fear. So they did not sleep very well that first night, fearful that they would see snakes. The next afternoon, as they were coming back from the beach, they came upon a snake. Seeing the snake, their fear abruptly changed from fear of meeting a snake to an even bigger fear of being bitten by a snake. And the snake picked up on the fear vibe and got scared that he might be in danger himself, so he bit Sally. (Yes, fear is contagious.)  So their fear once again moved forward in time. No longer is it about seeing a snake, or getting bit by one, but the fear now is that Sally might die.

This is a made up story; nobody really got snake-bit. But it illustrates how fear manifests with the negative anticipation of something bad happening, not in the present moment, but in the future. One acronym of FEAR is Future Evidence Appearing Real. We deal with fear all the time; "what does being an adult teach you, daily, if not how to function in the face of fear?" (Everything Matters by Ron Currie, Jr.) I believe that we were given all of our emotions for a reason. Our evolutionary choice with fear is whether we feed it with more scary thoughts or just notice it as 'the call to attention' that it is and take a  next step to address what is calling to you. 

Paying attention and taking action in the here and now is therefore an antidote to fear; it is the giving of loving energy either to yourself and/or another. The Laws of Attraction state that we attract what we give attention to, so if we live with a lot of negative anticipation, we are likely to draw that which we fear most. 
 And there are always snakes in paradise. Yes, we do need to pay attention to avoid stepping on them, but if we feed the fear with our thoughts we are inviting them to a starring role in our reality. As Abraham / Hicks says, "Worrying is using your imagination to create something you don't want". Fear gives us another opportunity to observe, inhibit, and redirect, to choose how we create our lives. 

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