When I got my first salaried job as a counselor, I was 23 years old and fresh out of college where I had majored in Theater Arts and English Literature. I was hired to work in a "partial hospitalization program", also known as a "day treatment program". What I did not know at the time was that it was considered a warehouse situation for mentally ill people, and patients were not expected to get well or even improve during their time in the program. Coming in unaware of that belief system allowed me to work with patients with a mindset wide open to possibilities, and several of my patients did significantly improve, somewhat to the surprise of supervising psychiatrists. One ex-patient sent me a postcard several years later, a young man diagnosed paranoid schizophrenic who had 2 suicide attempts and several years of hospitalization in his history. He wrote to thank me for encouraging him to believe that he could have a better life. He wrote that he had been successfully employed at the same job for 2 years, he was painting again and starting to sell some of his paintings, he had regained custody of his daughters, and he was happy.
A dear friend reminded me the other day that anything is possible and how easy is it for us to close our minds with limiting beliefs when we lose our natural curiosity and openess. Albert Einstein believed "To raise new questions, new possibilities, to regard old problems from a new angle, requires creative imagination and marks real advance in science". Stepping outside consensual reality and believing in possibility allows for creations and inventions like airplanes, telephones, better relationships, computers, new career paths, cameras, the harnessing of electricity, the internet.....
During this holiday season as we approach a new year, allow yourself to stay open to the possibility that wondrous things can happen if you let them. Bring that attitude to your gatherings with family and friends. If we expect things to be the way they have always been, we certainly influence the outcome in that direction. If we choose to be present and cultivate appreciation for the resources in front of us, we can expand our horizons for the better. As Ray Bradbury wrote, "The best scientist is open to experience and begins with romance - the idea that anything is possible."
A dear friend reminded me the other day that anything is possible and how easy is it for us to close our minds with limiting beliefs when we lose our natural curiosity and openess. Albert Einstein believed "To raise new questions, new possibilities, to regard old problems from a new angle, requires creative imagination and marks real advance in science". Stepping outside consensual reality and believing in possibility allows for creations and inventions like airplanes, telephones, better relationships, computers, new career paths, cameras, the harnessing of electricity, the internet.....
During this holiday season as we approach a new year, allow yourself to stay open to the possibility that wondrous things can happen if you let them. Bring that attitude to your gatherings with family and friends. If we expect things to be the way they have always been, we certainly influence the outcome in that direction. If we choose to be present and cultivate appreciation for the resources in front of us, we can expand our horizons for the better. As Ray Bradbury wrote, "The best scientist is open to experience and begins with romance - the idea that anything is possible."
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