Thankfullness

   Good Morning, Friends! It's the day after Thanksgiving, and I am hoping you all got the chance to eat delicious food among family and friends. And if you, like me, were so busy yesterday that you didn't get the chance to truly take time to appreciate it all, maybe take the time this morning to think back over all you have been blessed with and express your gratitude. 

  You see, gratitude isn't a once a year thing reserved for Thanksgiving day. It's a practice that will truly change our lives inside and out if we let it. Learning to live with gratitude means finding the good in every situation. It's expressing joy over what you do have, rather than being ruled by remorse for all you don't have. It's the seed of opportunity in each obstacle. It's a mindset shift that will transform our perspectives and eventually our outcomes if we take the time to put in into practice. 

  Here's what I mean. When you begin the habit of gratitude, like any other new habit, you will probably have to remind yourself to do it on a daily basis. It may even feel forced at times. But as you sit down and write down and speak out the things you are grateful for, you will begin to retrain your brain to actively look for things to be grateful for. When your brain is actively looking for good things, it tends to see, recognize, and thus celebrate the good things more often, which leads to you feeling more positive and uplifted more often. 

  This positive mood and energy will allow you to pursue more of the things you love and care about and attract people to you who have similar mindsets, thus giving you more in your life to be grateful for. Essentially, the habit of gratitude genuinely put into practice on a regular basis has the ability to cause you to feel more joyful, and actually receive more into your life to be grateful for. It's an upward spiral which can transform your life in any area. 

  Let me give you an example. Let's say you decide to practice gratitude in the area of your relationship to your spouse. You start actively looking for things they say, do, or are which you can be grateful for. As you do this, you notice more and more positive things about your spouse, which makes you feel more drawn to them, and causes you to act with more affection toward them. Your rekindled affection toward your spouse causes them to respond in kind, thus making your relationship better and giving you even more to be thankful for. 

  This positive spiral can work in any area of our lives, but we have to start with genuine gratitude for what we do have. As we practice appreciating all the good we have been blessed with, we will notice more good things, make more positive choices, and attract even more to be thankful for. Get out a notebook and start writing down what you're thankful for today. Apply gratitude to your life, and see just how much you truly do have to appreciate. I can't wait to see you succeed!

~K.L.W.

Winner Takes All

   Hi Friends! I talked to my son recently about something I think we as adults could use a reminder of also. Success is not a zero-sum game. And here's what I mean by that. Someone else succeeding does not mean you have failed, nor does it mean there is no room for you to succeed. There is lots of room at the top, believe it or not. Someone else winning at their career or health or relationship or finances does not mean you can't win also. It's just a false mindset of jealousy which often tricks us into feeling as if this is the case. 

  Oftentimes when we see someone receive something we want, we feel a pang of jealousy. This can happen for a number of reasons. Sometimes it's because we feel they have received something we want or something we think we deserve. Or, it reveals our frustration with ourselves for not having put forth the effort to get what we want. Left unchecked, these feelings of anger and jealousy can create division and hatred. But if we take the time to really notice and evaluate why we feel this way, it may drive us to change our decisions. 

  Perhaps your co-worker's promotion can be a catalyst to cause you to reach for what you want at work, to pursue the raise or promotion you have been neglecting. Or maybe seeing all the weight your sister lost to become healthy can spur you to choose a healthier lifestyle also. Perhaps she will even help you by exercising with you or sharing her healthful recipes. Often those we view with contempt because of our jealousy could be our allies on the way to achieving our own desires and goals. 

  You see, unlike in a sporting competition where the winner takes all, other people's successes do not rob us of anything. It is only our comparison and jealousy which robs us of joy and often times of friendships. If we recognize that our neighbor's success does not exclude us from success and instead channel those feelings of frustration in to positive action, we will find ourselves not only moving closer to our goals but also cheering on those around us. 

  There is enough joy, enough success, enough goodness to go around. Stop comparing and start living the life you desire. In life, there isn't just one winner. Go out and work to win at your race, and while you're at it, cheer on the person in the next lane. I can't wait to see you succeed!

~K.L.W. 

Things

   Ok Friends, I have a confession to make. I hate clutter, like not just dislike it; I loathe it with a burning passion. If there is something in my house I do not want or use, it is immediately found a new place to live. My son will be the first to tell you, I do not keep papers and trinkets from school, much to his chagrin. In fact, I'm certain he has had at least one therapy appointment about this subject alone. It's not that I'm not sentimental. I have a cedar chest with a few important mementos tucked in it, but beyond that, I just cannot allow extra "trash" to clog up my mental and physical space. 

  Now, you may be thinking my stance is rather harsh and militant on this matter, and perhaps it is, but let me explain why. For a long time, I collected everything that came my way. I thought having more things made me more important or somehow made me more secure in life. But in reality, all it did was make me more stressed. You see, holding on to things we don't need is not just a physical burden on our space, it is a dangerous mindset that can imprison us if we are not aware of it. Our desire to hoard or keep extra things is a need for a security, a mindset of fear and scarcity. 

  Additionally, having excess clutter in our homes drains us mentally because it is always weighing on us. It drains us physically by taking up space and giving us more work to do to clean and maintain all the extra items and spaces we wouldn't have to otherwise. While we may think keeping all the extra items gives us security, it actually is stealing our peace. And the only way to be free is to begin to let go. Now, for some, this is easier than for others. Personally, once I learned how freeing it is to get rid of the extra stuff, I became obsessed with it, and my son is the same way. He has been known at times to help his friends "clean" their rooms, which essentially means throwing all their toys in the garbage. His friends' parents are not usually on board when this happens. 

  Unlike my son, for others, the idea of letting go of even a single item may be terrifying. Perhaps they grew up with nothing or lived through a time of poverty, and this fear-based mindset is still ruling in their lives. If you are one of these people, it may be a process. You may have to start small with giving away just one item, but I promise it will get easier the more you do it. My personal rule is, if it doesn't bring beauty and joy to my home, or if I'm not going to use it (soon), then it doesn't have a place in my home. 

  I encourage you to stop allowing excess clutter to rob you of mental and physical energy. Find ways to give away or recycle items you don't use. Not only will you feel lighter and freer without the burden of extra things, but you will get the joy of blessing someone else who may actually need the items you are storing. We are blessed to be a blessing, remember. If you have been living in scarcity and fear, begin to work on your mindset. Change how you talk and think with affirmations. Begin speaking from a mindset of "I have what I need." Do not allow yourself to be controlled by stuff, feeling as if you must cling tightly to everything that comes your way. When your fists are holding on so tightly to the things you have, your hands cannot be open to receive new and better blessings. It's time to stop living in fear and free up your mental and physical space. I can't wait to see you succeed!

~K.L.W. 

Nature

   Genesis 8:22 - As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease. 

Photo credit to Holiday Homestead

  Hi friends! This week we’ve been talking about Growth. Growth is a function of nature, and it’s also a spiritual law. But it doesn’t just happen on its own. In fact, for anything to grow, there has to first be a seed. The seed must be planted in the right environment and nurtured if we are to expect any sort of a harvest. 

  This principle of growth applies to our lives also. If we desire to produce results in any area of our lives it’s going to require us to grow. But we have to start with a seed. Our seed is a plan to grow. In the same way that you choose which plants you will grow when starting a garden, you must choose which actions you will take if you want to grow.

  Once we’ve chosen our seed, we must nurture it to help it get to maturity and produce a harvest. This nurturing is the actual work of growth. It’s the getting up and working out, the picking up a book and reading, the follow through with our plan to grow. If we were to garden by just taking seeds and scattering them around with no further effort, we would find surprisingly little, if any results. The same is true in our lives. If we set a plan to grow but never follow through, we won’t achieve the results we want. 

  This week, get intentional about how you want to grow. Pick out those seeds and put them in the ground. Then nurture them by following through with action steps. Given time and care, your actions will blossom into a harvest of results in your life. Don’t be a haphazard gardener with your life. Make a plan and start growing. I can’t wait to see you succeed. 

~K.L.W.