What are you looking for?

Ah, Autumn! It’s here, friends! The season of gratitude! I mean, every season is one of gratitude, but this one particularly so I guess?!;) What are you grateful for? Go ahead, share! Let me know! I think it helps to write it out or say it out loud. Whatever it is- be sure you FEEL the gratitude deep in your heart for it. Go ahead, take a moment, breathe it in!:)

What you look for, you will find.

I’m not sure who said it but I’ve read it other places. It’s so true though. If we look for joy and reasons to be grateful, we find them. If we look for all that’s going ‘wrong’ and reasons to be fearful and in lack, we find it. I’ve had a couple of really good conversations this week about mindset (because mine’s been shit!). We all know that it’s key. It really is. And still, it can be hard to maintain. I mean, it’s a muscle… we have to work it. Just like anything- it’s a choice we make daily. And I know there’s a lot of evidence out there that supports mindset being foundational for happiness… but friends, we are also emotional beings. Sure, thoughts create feelings! So we have to watch our thoughts. (We get to choose them.) Our beliefs and emotions follow suit. Emotions are just energy in motion and feelings can change our physical bodies. That’s pretty powerful stuff!

We don’t see things as they are, we see things as we are!

Maybe a Rabbi said it or maybe Anais Nin?! Quotes are funny that way! But have you ever noticed that two people can see the exact same thing and have two completely different experiences of it? Neither is right or wrong… they just have had different life experiences that led them to have very different experiences of the exact same thing. I find this fascinating! And I think we can take this and apply it to all that is going on today. When I look at all the hurt and suffering, I really see it. And I also look for the joy and community and compassion and I see it too. Obviously I want to spend more of my time (& mindset) focused on the abundance around me and all I have to be grateful for… tis the season of harvest afterall. But if I bypass the pain- which is part of the same truth, then I’ve missed the point. It’s become so easy to numb ourselves out. We have food/sugar, we have alcohol/drugs, we have internet and scrolling social media, we have television & YouTube! We have access to all of these external sources to help free us from really feeling our feelings. (And I love them all!!!) But lately, I’ve been really intending to turn my focus inward and feel my way through the feelings. It’s horrible, I’m not going to lie!! And it’s also really beautiful and powerful. And you know what decides my emotions around it? Yep, mindset. Our thoughts do control our reality. It’s all so intricately wired. Where we have accumulated deep grooves and ways of being over the years takes much more effort to course correct, indeed. But we can do hard things, remember?!

I have been tired, friends- like burnout tired. And I’ve felt really stuck in my life lately. And confused about what to do next. All of these things are so natural- I believe we all experience them. But, if we get lost in them, it only drags us farther down. Sleep helps. And so does gratitude. And so does one deep breath. And then another. And what we really need during these times is deep compassion. Compassion can snap you right out of your pity party or your judgement of another. We get to choose our experiences here- how cool is that?! Even in the times it really doesn’t feel like it.

So, my loves- we will get into this deeper another time. But for now- I invite you to look for love and abundance. invite you to choose gratitude for the phenomenal people in your life. I I invite you to watch your thoughts with more curiosity and less judgment. I invite you to find more compassion for yourselves and for each other. I invite you to remember our ONEness through these times, especially. I invite you to dig for gratitude like it was gold. Because it really is. I invite you to love yourself with the intensity of a mama bear protecting her young! We’re all in this together.

xo