The holiday season arrives with all your emotions, good and bad, in tow. We stress over which gifts to give and over how we’ll engage with family members and friends.
We’re filled with expectations and anticipation. We have so many feelings and adjustments involved, it’s easy to become overwhelmed.
So what can you focus on to receive what you want from this holiday season? Two things will give you the greatest gifts of all: Gratitude and Forgiveness.
It’s time to release all the negatives and celebrate the positives. Only you have the power to shift the negatives into the universe through forgiveness and actualize the positives to balance things out.
We think forgiveness is for the other person, but it’s for you! It doesn’t matter if the other person knows you’ve forgiven them.
What matters is you no longer have those negatives weighing you down. Even more important, you can take back that part of your life.
Gratitude is our best friend and partner in aging, but often we forget to be grateful. When we wake up with gratitude, we go to sleep with peace of mind.
There’s no better time than the holiday season to express our gratitude and we do that in many ways. But seldom do we express gratitude for ourselves and how well we’ve managed our lives.
Well, now’s the time! Gift yourself some self-gratitude and released forgiveness!
When you gift yourself Gratitude and Forgiveness, you’ll be gifting others at the same time though they may never know it because it won’t come tied with a bow. Instead, it will be revealed in your visible happiness and sense of freedom.
It will also help you shed your pain and regret because your forgiveness will set you free from the negative thoughts and feelings that have harnessed you.
Here’s an idea to help you embrace and acknowledge the positives (gratitude) and release and acknowledge the negatives (forgiveness). Get a pad, a pen and a small box.
Write down your gratitudes and forgivenesses, put them in a box and gift them to yourself. They will be the best gifts you’ve ever opened.
Pat Landaker is a Certified Senior Advisor (CSA) and a Senior Lifestyle Coach and Consultant. She is owner of the Living La Vida Senior and Ageless Aging brands, serves on the City of Henderson’s Senior Citizens Advisory Commission, the CSA’s Certification Council, and the American Society on Aging’s (ASA) Social Impact and Innovation Council, and she teaches Positive Aging at UNLV/OLLI. Contact her at contact@livinglavidasenior.com.