Thanksgiving Gratitude And Other Healthy Holiday Attitudes

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By Lori Raab

Bend, Ore. This is a time when many of us stop and assess our lives and give thanks. Two Bend counselors have some advice for people who may struggle with negative emotions during the holidays. Jane Meyers Hiatt is a minister with the Unity Community, and Anna Thedford is a Bend Counselor.

Jane Meyers Hiatt: You were asking about tips… Gratitude – these are tips that are attitudes and how can you express them. These are huge. I think everyone can find something they are grateful for and that’s a wonderful strategy and it shouldn’t just be confined to the Thanksgiving table. It should be an attitude that we’re focusing on and it’s a great antidote to unrealistic expectations because instead of looking to what’s missing we see what we have… And another good attitude is generosity. It could be something as simple as letting the car go in front of you even if there’s a long line of traffic and there’s snow and it’s bad. It could be something small like that, or I know Josh Hart does this Elf Village thing (in Bend) How about getting a gift and bringing something down to that. So many ways… thinking about the people sitting out homeless in this weather. And with these homeless people out on the street corners in this weather, how about stocking a zip lock bag with some goodies that you could stock in your car and hand out as you pass by.”

Bend Counselor Anna Thedford: I think we have these ideas of i would like to do this – helping out in a soup kitchen, or making a sandwich and handing it out to a homeless person. But have we done that yet? I know there’s plenty of things I haven’t done yet. But when we actually make a shift or a seemingly insignificant change of our pattern, it really does chemically change our system. It helps us come out of depression. It actually neurologically changes our system. Gratitude is making it into the books of psychology today, it’s not just something that sounds fluffy and nice, there’s something to that.g and that is a big deal it is legitimate and changes how we feel. mind and heart are feeling.

Lori: Does the same hold true for negative thinking? Yes…yes, negative attracts negative.

*Instead of 12 days of Christmas – here’s the 12 actions or mindsets from Jane:

1-Gratitude 2-Appreciation 3-Blessing 4-Sweet memories 5-New memories 6-Kindness 7-Forgiveness 8-Meditation 9-Simplicity 10-Creativity 11-Gift to a stranger 12-Good food.

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