You’ve heard it and are probably guilty of saying it yourself, New Year, New Me…

Come January 1st, we say the same thing as we find ourselves formulating New Year’s resolutions to reach specific goals or to in some way better ourselves and our lives. Studies have found that while roughly 41-45% of Americans make New Year’s resolutions, only 8-9% are successful in sticking to the goals they set.

As the last of the autumn leaves fall, and we quickly approach the winter holidays, most would agree that we are getting closer to the most wonderful time of the year, while others all but dread what should be a time of celebration, family, and the spreading of cheer and love.

Over the years, people have started seeing the holidays as a source of stress rather than a joyous time. Instead of focusing on the beauty of the holidays, we become super focused on the wants of others and the giving of ourselves to others- The giving of our time, energy, money, and sometimes sanity.

What are you grateful for in your life, and how do you express that gratitude?

Gratitude, by definition, is the quality or feeling of being grateful or thankful, and consciously practicing gratitude can be a game changer if you let it. In cultivating an attitude of gratitude, we can focus more on the good in life and less on the bad or what we have compared to what we lack.

Like mot people, you might define yourself by your thoughts, beliefs, and experiences. You associate your identity with what you look like, your relationships, what you do for a living, your extracurricular activities, past experiences, and future goals. But do these things define who you are? And what happens if one or more of these things change? Do that mean that the the true you changes as well?

Do you ever notice how often your mind wanders on any given day? One moment you’re thinking about one thing, the next, your thoughts have completed shifted. Even when we attempte to focus on one thing purposely, something else seems to be vying for our attention, distracting us without notice, making it increasingly difficult to concerntrate on one specific task or moment.

Let’s face it; life can sometimes seem quite chaotic. Within our personal lives, work/school, family/friends, our health, and other obligations seem to demand all of your attention, and at any given moment, we’re being pulled in several different directions for many different things. Not to mention that after being on lockdown for almost two years and with life returning to somewhat normal, it seems as if we are trying to make up for the time lost due to the pandemic.

And if we didn’t have enough going on in our own lives, just about every day, there is a story about damage caused by climate change,   social injustice, a mass shooting, or yet another COVID variant.