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Tuesday, 26 December 2006 14:24 |
| | Janese Johnson |
Most, if not all of us, have gone through some challenging moments in our lives. How we cope with those challenges varies from person to person. A couple years ago, I came out of a very difficult seven-year period of single parenting my adopted children all of whom have various diagnoses of mental illness or personality disorders.
Life was so hard that I never thought that I would get through it. It probably was the most challenging period of my life, to say the least, and the only choice that I had was to keep on going.
I
did a lot of things through that period to cope. I prayed, exercised,
danced, reached out to wonderful friends for support and "did
appreciations" regularly. All of those things made a difference and I
found that "doing the appreciations" to have the most surprising of
results.
There were many
days that I would wake up dreading the day ahead. Pretty much everyday
was a crisis day and my children were not always easy to relate to. I
often felt quite alone.
So each morning,
before getting out of bed, I made an effort to find something in my
life ÇƒÓ anything ÇƒÓ for which I could feel genuine appreciation. I would
then appreciate that in my mind.
As time went on,
I found more things and people to appreciate and what was really
wonderful to see was that I was able to appreciate my kids, even while
they were having a meltdown or drama of the day.
I also found
that the more that I appreciated the wonderful support that I was
receiving in my life from friends, the more that came in.
My childrenës
behavior didnët change through my daily appreciations but my ability to
rise above them more often than not did and also the special moments
that I did have with my children became more frequent.
A wonderful
quote by Doc Childre and Sara Paddision, of the HeartMath Discovery
Program, says it better than I can: "What you put out comes back. The
more you sincerely appreciate life from the heart, the more the
magnetic energy of appreciation attracts fulfilling life experiences to
you, both personally and professionally. Learning how to appreciate
more consistently offers many benefits and applications. Appreciation
is an easy heart frequency to activate and it can help shift your
perspectives quickly. Learning how to appreciate both pleasant and even
seemingly unpleasant experiences is a key to increased fulfillment."
Now that my
children are out of the house living adult lives, I find an inner
strength that might not be here if I had not gone through that period
with a conscious attempt to be as healthy as I could through it.
I believe that
doing the appreciations every day and sometimes many times a day helped
me see life through a more loving lens than getting caught up in the
intense negativity that was going on around me on a daily basis.
When the girls
moved out, I still felt that I had lived through a battle zone, but I
also knew what I needed to do to heal from that, and continuing
appreciations was a part of the journey. It is now amazing to me that I
went through that and came out to the place that I am in now. I feel
quite blessed, and that is why I wanted to share this personal story
with you. I also want to take a moment and tell you that I appreciate
you, the reader because in the moment that you are reading this, we are
connected on one level. I also appreciate John North, the editor, and
the staff of the Daily Planet for all the hard work that they put into
this newspaper to make it happen. Thank you.
So if through
this coming year you find that life is feeling a bit more challenging,
then perhaps doing appreciations will be helpful in lifting your heart
up a little more to help you get through it.
May your new year be a year of wonderment. Happy New Year!
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