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How to Be Thankful This Year

Cultivating a heart of “thankfulness” this season might sound like stereotypical advice for this holiday, though it may also be the perfect way to usher in the holiday season. With that in mind, I want to encourage all of you to count your blessings this week.

Tomorrow is the special day we have set aside as tradition to do this very thing: give thanks. It also may also allow us a special moment to regather our thoughts, refocus our energy, and rebuild what may have been lost during these difficult past two years. For me, this includes taking inventory of the amazing people, experiences, and challenges I have faced and how those challenges have ultimately shaped me for the better.

A heart full of thankfulness might also help bring some level of peace to you while you navigate your family gatherings. Unfortunately, a society filled with division sometimes leads to a family filled with those same conflicts. At some level, this is unavoidable, Yet a paradigm of gratitude for your family (even the challenging members) can often soften potential conflict and offer ways to appreciate the diversity of views and opinions that shape us. Reflection and gratitude can steer our conversations and focus us on all we have to be thankful for.

This fall we have the unique opportunity to approach our holidays with a newfound compassion for one another. I know what you are thinking – “Easier said than done!” This week is a wonderful opportunity to cultivate this skill of choosing gratitude even when it might be easy to choose otherwise.

On a personal note, I want to issue a special thanks this week to my incredible team at Aspire. I want to thank them for their dedication and commitment to our greater cause.

To our community and beautiful Central Florida, thank you for your support of Aspire and for being a part of our mission. We exist for you, and we cannot exist without you. I appreciate you making Aspire a part of your life on your behavioral health journey.