Keep Your Spirits High

Not only at Christmas time do we need to ‘make spirits bright’, but all the time, each and every day.

In junior high around Christmas time many of the girls were so much more friendly and would say ‘Hi’ –  when normally they would just pass on by. They seemed more joyful and more fun to be around. I commented to my mother one day saying, ‘I wish the girls were friendly like this all year’. Perhaps the anticipation of fun family times, parties, new clothes, presents, baking cookies all made them happier inside, causing them to be happier outside towards others. I liked the noticeable difference it made.

When our minds and hearts are weighed down with all kinds of cares, worries, and fears, we lose heart. We aren’t as fun to be around. We don’t notice others around us and their needs. We forget about others.

Why wait for a holiday to have a happy spirit? We can have a happy spirit about us every day if we choose. But I can’t. I have too many problems. I don’t know how to be happy.

Several years back I read a small book by John Kralik, “The Simple Act of Gratitude”. He was a failing attorney, divorced twice, distant from his kids, overweight, living in a small apartment with no heat or AC in California. The thought came to him perhaps his life could become at least tolerable if instead of focusing on his losses, he began to be grateful. He set about to write one thankyou note per day for the next year and see what happened. His whole life changed around! It was the simple, but hard, shift in his thinking. That’s all it was! He didn’t have to run around the block 10 times each morning, eat brussel sprouts for 2 weeks or wear uncomfortable shoes. All he had to do was change his mind! And that changed him!

So yes, we can choose to have brighter spirits each day. The hardest part is the mind part. Just begin somewhere. Our body, mind and spirit all work in unison. One follows where the other leads. If we get moving, however slowly, in the right direction, who knows what we might accomplish and see changed!

How do I need to begin redirecting my life today?

I can do it! Yes I can!