I have a pumpkin cheesecake in the oven, a dog that needs a bath, and packing to do for our Thanksgiving trip! During the busy holiday season, sometimes it is hard to pause and practice gratitude. In this case, I am thankful my son gave me enough peace to bake, thankful Leo is such a good dog, thankful for all of the endless little boy clothes I need to pack, and thankful to have family to be visiting for the holidays.
You may have heard before that I need tv shows or music playing while I am working late at night to help me focus. Lately, this has included many YouTube videos of interviews with Maya Angelou by Oprah and others. If you are looking for inspiration, look these videos up and start there.
When you practice gratitude every day, it is amazing how much everything changes. A dear friend of mine, who is also a photographer also started on this journey with me a few weeks ago. Drowning in busy season and trying to figure out how we can improve our businesses for next year, we set goals for ourselves and talked about how important it is to have a positive state of mind and practice gratitude.
Within days of consciously changing our mindsets, we were amazed at all of the amazing things that started happening for ourselves and our businesses.. the power of your state of mind is truly amazing. I realized that along with my hard work and dedication, changing my frame of mind to see the positives and be thankful in all situations, good and bad, was helping me to be successful in my business and in my personal life.
So this holiday season, I challenge you.. to see the glass half full. Be thankful for what you have been blessed with.. even if it does not seem like you can find anything in that moment to be thankful for, there is always something.
Love,
Erika
Photos by Tara Heinl of Sweet Rose Elise Photography, edit by Erika Venci