We’ve made it through Thanksgiving!  That means one thing: the holiday season is now officially in full-swing.

Repeated trips to the mall in horrendous traffic where record breaking crowds await.  The seemingly never-ending baking cycle of snowflake and angel cookies.  Airports, inclement weather and a social calendar busting at the seams!  The introspective pondering of do I need one more house decoration to keep pace with the neighbors.  Fruit cake….enough said!

Welcome to the holidays, a season arguably considered the highest stress point of the calendar year.  Believe it or not, the holidays are meant to be enjoyed, not endured!
I’ve put together a very special audio program entitled “Taming the Holiday Stress Monster: 8 Tips To Go From Frazzled to Festive”.  I’m offering this audio program absolutely free to subscribers of my Personal Development e-newsletter, which by the way is also free!

To sign up for my free e-mail delivered Personal Development newsletter, simply click here.  You’ll need to enter your first name and e-mail address.  You’ll then have to check your e-mail box to confirm your subscription.  After doing so, you’ll be given the directions to download your free “Taming the Holiday Stress Monster” audio program.
If you’re interested in learning more about stress management, allow me to refer you to my Stress Management And Relaxation Training (SMART) audio program.  You can learn more about it here.

Wishing you and yours a happy holiday season!  May all your stressors be bearable.

Thanks for stopping by and please visit again!

-Dr. Graf

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Reflect on your present blessings, on which every man has many, not on your past misfortunes, on which all men have some.

-Charles Dickens

Here in the U.S., we’ll celebrate Thanksgiving this week.  For many, Thanksgiving means a cornucopia of food served in feast-like fashion.  For others, it means a day off from work and football on the tube.  For others, still, it means another holiday in which the pathologies of various family members come together once more to clash! 

I prefer to think of Thanksgiving as a reminder that I have so much for which I can be thankful.  It’s a time for me to brush up on my attitude of gratitude. 

Gratitude, of course, is not unique to any one culture, theology, philosophy or people.  In fact, a survey of the world’s major religions, shows that gratitude as a human disposition is highly prized characteristic in Jewish, Christian, Buddhist, Muslim and Hindu thought. 

I personally have come to learn that gratitude is an interesting little character.  I don’t remember when I first came to treat it with the reverence and awe for which I believe it deserves, but I do know, that a funny thing happens to me when I enter an attitude of gratitude and thanksgiving!

Dr. Wayne Dyer has described the essence of attitude as “understanding that every moment of your life is something to be grateful for.”  There was a time when I would read or hear that sentence and my interpretation of it was that in every moment of my life there exists something for which I should be grateful.  But, I want to point you back to what Dr. Dyer really said: “every moment of your life is something to be grateful for”.  Do you see the difference?

Although we can, we need not look outside ourselves for material things to feel blessed.  Although we can, we need not look to the way someone else treats us or feels about us in order to feel blessed.  Simply being who we simply are is a blessing.  Simply being, is a blessing.  Are you thankful?

Commit yourself today to begin counting your blessings, to begin giving thanks, to begin to have an attitude of gratitude.  Begin today to recognize that there are no blessings too small to be counted.  When you lay in bed at night, sleepless from worry, rather than count sheep, count your blessings and experience an instant state shift.

As a little old (and very wise) lady at church once reminded me: When thanks goes up, blessings pour down!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanks for stopping by and please visit again!

-Dr. Graf

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One of the most famous self-help authors of all-time, Dale Carnegie, once said: “Success is getting what you want; happiness is wanting what you get”.

My daughter is a preschooler and one of her favorite songs is “If you’re happy and you know clap your hands”. I’m sure you’re familiar with it. The verses alternate with different directions regarding what to do if you’re happy.If you’re happy and you know it clap your hands, or stomp your feet or shout hooray!

One of the things I’ve observed with this song is that just about any child who hears it is all too willing to show their happiness by clapping, stomping and shouting. The beauty of this is to me that children have an incredible way getting in touch with the emotion of happiness. They can do it on a whim.

Have you ever noticed that if a child falls down and slightly scrapes a knee or elbow, they almost invariably look to their parent for a cue as to how to respond? An immediate look of concern or panic by the parent is almost guaranteed to create a crying spell by the child, whereas a reassuring “you’re ok” and BIG smile can almost always short circuit the crying reflex, sometimes even resulting in giggling!

Now think about adults for a moment. How many adults that you know are really happy and really willing to show it? If you’re like me, you probably know a bunch of grown ups who define happiness as the absence of problems or challenges or worries. What’s amazing about that is that it’s virtually impossible to be happy by that so-called grown up definition. Thus, even when adults are happy or should be happy, they often don’t even know it, much less show it!

Dale Carnegie said “Success is getting what you want; happiness is wanting what you get.” Success, like life, in not a destination, but a journey—and happiness…happiness is a choice. What do you choose?Thanks for stopping by and please visit again!

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