Eleven Lovely Reasons to be Thankful

Every Thanksgiving, I write "Eleven Lovely Things." This year my focus is what I treasure most as a citizen of the United States of America TODAY.

1) USA is the melting pot of the world, we have always had every nationality of the world here, since the creation of this "government for the people by the people," welcome.

2) USA protects every person's chosen religion to worship peacefully side by side in         this country, harmony.

3) USA has every ethnic food from the world over available prepared by native chefs, delicious. 

4) USA has a U.S. Constitution that gives every citizen here the protection to protest peacefully, a voice.

5) USA allows every person to create personal wealth if you work and seek it, prosperity.

6) USA protects every citizen to live without domestic violence in this country's homes. If you use the law to protect your family, it is here, safety.

7) USA gives women, children, and men protection by law from predators, chivalry.

8) USA  gives citizens, both men and women, the legal right to choose who they love and who to marry; you are respected as an individual.

9) USA allows everyone to choose their lifestyle with protection to live it, and therefore there is no need to impose different opinions on others, personal autonomy.

10) USA gives the people freedom to choose education, vocation, and location to live, individuality.

11) USA is the land of the free since 1776 because of the individual freedom-loving citizens.  The leaders elected with the voices of the people, created The Declaration of Independence and The U.S.Constitution.

That document was created for the people of this land.  It was not designed to rule the world. The people that live here are the protectors of that document. The elected public servants here respect that document and pass laws that serve the people and this country first and foremost as outlined in those documents. So far, it has worked well and given room for improvements as progress would dictate.  

USA is not perfect, it never will be, but we journey on to seek how to promote freedom through individual self-sovereignty. It works; time has proved it works. The free people's evolution means we are united in purpose, live free, and die free.

Life is a gift; to live free is a bonus.

As a country, we , the people are kindhearted and give of our prosperity to the world in need. 

More people come to live in this country every year than any other country in the world to have civility and peaceful self-sovereignty. Stand up, speak up to remain free. Free people have courage and faith. Good always wins if you keep standing for it. 

If you don't know your Declaration of Independence or the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights, you will not recognize it if these are trodden upon or taken from you.       Get a copy of these and study daily. It is your life and country. 

"Your life is a gift to the world." 

What will I give to make it better? If peace is to be, it must begin with me. Kindness and compassion is my responsibility.

Thankful this day and every day for every person on earth.  We all love one another, we just don't know it yet, but it is coming into focus. Every day can be a Thanksgiving Day if we make peace with the past and keep moving forward. There is no other way but forward together. 

 

Two Innate Fears, All Other Fears Are Learned

Science has proven we are born with the fear of loud noises and the fear of falling.  Therefore all other fears are learned. If someone you trust tells you something that triggers your fear response, you react. But how you react is your choice.

The three fear responses are fight, flight, or freeze, and all of these are helpful short term for your safety, but to stay in any of these twenty-four-seven will break down your nerves, and stress will set in. Stress creates a compromised immune system, and that is an environment for disease.  Science proves that the ability to control your emotions and calm your nerves is the best medicine to promote healing to the body and make more straightforward decisions.

What remedy you choose to calm down is your choice. Do you go for alcohol, drugs, food, work harder, longer hours? What is your "go-to" to quell your "learned fear?"  Mine is turn off all TV, movie, loud music, turn off social media, and move away from negative attitudes from people around me, and go inside with meditation and gratefulness for everything I have now in my life. I choose what I listen to, who I listen to, and what I feel, not the world outside of me. 

Fear is useful, but I put a time limit on my anxiety. There is a deadline that I choose to stop worrying. If I stop worrying and have no answers, I keep meditating or do an activity that gets my mind in a calmer state. Exercise, walking out in nature, or listening to a teacher's lecture that I admire; Byron Katie Mitchell, Eckhart Tolle, Pema Chodron, Lisa Romano, Jordan Peterson, so many more, all of these have free videos on YouTube. These teachers do not freak out; they do not have panic attacks; they control their emotions. My goal in life is to control my feelings to live a balanced life. How I achieve this is to watch where I focus my thoughts. .

Indeed, you will not get the answers from the media. It is also sure that sitting in front of Netflix and eating pizza all day and night day will NOT help you. YOU have to change your focus mentally and your diet physically. YOU alone.

Recently I was enjoying music and meditating at night, and I fell asleep. I began to dream horrible, disruptive thoughts. Finally, I was so distressed I woke up. When I awakened, I pulled the earphones out of my ears, and the loud arguing was STILL going on in my head. It distressed me terribly. I pulled on my ears and could not shut off the destructive arguing I heard. Then I ACTUALLY woke up. Accidentally the "autoplay" was turned on in my iPhone, and it went to the news without my permission.

If dreams give any message, I supposed it to be this:

"Just because I stopped listening to destructive news, the stress was still in my mind after I turned it off because my mind could not forget the instant replay of negative news."

I could not control my thoughts while plugged into fearful reporting via autoplay in my iPhone.

To remedy this, I now put my meditation CD in my player with earphones. It is good to unhook from the digital internet as much as possible, and we must focus on the things we need to do to be safe during these uncertain times and begin to think of how to create a livelihood. To do this, one must be calm, collected, and open to new ideas.

News channels have to take the negative and rare events to get the public's attention or who would tune in day after day?  Negative news channels prey on your fears. In fact, they count on it. Clicks are money in the pockets for newscasters, and if fear is planted in your thoughts, you're trapped!

Learn to think for yourself with reason and logic. Do your research, get the facts straight. It takes work to learn how to be responsible for your life and detect lies. The good news is you were built to think and choose what is truth. You can do this!

Read books and get off technology as much as possible. Learn to think for yourself. Your mind is the most valuable tool you have, do not let anyone steal your mind away from positive words to keep your brain and body healthy. It is the one thing we all can do, no matter what is going on in the outside world...choose what we think.

Thankful to know this now. It took me years to discover I was responsible for my thoughts and actions. I am in control of me, not my past, not my neighbor, not the media, me. I choose peace. Your life is a gift t the world.