We have PLENTY, thank you!

Find this month’s free download, Dancing in the River of Golden Opportunity, at the end of this article.

Thanksgiving is one of my favorite times of the year. It is the most traveled holiday – in the United States, and one of these days – we’ll move it to Columbus Day weekend, and then both Canada and the US will be on the same schedule. (Just kidding, although I do wonder if that will happen!)

When my 25-year marriage ended, and my four children were still at home, it was the one holiday that I found everyone could come. Many of those years were happily spent in Tucson where my sister had settled and everyone who could come, did. It was easy to get everyone to come… who might not – when the weather is so much nicer there than just about anywhere else at that time of year?

Sometimes holidays are stressful, either because you don’t have enough time, or money, to accomplish what you’d like. As all the advice givers will tell you, scale back! This year it is even more important to scale back – because you need to find your peace about all of this – including your worries about “not enough!”

Recently, I’ve begun telling people to start announcing they have plenty of something. Whether it is plenty of veggies from the garden, or paper and pencils. This is very powerful as it begins to create the energy of plenty-ness in all areas of our life, not just the item we are talking about now!

What do you have plenty of right now? Do you have plenty of pennies? Plenty of leftovers? Plenty of hairs on your brush? Start to find of the things in your home you have plenty of.  Plenty of plastic bags? Plenty of water? Plenty of dust? What if you have plenty of negative thoughts? Next start to pay attention to your negative thoughts. Wouldn’t it be lovely to know you can begin to eliminate negative thoughts in two easy steps. (You may have plenty of those too!)

Decide to notice your negative thoughts and statements.

Follow every negative statement with 2 -3 positive statements that are of the same type.

For example, if you catch yourself saying, “I hate my job.” Follow it with “BUT, I have great pay, I love my co-workers and great vacation time.” Don’t say, “I hate my boss, but I love my husband….” That’s not antidoting the same type of energy!

What this does is two things: The first positive antidotes the “negative one” and then the replacements are new “seeds” that you are planting! This is a wonderful way to repopulate your world with positive gratitude statements. Gratitude is the most powerful way to manifest, and is the fertile ground for all future manifestations whether they have anything to do with the present problem or not. You now have plenty of gratitude!

Understand this is a process, and that you will develop a new habit that will replace the negative self-talk, the negative thoughts in your world. This new habit will become your “new normal.” That means you will have plenty of gratitude!

You can claim plenty for yourself too. Sometimes you may have plenty of “trouble.” That’s probably not desirable, so in that case, I’ll offer another solution. For many years, I was the person who always felt left out. I certainly was “different” but that didn’t mean I couldn’t fit in or belong! I began to change my focus, instead of me wanting someone to pay attention to me, I decided to pay attention to everyone else’s need. I reframed my “mission” with family, and now my job was to serve them… rather than to be served.

My coming to Thanksgiving and looking for ways I could be of service dramatically changed the environment, the reactions and interactions. I was quite surprised. I didn’t expect that! I found that others wounds were healing as well. However, that’s what I got! My family seemed more interested in me, and of course they felt supported by me! I’m so grateful, even now, that this was possible. Narcissism is a big problem and many people are incapable of feeling or showing empathy for another, until they learn to open their hearts, but you can give them unconditional love now! Notice when someone needs to be right, champion their need to be right and support them with unconditional love. Once you decide that it’s your job to “love them anyway” and there is plenty of love, then you will begin to appreciate a “full table” of plenty of love!

If you have difficult family situations – seek to support rather than to be right. Seek to offer choices rather than ultimatums. Seed love without resentment. This means you say “yes” with a glad heart, or you say, “I’d rather not, thank you for including me.”

One of my students told me this story:

You know how you always tell us to “Ask for a day of Heaven on Earth.”  Well, we had a family reunion coming up. My adult siblings and I were all going to be gathering at a rental house and living together for a week. I decided to start asking for “A week of Heaven on Earth for me, my family and our reunion!” I started this several months in advance. One sister, is always creating chaos and manages to spoil every family event. This year, two days before the event, my drama queen sister called everyone to tell us that she wouldn’t be joining us! Having everyone together is a big deal for us. Yet, she added, she was checking into a detox facility instead of doing the family reunion.

We all breathed a sigh of relief. We had a fabulous time without her. We didn’t worry about her because she was in a “safe” place. What a wonderful gift!

Your turn, ask for a week, or two, depending on your family plan for Thanksgiving, of “Heaven on Earth” for you and everyone you come in contact with during your family travels. You will be amazed. Say it like this: “I am asking for a week (or your time frame) of “heaven on earth” for me and everyone in my family, all the guests at Thanksgiving dinner, and everyone we come in contact with.”