49. Holiday Spirit

Tonight I am nurturing my gratitude for the holiday spirit. I love the holiday season - I think the best part of fall arriving is that a series of festivities begin from Thanksgiving to Halloween to Christmas. Even though I still feel that having Christmas stuff out before Halloween is a bit much, I like that one gets the Christmas vibe in November, even though a lot of it is for commercial purposes. I enjoy hearing Christmas music, feeling the slight festiveness when I go shopping in November, and in December, definitely savour the Christmas lights twinkling everywhere. I like my eggnog and eggnog latte, and have been enjoying Christmas-themed shows for the past several years. There is something to be said for a communal celebration - on the one hand it puts pressure on people to participate, but on the other hand, it's an opportunity to rejoice and make merry with your neighbours and the nearest and dearest ones in your life. For me, holiday spirit also means trying out new recipes, such as green bean casseroles :P

48. White Christmas

Tonight, on Christmas Eve, I am nurturing my gratitude for a White Christmas. I used to wish and hope for blankets of white, fluffy, shimmering snow to create the perfect Christmas ambiance, however living in Vancouver, dry, fluffy clean snow is hard to come by, if any. Where we live now we're almost always guaranteed snow this time of year, and since the climate is fairly dry, it means beautiful, glistening, powdery snow! A couple of days ago, we got to enjoy some beautiful snowfall, and today had the opportunity to walk through what to my eyes is a winter wonderland. White, almost blinding snow on the grounds, and pine trees covered in heaps of snow. Such beautiful landscape provides a nice contrast to the mad shopping rush that has unfortunately befallen a lovely holiday season. Some people might complain about how much snow and how cold it is outside, but to me, it's the perfect setup for Christmas. Now I just have to figure out how to make a snowman from such dry, flaking snow...

47. Affirmations

Affirmations can be a powerful force...I never really believed in the power of affirmations or positive thinking until a time came when I thought, "Why not - what have I got to lose?" I started putting things out into the universe, not in a strict "I affirm such and such," but more like, "I want to do this," or "I wish to do that," "I envision myself doing such and such." And most of the time, it works! I think affirmations have more to do with what one focuses their attention on, when one wishes or focuses on something, one tends to notice that particular thing more, it's on a person's radar, so to speak. I also believe that's how the law of attraction works, it's not so much that we "attract" positive or negative vibes, but more so we notice those things more. For instance, if I'm thinking about how beautiful fruit trees are, and consciously think about them, then chances are the next time I'll notice another fruit tree. Conversely, if I focus on how horrid the summer heat is everytime I walk out, that thinking becomes ingrained in my subconscious, the part of the brain that is responsible for habits and associations, and chances are the next time I walk out, I'll notice and be upset about the summer heat, and miss out on all the beautiful fruit trees...

What brought my attention to affirmations? Well, I've been thinking for a week or so now that I need to look at some core exercises on the body ball, since I got an email about just that, but haven't had time to open it, and I have a body ball lying at home, plus it's been difficult to get to the Y and exercise, because my going to the Y is contingent on playcare hours, and we're still working on my little boy's daytime nap routine. So I thought it might be worth adding some exercises that I can do at home. I was watching "Anne of Green Gables - the Animated Series," and came across a commercial by Body Break on guess what? Core exercise! It wasn't an exercise using the body ball, it was a plank exercise that I could do at home and that I had done before, so I didn't have to learn a whole new exercise. I knew it was something that I could do, having done it before for as long as 90 seconds. I probably would have missed the exercise, or seen the commercial but not register it as something that I can do, and be thankful for having that exercise come by my way in a time of stress, but I've learned to recognize affirmations when they do happen, so thank you universe.