Category: Self Care

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Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas

Christmas is days away! Some are busy preparing for the holidays and crossing items off their shopping list. Others are gaily skipping off to sunny Caribbean destinations. Some are checking into luxury resorts or already relaxing around cozy fireplaces! While some are desperately trying to ignore holiday music. Why would anyone do that? If you recently lost someone you always looked forward to sharing your happiest moments with, the holidays can be a fresh kind of hell!

Just recently someone told me they were planning to ‘skip Christmas’ this year. Don’t do it! skipping Christmas would be akin to condemning yourself to a slow and painful death. Let me tell you about the year I tried to skip Christmas. Earlier that year, my police detective brother was shot a stones away from the precinct where he worked. Fortunately, he survived 2 shots fired to his head at close range. but we weren’t sure he could ever fully recover. He had lost his sight and suffered a series of complications. After multiple reconstructive surgeries he was still a shadow of his former self.

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Giving thanks

Photo of Jolly Harbour Antigua by Gemma Hazelwood Photography

Today I paused to reflect on my many blessings and found myself giving thanks for a pretty amazing life. I know that I’m not alone in this. Amid the festivities and traditions of the American Thanksgiving holiday, there were many expressions of gratitude. The past year has been tough for all of us. I think it has given us all a new appreciation of the fragility, preciousness, and simplicity of life itself.  Most if not all of us have lost loved ones to Covid-19. Some are praying at this very moment for loved ones who are struggling to breathe.   The most important life lesson we should learn is to treasure every moment.

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What are you most grateful for? I am most grateful for life, my family, and my loved ones. Although my family and I do not live within earshot of each other, we can be instantly connected. We connect via phone, WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram, and Zoom! Imagine how a pandemic of this magnitude would have alienated us from each other without technology! I’ve come to the realization that we take a lot of our blessings for granted. Take for instance the technology that connects us across continents.

What are you taking for granted?

Reflecting on this question is one of the most effective ways of practicing gratitude. Thankfully I have not experienced the effects of Covid-19, I cannot imagine how horrifying it is, but I am positive that it brings a new awareness and appreciation for the simple act of breathing.  We all breathe without giving much thought to it, we take each breath for granted. Hopefully, the ability to breathe unassisted is one of the things you and I will no longer take for granted! It is something I am constantly giving thanks for each day.

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Life’s Challenges

man sitting on a bed in a bathrobe

Its 48 days until Christmas, can you imagine? Where did the time go? I know some of you are eager for the challenges of 2021 to end and you are hoping that 2022 will be a less challenging year. Sadly we cannot run away from life’s challenges!  The only way to overcome challenges is to face them with a view to early resolution. Have you noticed how much we resist that? Life demands that we constantly evolve and adopt to changing circumstances. A lot of times we create problems for ourselves by resisting change. The Covid-19 pandemic is a case in point! so many are resisting the call for everyone to be vaccinated yet so many are dying every day.

We create more problems for ourselves by resisting change. I recently did some soul searching and came up with that little nugget of wisdom which really helped me cope. I am usually an annoyingly happy-go-lucky person but the challenges I experienced over the past months made me very despondent. I was resisting change and it made my situation appear worse that it was. My soul searching made me realize that life is constantly throwing us curve balls, demanding that we toughen up and learn how to cope. Overcoming life’s challenges is how we learn new skills and build character. Resisting the process can potentially do more harm than good, but how do you overcome life’s challenges?

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