How to raise your experience of Thanksgiving

Have you ever been alone for a special day, such as a holiday or a birthday? How did you feel? Most of us have had that experience. What is important is how we choose to react to it. We usually want people around us to recognize the “specialness” of the day, which is another way of saying we want them to acknowledge that we are special.

When I was in college, I was a 3,000 mile plane trip from home. I usually only went home for Christmas and for the summer. Most of the time I was invited to a friend’s home or a faculty member’s home for the other holidays.

One Thanksgiving, though, I was without an invitation. All my friends had gone home and I was alone in my apartment. It would have been very easy to feel lonely, but I chose a different path.

I decided this was an ideal opportunity to truly have a day of giving thanks. Being very committed to religious practice at the time, I made this a day of fasting and prayer. Instead of gorging myself on food, as I usually did, I chose to do without food or drink. This day was to be devoted to activities that allowed me to focus on my spiritual connectedness, and to express gratitude for my blessings.

At one point I got on my bicycle and rode all over campus. I do not recall seeing another person there that day. I was truly alone… but, I was not lonely. I felt very connected to my Source of truth. And, I felt very grateful.

Thanksgiving Day has been different for me ever since. That one event allowed me to step away from the cultural norm and to go back to the roots of the day. There are other reasons to celebrate Thanksgiving — being with family and friends is a significant one — but, they all focus upon gratitude.

What can you gain from this? Three things:
1) We can choose our reality. You may not yet believe that we can truly change our physical circumstances. That’s ok. For now, just allow yourself to understand that we can choose how we respond to our context. In choosing our response, we can deeply change the experience. In NLP this is called “reframing.”

2) Our choices have impacts long into the future. Two paths may diverge with only a slight separation. Over time that slight separation becomes a huge difference.

3) Consciously or not, we are always choosing our response and, thus, choosing our paths. Most people are “stumbling” onto their path by automatic reactions. Those who are “awake”, choose their responses deliberately. Choose your paths wisely, because you are truly choosing your future reality.

May today, and every day, be a day of thanksgiving for you so that your chosen path may lead to the future you desire.