Keeping your morale and sanity in tough times

Something that helps me weather challenging times, and is helping me right now is to focus on what I do have, rather than what is missing. My vehicle for this is a simple gratitude list. Try it for a week even. I simply list 10-25 things every night I am grateful for (big stuff like my good health, my son, the means to pay my bills this month usually appear on my list every night) but if you have a hard time coming up with other things it will force you to start looking for the good during your day, such as getting that parking spot in downtown San Francisco when I was running late, hearing back from a recruiter, or even how cozy my warm house feels right now in this frigid weather...I have also been looking for "bright lights" every day -- just observing people in the cars around me, or as I entered a crowded restaurant last week and I watched the (seemingly happy) Mom conversing with the two children sharing her table... Even just thinking about looking for bright lights seems to pick up my day, and I can almost feel those positive neural pathways burning in my brain...Wishing you all happy holidays,
-post from Janice Roberts