How to be thankful despite a stressful world
This is a hard time in the world
There are wars, political churlishness and nuttiness, climate change, pollution on many levels, financial stress from inflation, all sorts of stressful things.
How can we even begin to deal with all of these things?
Stoic philosophers provide the answer
Stoic philosophers like Epictetus realized that although we can’t control what is going on around us, we have the ability to control how we respond to those things.
And responding to our lives with gratitude is the best way to ameliorate stress and pain.
The gift of Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving is a time for us to ignore our stressors and focus on the big picture, all of the things that are good in our lives. We get together with families and friends and do our best to appreciate their best qualities and ignore their quirks. We eat festive food and live in the moment of the holiday, away from the vicissitudes of the world outside. We appreciate.
Is it wrong to fiddle while Rome burns?
Actually, the best way to stop the insanity in the world is to raise our consciousness, and hope that higher consciousness is contagious. And the best way to raise our consciousness is to look for things we can be grateful for.
We believe it’s possible to simultaneously maintain our awareness of what need fixing in the world and direct our attention to all that benefits us.
We are grateful…
- For the traditions, mentors, and teachers we have learned from.
- For the privilege of having been born here, into a life of so many gifts.
- For the opportunity of living in this beautiful place.
- For all of you in our practice family, who entrust us with your care.
We wish you a sweet holiday, and look forward to hearing about your celebrations.
Allen Berger, DC and Wendy Berger, LPC
