![](\"https:\/\/mcusercontent.com\/bc953c9a1758e6e272d364af8\/images\/86f235e9-9473-935c-f796-a3dd2763d7eb.jpg\")
<\/p>\nIt\u2019s Thanksgiving here in Canada this weekend.<\/p>\n
A time when families come together presumably with feelings of gratitude.<\/p>\n
If you\u2019re someone like me who\u2019s been looking within to follow the beat of your own drum, it\u2019s often accompanied with some tension (to put it mildly) from your \u201cfamily of origin\u201d.<\/p>\n
Last year, Thanksgiving was challenging at our family cottage shared among my 5 siblings & our families.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Our beloved cottage of 30+ years where I feel thankful beyond words to have so many wonderful memories \u2013 it was the first time I wondered if I might never come back.<\/p>\n
A year ago today, the only way for us to sit down together for Thanksgiving dinner at our cottage was for myself and my children to sit outside due to one family member\u2019s opposing opinion.<\/p>\n
Differences of opinion are inevitable, but when they arise from fear \u2013 complaining, blaming, demanding, imposing, and lecturing behaviour shows up loudly.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n It\u2019s not the first time this sibling and I have found ourselves with strong opposing views creating tension.<\/p>\n So many families these days have been torn apart when opposing views create painful trauma and a need for forgiveness that never comes.<\/p>\n Sometimes on this journey of awakening we simply grow apart because the vibrational gap between love and fear are too great.<\/p>\n It\u2019s the hardest to accept when it\u2019s with our families.<\/p>\n There\u2019s a cost of trusting your own inner voice.<\/strong><\/p>\n As much as I love being here, if I can\u2019t find gratitude amidst the messiness of our differences too much is lost.<\/p>\n It\u2019s the quality of our connections that make witnessing beauty worthwhile.<\/p>\n Our judgments can destroy connections \u2013 even the most beautiful sunset no longer feels magical when this kind of energy is in the air.<\/p>\n How do you put aside what doesn\u2019t feel right inside you with the people you care about when you know they are feeling the exact same way, only the other way around?<\/p>\n Both of us are right in our own minds.<\/strong><\/p>\n Here\u2019s what has helped me greatly: understanding the divine purpose of relationships.<\/p>\n Marianne Williamson shares this powerful wisdom here<\/a>\u00a0with Oprah describing a powerful metaphor of plugging\u00a0\u201cour lamp\u201d in to connect the light within us.<\/p>\n There\u2019s a profound shift when you recognize and step into the knowledge that any relationship is \u201cnot about me \u2013 it\u2019s about us\u201d.<\/strong><\/p>\n Specifically, it\u2019s about what each of us is capable and chooses to bring \u2013 energywise.<\/p>\n You must take sole responsibility for the energy you are bringing to any relationship for it to be fabulous.<\/p>\n Let go of what the other person brings! You have NO CONTROL here and thinking you do creates the problem.<\/p>\n You cannot choose how someone else shows up as it\u2019s coming from their mind which needs their control not yours.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n If someone is triggering you with their opposing energy, it\u2019s a call within to exercise patience, and seek understanding not necessarily agree, but to find your own inner serenity.<\/p>\n The gratitude becomes for the lesson we\u2019re being asked to learn whenever a conflict arises.<\/p>\n Gratitude for the inner work of growing is right here in front of you to claim.<\/strong><\/p>\n Gratitude completely shifts your state of being. Your vibration increases to see someone from a different place.<\/p>\n It\u2019s easy to feel gratitude when everything is going well. When things are not, that\u2019s when gratitude can show you its true power.<\/p>\n The way to the other side of any conflict even with a family member without grudges, guilt or resentment begins by giving the hard thanks that this person is my teacher in this moment for my soul\u2019s development.<\/p>\n It has nothing to do with who\u2019s right.There\u2019s nothing to be fixed, justified or changed.<\/strong><\/p>\n Can I find the place in me that is thankful for this opportunity even when it doesn\u2019t feel good?<\/p>\n How can I show up to be the person I want to become?<\/p>\n It takes practice to wade through the ego\u2019s reactive emotions that arise with \u201chow could you\u2026\u201d, \u00a0\u201cI can\u2019t believe you\u2026\u201d, \u201cyou need to understand\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n Surrender these thoughts and the magic begins.<\/p>\n Have you ever noticed that the people who have been through the WORST life has to offer have the most gratitude?<\/p>\n Their experience of pain allows them to savour the smallest pleasure.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n This 10 minute\u00a0Ted talk from Louis Schwartzberg<\/a>\u00a0was passed to me by a friend who embodies gratitude after she endured horrific unimaginable conditions escaping Vietnam during their war.<\/p>\n Louis recently released his latest documentary Gratitude Revealed<\/a>\u00a0that he introduced in his Ted Talk.<\/p>\n It was beautiful : )<\/p>\n I was not surprised to discover his parents were both Holocaust survivors spending several years in Auschwitz.<\/p>\n He grew up in a home where waking up and being able to open your eyes was a gift.<\/p>\n Most of us have not experienced the unimaginable, and we\u2019ve \u00a0been given so much that we take for granted.<\/strong><\/p>\n I need my own reminders to live in gratitude \u2013 I believe we all do.<\/p>\n It\u2019s the powerful secret to creating what you desire by raising your vibration to a state of feeling good at the soul level.<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/mcusercontent.com\/bc953c9a1758e6e272d364af8\/_compresseds\/03b381df-0ce3-527c-fc1c-ae6f99dffcaa.jpeg\")
<\/p>\nHow to Harness the Power of Gratitude<\/strong><\/h3>\n
![](\"https:\/\/mcusercontent.com\/bc953c9a1758e6e272d364af8\/images\/2aa13bcc-a752-8559-0129-bbf0a78d3537.png\")
<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/mcusercontent.com\/bc953c9a1758e6e272d364af8\/_compresseds\/7cfa957b-8866-4e14-a8d3-ced149e6b783.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n