As you speak to your friends and family this holiday season, can you imagine your reactions and feelings to what they are saying? Are you speaking to them in love and gratitude? Are you reacting to their thoughts and being relaxed in your reaction?
I learned a deep lesson in gratitude when I was five years old. Our neighbor and her little boy took my mom, brother and me to town. We all were having a nice little day together.
I never made my children say thank you because from an early age I knew that it had to come from a deep place inside: true gratitude. I would always encourage them to be grateful. Always.
And just to clarify, wanting approval is wanting love, wanting respect or wanting friendship; wanting to be liked. It is wanting our friends and family to think well of us. It is the sense of lacking the love or approval. Lack = want.
