What drives a car? It’s not the engine. It’s not the fuel. It’s not even the driver.

It’s the idea of where you want to go.

Without a clear sense of where you want to go, there’s no destination, no direction. What’s true for a car is also true for our lives.

When we don’t have a meaningful vision to move toward, we can wake up feeling untethered or unanchored. Sometimes, even anxious.

Have you ever opened your eyes in the morning with a quiet unease swirling in your chest? That subtle dread can arrive before your feet even touch the floor. 

Thoughts like, How am I going to get through today? What about that deadline? Uggggh…that conversation? That thing I forgot to do?

This kind of low-level anxiety often creeps in when we haven’t consciously chosen where we want to place our energy. When we haven’t decided what matters to us today, or how we want to feel by the end of the day.

Without that clarity or intention of where we want to end up, our mental, emotional, and physical energy can start to swirl. That swirl builds and loops and often turns into anxiety.

But here’s what I’ve come to understand through my own practice and experience:

Each of us holds the authority to direct our own energy.

In fact, we’re the only ones who can direct our energy.

We begin to reclaim that authority by choosing an idea—a vision, a felt experience—of how we want to move through our day.

This is why I return, again and again, to the same morning practice I learned from one of my dear friends and teachers. Before getting out of bed, I name 10 things I’m grateful for.

It doesn’t have to be anything grand. It could be the softness of my pillow, the miracle of a fresh breath, or sunlight streaming through my curtains.

Or even just knowing that I get to make my coffee the way I want it. 😉

A gratitude practice helps us take the reins. It shifts our attention from scattered or fearful thoughts into a grounded presence of knowing “I have everything I need, right where I am.” 

And more than that, it’s a knowing that even when things seem like they’re spinning out of control in the world around us, gratitude connects us to possibility, and aligns us with everything that IS already going right. 

I can tune into the part of me that’s calm, centered, grounded and true. 

What I mean by what’s “true”, is, it’s not about trying to make myself think positively, or force or push myself into feeling good about what I don’t feel good about, it’s about reminding myself of the truth:

“I am alive today. I can notice that I am breathing. I have people who love me. I can say yes to any thought and no to any thought… and think what I want to think. I can create and shape my day, I get to do that. I can get dressed in clothes I really want to wear. I can wear makeup or not wear makeup. I can eat my favorite food.”

Notice now, that you are breathing. That you have the ability to direct your day, to do what you want to do. You are the decider. You have the ability to move energy in this physical body. It’s a way of stepping into your divine, God-given ability to direct your focus with love and sparkle.

Rather than feeling like we have no choice but to think about everything that’s going wrong and all the bad things that might happen, we can take charge of our thinking by starting with gratitude. 

We get to direct our energy- but we can’t do it without choosing an idea, a clear sense of where we want to end up. 

So tomorrow, before your feet meet the floor, take a moment.

Rather than allowing anxiety to take over like you’re on a runaway train to disaster, interrupt that with a gratitude practice. 

#1 Bring to mind 10 things you feel grateful for. 

This starts your day on a completely different trajectory.

#2 Choose your intention:

• In what ways would you like your day to unfold, and what would you love to have experienced by the time you put your head on your pillow tonight? 
• Decide in advance how you want to feel. Let that feeling fill you up before you put your feet on the floor.

And trust that beginning your day with gratitude can lead you to a whole new result, to something truly beautiful.