music, therapy, and me

Gratitude is something that you hear lots about if you are in any way interested in self-care or mindfulness or any sort of personal focus programming. I have been encouraged to be grateful for what I have and what I am experiencing in the middle of great experiences as well as in the middle of devastating experiences, and it can be difficult, but I do find this type of mindset valuable for my mental health. I have a Facebook tradition of making a Daily Happiness post. I started this about three years ago when I noticed that all I was doing was complaining about things - my health, my frustrations with things. I decided that I needed to start a gratitude practice in the mornings to start my day off a bit better than things were going. I was in a pattern of burnout and didn't really like the people who signed my paychecks, and was seriously contemplating leaving my job. Every morning, I would get up and gripe about having to go to work. Then, the messages about gratitude and the nee...

This is the second version of this post - the first seemed a bit disjointed, but that is primarily because my life is a bit scrambled at the moment. My inspirational message at the moment is "It's not happiness that makes us grateful. It's gratitude that makes us happy." I am grateful for so many things today, so I think I will engage in some gratitude journaling here today - mostly focused on you, fellow music therapist! I am grateful that I am one of a small but vocal group of dedicated professionals who get up every day and go out into our uncertain world. You do important things, fellow music therapist! It is often not recognized in the bigger world, but it is important to the people who ALWAYS matter the most - your clients! I am grateful that there are music therapy clinicians who go out into the world to do the art of music therapy. Without us, the profession dies. We have to remember that fact and embrace the burdens and the powers that come with acknowledging...