Untitled Document

Recipe for Enchantment - Reconfirming who we are
by Dr. Barbara Becker Holstein

One of the ways to restore, and then reinvent the best of yourself is to go back to positive memories. They refresh us and reconfirm who we were. Often in reconfirming roads already traveled they help us stimulate new pathways. We can then make decisions that reflect ways to bring more joy and pleasure into our lives. Do I want to travel these same roads again? Perhaps, yes. However, for many of us, sometimes the answer is no, simply because the circumstances no longer exist. Or, might I wish to take the essence from these old, sweet memories and find ways to put them into new pathways that I can gleefully experience? Often the answer is yes, indeed.

With the following, you decide. Just make sure that you give yourself the pleasure and permission of either returning to at least three of them over the next year or finding ways to get to their essence. The list in this recipe is loosely based on a letter making the rounds on friend-to-friend e-mail.

Close your eyes and go back to:
Hide and seek at dusk, hot bread and butter.
The Good Humor man, Red light, Green light.
Chocolate milk, lunch tickets, penny candy in a brown paper bag.
Catching lightening bugs in a jar.
Long car trips to special relative's homes who really were excited to see you.
Before the computer.
For some of us, evenings before television.
One telephone in the house and waiting for a special call.
Important news coming in over the radio.
A super good night sleep.
Spending lots of time with a very best friend.
Reaching to the ground to pick up a dime that you found!
Being kissed by a grandparent and handed a present or some money at the same time -- just because it was you.

I hope you enjoyed going back to these sweet places. As the e-mail said that went around, "There's nothing like the good old days!" They were good then, and they're good now when we think about them, and even better when we use them to replenish and reinvent ourselves.

Happy stirrings of past and present!

Dr. Barbara Becker Holstein, a positive psychologist, teaches people how to enhance their lives--and consequently live lives of meaning and joy--by reclaiming what is positive about themselves. This is different from the traditional psychotherapeutic model because it is a paradigm shift designed to help us focus on our strengths rather than our disabilities and our weaknesses. The treatment model teaches both the clinician and the client how to look for purpose and a sense of well-being in daily living. She calls this process The Enchanted Self, A State of Well Being, Joy, and Happiness. Visit her website at http://www.enchantedself.com. To join The Enchanted Self E-group, click here. To subscribe to The Enchanted Self Monthly E-newsletter, click here.

THE ENCHANTED SELF® is a registered trademark of Dr. Barbara Becker Holstein.