November: Give Proactive Thanks and Build Your Self-Esteem-Work in Day of the dead November 1-2

November is the month of Thanksgiving. It can be possible to identify ways to give thanks in mind, body, and spirit.

This holiday can be very controversial.  As a vegan, I embrace the plant-based trappings of the holiday. It can feel healing to acknowledge our privilege, to condemn racism and imperialism, to embrace people, places, and things we ordinarily would not.

Find ways to deliberately make connections with people who are different from you. Find people who are unlike you by using the acronym created by Pamela Hays: ADDRESSING (age, intellectual disability, physical disability, religion, ethnicity, socio-economic status, sexual orientation, indigenous heritage, national origin, and gender). 

How can you meet people different from yourself?  What if you are alone? VOLUNTEER.

• Contact the local animal shelter. Learn how to fill out the volunteer application ahead of time. Ask how you can fill in while they are on a skeleton crew. I promise: you will never regret  spending Thanksgiving petting and loving homeless cats and dogs.

• Get certified to be a volunteer text crisis counselor (and no, you do not need to leave home. You do not need any particular educational background): https://www.crisistextline.org/

• Use www.volunteer.com to find the opportunity that strikes your fancy.

• Find the local nursing home. Learn what you need to do to volunteer there

• Contact the local hospital and find out how you can get clearance to spend time with people who do not have Thanksgiving visitor
  
  You don’t have to do it alone. I am a licensed clinician. Contact me for a free 30 minute consultation. It does not have to stay this way. You deserve to feel heard. You deserve to feel happy. You deserve to feel safe. www.therapyfellows.com choose Individual and Family Therapy and use password Picture1925