God never closes a door without opening a window. But we have to look for it.” – Sarah Mahoney.

Believing is essential when changing any behavior.

You won’t find the Five Gifts on anyone’s wish list but when your emotional tank is on empty, they will be there to help you replenish your energy.

When someone we know is hurting, it’s our instinct to want them to get better––first, for themselves, and also because our inability to assist leaves us feeling helpless.

Humility helps us come to terms with what we cannot know. Patience takes the edge off when the hurt continues. Empathy is the gift that connects us with others. Forgiving ourselves for having such perfectly human reactions is harder than forgiving whatever caused them.

With the Five Gifts, we can solve our problems without shooting each other.

We need to unlearn the habits of impatience and take stock of those beliefs about life that no longer hold true.

Practice in the art of swiping away whatever we don’t want to face leaves us ill prepared to face tragic events in our own lives.

There is no such thing as “it can’t happen here.

There is a price for forgetting and remembering. Forgetting as a form of escape deprives us of what the Five Gifts can offer––humility, patience, empathy, forgiveness, and growth.