Podcasts Kids & Family The Dad Edge Podcast Forging Strength in Our Darkest Hour

Forging Strength in Our Darkest Hour

Published: May 26, 2016, midnight

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Forging Strength in your darkest hour!

I have gotten a ton of feedback from our last podcast on \\u201cHow to Discover Daily Grit and Gratitude.\\u201d\\xa0 From what I have heard, most people were surprised that my family went through such a life altering event by losing my son Gabriel.

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I have had a lot of emails, texts, and communication through the GDP community about how much the last episode effected them personally.\\xa0 What I am finding is that there is a vast majority of families out there who are afflicted with miscarriage or death of an infant.\\xa0 I have even had questions asking why I have opened my life up so much about what happened during that six weeks and how it ended.

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The bottom line is this\\u2026I shared it for several reasons.

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It\\u2019s Healing

When we go through something that is literally life altering it changes us forever.\\xa0 It\\u2019s easy to fall into a mindset up anger.\\xa0 It\\u2019s also very common that an event like what our family went through can easily tear the strongest families apart.\\xa0 When we share the events of our life to give strength to others, we heal.\\xa0 Simple as that.\\xa0 When we heal, we help heal others through our own struggles.

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Forging Strength of the Family

Losing my son not only effected me, but it also effected my entire family.\\xa0 My wife and two older sons took the loss of our son very hard.\\xa0 To be honest, I underestimated how much it would effect my two oldest boys (Ethan 10 and Mason 8).\\xa0 I can tell you without a doubt a ten year-old and an eight-year old child feels the devastating effects of loss when something like this happens.\\xa0 However, here we are eighteen months later and I can tell you without a doubt our family is stronger now than it ever has been.

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Forging Strength through Gratitude

My family learned firsthand the power of the right perspective even in our darkest hour.\\xa0 Our family literally went through six weeks of hell that I wouldn\\u2019t wish on my worst enemy.\\xa0 Knowing you are going to lose your son will rattle even the strongest man.\\xa0 However, I learned the power of having the right perspective in the midst of absolute uncertainty.\\xa0 I kept a daily gratitude journal during this six-week long process and I believe it literally saved me from insanity.

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Take 5 Minutes of Gratitude Every Morning

Every morning during that six-week journey, I wrote down three things that I was grateful for every morning.\\xa0 I can tell you without a doubt, that most mornings it was very hard to see the positive aspects in my life.\\xa0 However, I can tell you without a doubt that there were several things in my life that were positive.\\xa0 It took a great deal of discipline to decide to focus on the right things in my life despite the chaos.\\xa0 I would write down things like:

  • \\u201cI\\u2019m grateful I have a job.\\u201d
  • \\u201cI\\u2019m grateful my three boys and my wife all have their health.\\u201d
  • \\u201cI\\u2019m grateful we have a roof over our head.\\u201d

I will admit, on some days I stretched to find gratitude.\\xa0 However, I can tell you without a shadow of a doubt, it was the best thing I did every morning.

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My Hope for You

I share this story and this daily routine of:

Morning Gratitude \\u2013 write down 3 things you are grateful for

Your Power Statement \\u2013 write down your statement that you will use when the fear wolf starts to whisper in your ear.

Your Mission of the Day \\u2013 what will you do today.\\xa0 Come hell or high water, what will you accomplish today?

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Evening Gratitude \\u2013 write down 2-3 highlights through the day.\\xa0 Get back into the mindset of gratitude.\\xa0 The highlights are there every day if we decide to reflect on them.

Eradicate Regret from your Life \\u2013 What was the lowest point of your day?\\xa0 Write it down.\\xa0 Get it out there.\\xa0 Now, instead of focusing on how deeply you regret that low point, ask yourself \\u201cwhat is the lesson?\\u201d

Resources:

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Check out a free chapter from: THE DAD\'S EDGE on\\xa0UNLIMITED PATIENCE HERE

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Links

Thanks for checking out this week\'s Five Minute Thursday Episode on Forging Strength in our Darkest Hours.

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