When the difficulties of life are getting you down, often a way to work your way out of the dumps is to perform a personal act of power, said Carolyn Myss in Invisible Acts of Power: Personal Choices that Create Miracles.

Below are just a few of her favorite personal acts of power:

• Hold a door open for someone.

• Smile.

• Offer kind words and encouragement to those who need them.

• Offer a compliment to someone.

• Listen to someone without interrupting him or her.

• When your intuition tells you to call someone, pick up the phone and dial.

• Forgive others and yourself for imperfections.

• Make a meal for a friend.

• When you catch yourself starting to judge someone, stop.

• Remember that things can change in a moment.

• Focus on the present and what you can do for someone else right now, not sometime in the distant future.

• Remember that everything you do, think or say matters.  

‘Twas the night before Christmas when all through the house
I searched for the tools to hand to my spouse.
Instructions were studied and we were inspired, 
In hopes we could manage "some assembly required."

We opened the boxes, my heart skipped a beat ...
Let no parts be missing or parts incomplete! 
Too late for last-minute returns or replacement;
If we can’t get it right, it goes in the basement!

When what to my worrying eyes should appear,
But 50 sheets of directions, concise but not clear,
With each part numbered and every slot named,
So if we failed, only we could be blamed.

More rapid than eagles the parts then fell out,
All over the carpet they were scattered about.
"Now bolt it! Now twist it! Attach it right there!
Slide on the seats and staple the stair!
Hammer the shelves and nail to the stand."
"Honey," said Hubby, "you just glued my hand."

And then in a twinkling, I knew for a fact
That all the toy dealers had indeed made a pact
To keep parents busy all Christmas Eve night
With "assembly required" ’til morning’s first light.

We spoke not a word, but kept bent at our work,
’Til our eyes, they went bleary; our fingers all hurt.
The coffee went cold and the night, it wore thin
Before we attached the last rod and last pin.

Then laying the tools away in the chest, 
We fell into bed for a well-deserved rest.
But I said to my husband just before I passed out,
"This will be the best Christmas, without any doubt.

Tomorrow we’ll cheer, let the holiday ring,

And not have to run to the store for a thing!
We did it! We did it! The toys are all set
For the perfect, most perfect, Christmas, I bet!"

Then off to dreamland and sweet repose I gratefully went,
Though I suppose there’s something to say for those self-deluded...
I’d forgotten that BATTERIES are never included!

— From the Internet