Episode 3: Gratitude
Hello my friends, welcome to episode 3.
So today I wanted to talk to you about a practice that I started about 1 months ago as a test to see if it actually worked.
It is the really simple practice of gratitude.
So, every morning before I get out of bed – I pull up the notes on my phone and I simply write 5 things I am grateful for.
Now it's winter right now so blankets, the furnace, heating pads are regular items on the lists but so are friends, conversations, and prayer.
I started this practice a few months ago after listening to one of the conversations on the gratitude series that Tiffany Peterson puts on each year.
The question that was discussed was: if you only had what you thanked God for yesterday, what would you have?
The speaker admitted that when he had first heard the question the answer was nothing. And that was pretty much true for me too and that made me want to make a change.
Speakers in that series also told story after story of how gratitude had changed their lives completely.
And at the time my life needed a change.
I was in the middle of a pretty intense project at work.
I had been traveling for a week for work and was fighting one of the weirdest colds…but not covid.
And speakers had promised that if you did just a few minutes of practicing gratitude each day you could change your life by Christmas.
And I wanted my life to change.
So, I put this to the test.
A friend asked me if there was anything she could do to help me. Actually, she insisted I come up with something by Wednesday and I decided this would be it.
5 things every morning via text message that we were grateful for.
The transformation has been subtle but noticeable.
My work is still insane.
My hours are still insane.
My struggles are still real.
But the abundance in my life is also so amazing.
Because I take the time to see each morning just a few things that I have - I seem to just have more.
I bounce back faster from setbacks.
So, if you want to change your life by the end of the year. The end of the month. Or whenever you listen to this. Give it a try.
Now why does gratitude work?
Focus – what we focus on expands. We see this everywhere. Have you ever had a friend tell you about a new make of vehicle that you had never seen before and then the next day you will see 5 of them? This is exactly how focus works. We are bombarded by information and our brains are constantly filtering things out. What isn’t important has to go and what is important takes energy. So, make gratitude important and you will see it everywhere. Make goodness important and you will see more goodness. Make kindness important and you will see more kindness and probably create more kindness.
Another way to think about this is a camera lens. I am always trying to take pictures in the fields of different wild flowers. You will sometimes have the camera focus on the grass or the stem, or leaves when you really want to have it focus on the flower and blur the rest so the flower pops out. Gratitude will do this same thing. It puts our focus on the thing that we choose. Not on all the distractions or other things around it.
Our brains are designed to look for danger. They are really good at picking up on the negative - but we have to train them to look for the positive. Picking up on the negative used to be absolutely necessary for survival but in the world we live in – an email isn’t going to kill you the way a bear would. Our brains have to be directed to see the positive and gratitude is one of those small things we can practice.
Gratitude feels good – so it’s actually easy to convince yourself to do -feels good to you and feels good to others
Gratitude is contagious – when we are grateful others are often grateful.
Gratitude builds trust – when we express gratitude to others – they know we know what they did and we are not just taking their skill and sometimes sacrifice for granted
So, try this out!!! It’s easy. Takes just a few minutes.
Link it up to something you do every day. The first time you check your phone. When you first look in the mirror in the morning. When you are eating breakfast or lunch or dinner.
Start the practice.
See the great people, things, blessings that you have in your life.
It will be fun.
Have a wonderful week.