What is this buzz word and how can we grow a gratitude mindset? Learn what gratitude is and how we can incorporate easy techniques to grow this feeling into a mindset to carry us through difficult times.
Audio TranscriptAuto-generated
gratitude mindset grow it.
What actually is gratitude, we can see it all over
the place, it's definitely become a buzzword, you can find
it on many social media, post many quotes even hashtags
shirts, hats, posters, bumper stickers, gratitude seems to be everywhere.
But what do we actually know about gratitude in this
presentation? We will talk about the definition of gratitude, what
it can be, why we need it and how we
can grow it.
When you hear the word gratitude, there's probably two words
that pop into your head and those are thank you
obviously in english, but that is what we immediately think
of is being grateful.
To go a little bit deeper.
Gratitude is a feeling or an emotion, it is the
quality of being thankful and my favorite part, it is
the readiness to show appreciation and to return kindness.
This is the basic definition for gratitude, but I want
to go back to the top feeling emotion As we
know feelings and emotions are only meant to be felt
for 60-90 seconds.
So if we think back of a moment that we
were really grateful that we felt that quality of being
thankful and even went further to show the appreciation and
to return the kindness That feeling only lasted about 60-90
seconds. So how can we make this something more the
gratitude mindset more than a feeling.
There are many studies that show that when we practice
gratitude and actually are very intentional with cultivating it, it
becomes more than a feeling.
It becomes a mood and even a personality trait.
The studies also show very strong impact on our joy
and happiness.
We can have a gratitude mindset at all times, even
during the hard ones.
And it is during those times that this gratitude mindset
can become a compass in the dark.
So as you can see, there are many reasons why
we would want to go cultivate a gratitude mindset.
Although emotions and feelings are only meant to be temporary
and we are meant to move on from them.
Having an actual gratitude mindset will have a direct impact
on how we view the world and how we go
through challenging times, challenging times are unavoidable.
They're going to happen in life.
It doesn't matter who you are, how much money you
have, where you live, if you are single married, if
you are educated, not educated, doesn't matter.
Every single person on this planet will experience challenging times.
It is what we do and how we prepare ourselves
for those times.
That make a big difference in the book.
The Book of Joy, you will find Archbishop tutu and
the Dalai lama talking about not just Joy obviously that's
in the title of the book, but also about gratitude
and how it has the the ability to carry us
through difficult times.
It becomes that compass, It becomes that little beam of
hope and light in the dark, what it does is
that it actually helps us to see the good things
that are happening in our lives despite of what's not
going our way and being able to see that is
what gives us the strength to walk through even sometimes
may be dragged through those hard times, but the point
is you you do get through them.
So that is what gratitude is.
Now let's see how we can cultivate this, grow that
gratitude grow, grow, grow.
So I've identified for very simple ways to grow and
cultivate our gratitude and here the floor, you want to
keep a gratitude lists, share kindness, pray and meditate.
But before we go into those four, I want to
go back to basics say thank you and not just
say thank you or do a quick wave of your
hand and keep moving actually stop.
Be present in that moment.
Make eye contact, be specific, say and express what you're
grateful for and why make it personal if possible, address
him by name.
So I want you to imagine you're walking into a
building, you're kind of rushed your, you have your purse
or different things in your hand and you're trying to
get in and there's like a slew of people coming
into the building at the same time.
But this one person stopped from their moment from their
day trying to get into work and held the door
open for you.
I'm sure this is something that's happened to us several
times and we probably just go like, oh thank you
and keep going.
What if you actually pause and gave a very meaningful
thank you and just said thank you making eye contact
looking at them, right, thank you so much.
That was really nice for holding the door open for
me. That really kind of made my day is going
to start off my day in the right foot with
the right energy.
Thank you being very specific and guess what they did
you a favor and you just kind of return it
right back to them by making them feel seen and
heard. There's many other opportunities we have during our days
to really provide a meaningful thank you people, you know,
would be even cooler if you actually take the time
to write an appreciation note.
What if you actually wrote something down and I know
it sounds kind of old school but that ability to
actually provide someone something in writing something that can always
look back at keep it's very important.
And when you do that, if you go ahead and
take it from verbal to written your very specific, you
provide the name, you tell them why you're grateful what
it is that they did and how it helped you
and you make it personal.
That is going to mean so much to them.
So let's start with the basics, let's say thank you.
Like for real like really say thank you to people
now back to the fore I wrote here, keep a
gratitude list instead of a journal because I find that
people tend to get a little bit intimidated with journal.
So keep a gratitude list And it can be very
simple. Start off writing two things on your list The
next day.
Make that three The next day, make it four and
so forth.
I want you every day to write one more thing
and it can be very simple things such as I'm
grateful to be alive.
I am grateful to have a job.
I am grateful for my pets and just keep going
and then keep writing more and more every day.
And this is going to have a really big impact
on kind of shifting your focus and rewiring the brain
to see the good.
So when those challenging times come it will be easier
for you to focus on the good things that are
happening because they do happen even during the most challenging
times. Then its share kindness provide somebody else the opportunity
to be grateful.
Just random acts of kindness, it could be, you're the
one opening the door like being very president noticing where
can you provide a little bit of kindness and just
Sprinkle it around that will make you feel really good.
It's called the little joy juice you'll get from the
act of kindness and the act of giving, but also
you just made somebody else's day and that energy is
contagious and they'll go on and keep paying it forward.
Pretty much pray, sit and pray think about the things
you're grateful for and give thanks And lastly meditate, meditation
is so good and you don't have to be a
pro at it.
You don't have to sit for two hours a day
but just start off small and just keep it simple.
Close your eyes, focus on your breath, inhale and say
I am grateful and then exhale through the mouth.
Inhale, I am grateful.
You can add to that.
Anything that works for you.
I like to recommend my clients to start off with
a rose, a beautiful rose, whatever color you want.
Just imagine this beautiful big rose coming closer to your
face when you inhale and exhale a little bit farther
away and inhale that rose again and exhale.
You can do that also by envisioning that you're by
the ocean.
And every time a wave comes in you inhale and
as the wave leaves, you're exhaling so just find what
works for you.
Practice makes perfect.
So just keep practicing that every day.
Yeah, remember that we have to work at things to
get better at them.
Just like working out.
It might feel a little bit uncomfortable at first.
But the more you do it, the better you are
at it the same thing with this.
So practice these very simple and easy things to grow
your gratitude mindset.
This presentation comes to you from the Unis project.
The Units project is a blog and a podcast through
anchor. You can find the blog at Wordpress, the UNIS
project, and you can find the UNIS project podcast on
Apple podcasts, Spotify and anchor.
I hope you enjoy this.
This is our first actual presentation.
I'll be providing more and I am carry your host.
And this presentation was inspired by the blog and podcast.