Giving Thanks and Gratitude Practices
I've been doing various gratitude practices for a number of years now and from personal experience combined with the research on high-performance psychology, I know the massive impact that it can have on states of optimism and quality of life.
Gratitude and giving thanks may be something that we tend to reserve for certain times of the year but it doesn't have to be that way.
So while you may be gathering with close family this upcoming weekend either in person or from afar virtually, here are a few ways I have found that you can give thanks and feel it deeply while also maybe making it more of a regular practice for yourself.
Feel It, Don't Just Say It
One of the things that I often don't do well enough is taking the time to embody the feelings of gratitude. There's a big difference in the experience when we take a moment and actually think and feel the thanks we are giving instead of just saying it and continuing along on our train of thought or going about our day.
Remembrance Day is a good example of this when we pause for a minute to remember.
When you work on feeling the gratitude even for a minute, it will have a greater impact on you.
So take that pause, close your eyes if you need to, and visualize the things that you are thankful for. When we operate more from a place of gratitude, we see the world through a more positive light and live in a state of resonance with our hearts.
Past, Present, Future
There are many things that we can focus on with gratitude but one of the best ways to train yourself to think more optimistically and not get stuck with your gratitude practice losing its effectiveness is by doing a three-part gratitude practice.
This takes into account having one minute to reflect on something in the past, something in the present moment you are grateful for, and then something down the road for you that you are looking forward to.
Usually, each of us favours one form of gratitude so this practice helps us to keep more balanced and all it takes is three minutes a day.
If you have a hard time sticking to it, stack it with other habits you already have ingrained, like doing it immediately after brushing your teeth in the morning.
Write It Down
Maybe you'll be giving a toast this weekend to your family members and this is another great way to have your gratitude become more salient and have a greater impact.
The other thing that you can consider doing more to continue this practice over the longer-term is to start to write down your gratitude list each day. By writing the things you are grateful for down you help your brain integrate both left and right hemispheres in the practice instead of just thinking about it. When you do this you'll feel it deeper and when you're looking forward to future things, it will also prime your subconscious to look for opportunities to make it happen.
The other advantage is that by writing it down, you’ll have this amazing bank of good memories to turn back to when you’re feeling stuck or lost in your ways.
It sounds a little woo-woo but the neuroscience behind writing down your gratitude lists is solid so hopefully, you'll give it a shot because we all need more positivity right now and to keep our heads up as we continue to move forward into uncertain territory.
So whether you’ll get to gather with loved ones from near or afar this Thanksgiving weekend, remember to feel that love and gratitude more deeply than just saying it. Because it actually makes a difference and we all need a little more of that in our lives right now.
Cheers.
RJ Kayser
5 Steps To Improving Your Mindset During Quarantine
How many times have you heard someone lament over what a challenge it is to get off the couch and get work done in the past several months while being stuck at home? It’s so easy to get lost binge-watching shows and trying to forget the world around us for a bit but we all know deep down that it doesn’t feel good to do this. It leaves us in a shroud of a perpetual hangover. Let’s look at a few steps that you can take to drastically improve your mindset and how you are feeling during the quarantine.
Even if the restrictions have lifted wherever you are, using these tips will still help to enhance your mindset and your experience of life.
So read on and take note of what you need to improve upon.
1. USE your bliss station. 👩💻
A lot of us are struggling in part because productivity has bottomed out during the quarantine. It's difficult to get work done at home if you're not used to doing so and to add fuel to the fire, we're working online a lot more right now which is also a struggle if you don't have the right systems in place to master digital distractions.
A bliss station is your temple for deep work. It's a secluded place where you can be most productive. It should inspire creativity and focus.
Some people love the local coffee shop or library for this but as that's not an option for most of us still at this time, we have to manufacture our bliss stations at home. Download coffee shop sounds or play a movie with no sound in the background if you like to feel the company of other people around you. Or if your house is feeling too full right now, you can turn inward by repurposing a closet or using noise-cancelling headphones.
Creativity is a habit that we all can tap into if we create the right rituals and routines to produce more of it in our lives.
2. Keep a clean environment for focus. 🧹
If you're feeling frazzled in getting work done or just from feeling cooped up, a clean physical environment is linked to a clean mental space. To break through that ennui, tidy up your house or at least start with your work station to create more inspiration.
And if you hate cleaning, it only takes about 60 seconds of cleaning before your brain and body shift gears and it starts to lift your mood. So set your timer and start moving and you’ll be amazed at the shift in your mindset.
3. Get outside 🌲
Nature is incredibly refreshing physically, mentally, and emotionally. Fresh air and the chemicals in plants that produce fragrances have a calming effect and reduce stress and blood pressure.
Try to get outside every single day and you'll immensely change the way you are feeling very quickly.
Even going barefoot outside of wherever you are living for a few minutes will help to ground you more.
If you need music or a podcast to get you out the door and into the woods, I suggest at some point turning it off and just tuning in to the sounds of nature around you.
4. Start a mindfulness practice 🧘♂️
Now is the perfect time to start a mindfulness practice. Being at home and maybe secluded from other people makes it important to turn inward and tune into your feelings and emotions.
Learning how to meditate is the closest thing that we have to a superpower as humans. You can tie this into your daily walks outside or your gratitude practice if the idea of trying to clear your head of all thoughts is daunting. The real magic comes around 10 minutes per day of practice but consistency is much more important than outright length, so if all you can muster is four deep breaths to start, that's still great!
If you need a place to start with meditation, the Flow Academy free Challenge Week for Staying Healthy, Happy, and Stress-Free at-home includes several great meditations for getting started and getting through these tough times.
5. 3-Step Gratitude 🙏
Practicing gratitude is incredibly powerful for living more positively and generating optimism.
Now more than ever, we should be writing down our experiences and so I strongly encourage you to start a daily journal and just jot down some of your ideas or experiences through this pandemic.
While you don't need to write down the things you are grateful for, it can be a useful way to embody the feelings of gratitude deeper.
I find that doing a 3-step gratitude is the best way to create balance with the practice. A lot of the time if we do the same gratitude every time it will lose some of its emotional charge. Some people like to just think of their life's highlight reel, others treat gratitude as mindfulness and just focus on the present while a third group tends to visualize the future first and foremost and is always chasing a perceived endpoint instead of balancing the appreciation of the journey.
Combining Past, Present, and Future into your gratitude practice is a way to create more balance.
Start by pulling on a past peak experience. Let it fill you up with happiness and gratitude.
Use that energy to bring yourself into the present and focus on something small in your immediate environment that you can be grateful for.
Now visualize a future event or goal that you are looking forward to. You can even envision it having already been accomplished or experienced.
Using these mindset strategies can start to shift you towards more positivity and optimism. If it seems like a lot to ask for in one go, just start with whichever tip appeals to you the most and work on doing that one for a week or two. Once it feels easy to keep that one change in your routine, add in another step.
Remember that building a more resilient mindset doesn’t happen overnight and that this is about the long journey and not quick hacks. Take your time and be patient and wonderful things will start to happen for you.
Ready to take your performance to the next level? Register for the free webinar on How Will Peak Performance Change in “The New Normal?”
Use This Gratitude Practice To Make Your Outlook Immediately Brighter
As we are approaching the first six months of doors-open business for this burgeoning start-up that is Flow Spa, like any business, getting the momentum rolling forward hasn’t been without its hitches.
Throughout it all, I have had an unwavering sense of gratitude for the business and the support in my life that has allowed me to push forward with this vision.
We often forget the little things that have a profound impact on our sense of well-being. Without a habit being ingrained in your routine, it will fall by the wayside when life gets in the way or you feel you are too busy to take less than five minutes out of your day.
Gratitude is one of those things.
It often sounds so simple and doesn’t take much time to incorporate into your daily routine but seems to be a lost art to many people. That is gratitude journaling or just showing gratitude daily.
Starting your day off with a dose of gratitude makes a world of difference in your outlook and how you feel about the day.
While some people like to kick off the day with their gratitude practice, others prefer to wait until before bed to reflect on the day while looking forward to the next one or the bigger things at hand that you are grateful for.
I suggest trying both methods and finding what works better for you.
People often approach the idea of taking those precious moments to be grateful or to write it down as a waste of time because they are naturally pessimistic or feel like they don’t have a lot to be grateful for in their current situation. A lot of people get confused about practicing gratitude and think that it has to be things that are immediately present and make your world seem like it’s all sunshine and rainbows.
It can be beneficial when working towards a goal to have gratitude for that bigger goal at hand. Recognize that you are working towards something that will better you and you can be grateful for how far you’ve come already or if you’re just getting started, be grateful for the path ahead of you because having a goal and a mission to accomplish brings us a deeper meaning.
To balance this goal-oriented gratitude I have found that the way Tony Robbins practices gratitude has a lot of power to it.
Balanced Gratitude Practise for Optimism
The gratitude practise takes all of three minutes a day and consists of:
Something relatively goal-oriented, the type of gratitude that we typically see as we look forward to some expected outcome.
Something immediate and relatively mundane. Look around you on a macro setting- it could be the feeling and warmth of the rising (or setting) sun on your skin, it could be the sounds of the birds around you, the smell of summer, the colours of the vibrant flowers in your field of vision. Get specific and take a moment to deeply embrace that feeling.
The final type of daily gratitude is to reflect on a past relationship or experience with another person (or place) and relive the lessons that you have learned that you are grateful for because of that person or place.
By breaking up your gratitude practice into three distinct pieces, you won’t always write down or contemplate the same things. This is why writing down your daily gratitude list can help you to catch yourself from running on autopilot and make the practice more potent if you tend to always think of the same answers. Writing it down also forces both hemispheres of your brain to work in concert to actualize the gratitude more deeply. Priming the nervous system in this way is powerful so I do recommend writing your gratitude lists down in a journal, on a notepad, or even in a note on your phone or computer.
Try it out for yourself.
Start with one week and do the practice every day at the same time. Prime your day in the morning or set your mind at ease before bed with a nighttime practice. Get it done and see how you feel after one week. I’m certain that it will help to bring more optimism into your life and you’ll realize that this is a valuable practice to incorporate for life.