The Astounding Science of Gratitude

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Welcome I’m Deb Sheppard. I’m your host of Spirited Straight Talk. Thank you for joining me on this amazing spiritual journey that we call life. You’re in the right place and you didn’t land here by accident. My intention is to help you learn to free yourself, of things that are holding you back and create a life that truly makes your soul happy. LL be talking about key insights and interesting topics to help you learn how to powerfully co create with the universe. I will cover everything from turning your setbacks and to triumphs my favorite living your soul’s purpose. Of course, I’ll be connecting with spirit, your guides. And the favorite one of course is your loved ones. On the other side, if you’re re ready to truly stop spinning circles and you re ready to harness the power to co create a life with spirit, that I hope you join me every week for spirited straight talk

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In society today, we talked about gratitude, how blessed we are, what we have to be thankful, but we do it for a little while, and then we forget about it. And we even have a holiday that reminds us once a year, it’s called Thanksgiving to be in gratitude. I’m Deb shepherd. And today we’re going to get real about gratitude and talk about some ideas and new ways of keeping gratitude in the forefront of our life. Listening today, I’m in gratitude for my beautiful Jayna. He is my soulmate forever, and I’m in deep gratitude.

2 (1m 41s):
And every day I say, thank you for being in my life. They know, oh, thank you. You know, I think what happens is there’s, we get to realize what gratitude does in our podcast. If you’ve listened to any of them before today is how energy works and Gratitude is another energy vibration. And we have to remember that having gratitude is so valid every day. And I thought about this the other day, I was telling you that I’m, I’m mentally in a good place. Both of us are. We have, you know, we’re really blessed and you and I have been through ups and downs in life. And during those times when I was struggling for me personally, anyway, I was just always like, well, I’m happy what I have, but I’ll be so much more thankful as I can manifest this or do this.

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Then I get really comfortable, like I’m in this place of, of comfort and, and feel like there’s really not those huge struggles that we’ve had in the past. But what I have forgotten to say is in my, in gratitude every day for having those blessings and to be in this space. And when we talked about this, we even brought it into one of our classes or our zoom class with one of our mentoring groups about what are we in gratitude for? And it’s interesting how there’s so many ways to have this idea of gratitude. And what it does is it brings all of these really positive emotions of what you do have.

2 (3m 16s):
And it brings to mind one of our students, Megan, you know, she’s dealing with cancer right now, and she’s very young. She has three young children and here she is on our zoom meetings. And she was up close to the fires here in Boulder. And what she said is I watched these big trucks go by with all the houses that have been burned and that people are having to start over. And she feels very blessed that her home and her children and everything that she has is safe. What gratitude, when you’re going through something such a challenge, such a challenge. And that’s here in Boulder, Colorado people who don’t know that we’re here in Colorado, but she just, you know, all of us just couldn’t even saving after what she said hardly, you know, we had to really struggle because the gratitude of being in a place where you’re struggling and then you can still look at life as half-full.

2 (4m 16s):
That makes sense. How about you in different times? I mean, the gratitude where you’ve gone through struggles or even where you are today, because we brought this up about what does Gratitude bring to our daily lives thing is, is we are thankful every day, but I don’t know if I really acknowledged it as Gratitude. We don’t practice it as a ritual. We don’t know. I mean, and I want to, I think that it is such a powerful way. I think we, we start to begin that daily practice, we, we start it and then we kind of, it just kind of drops off and I’m, I’m feeling most likely. A lot of people are that way, but it’s such a powerful tool in manifesting.

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It’s such a powerful way to bring things about, by acknowledging that appreciation for not only what you have, but what your what’s coming to you, what you’ve had your present, everything, you know, and what I do believe with this, I was thinking about this topic is we thought about doing this as a podcast is the more that you’re in gratitude. I think that makes room for more blessings, if that makes any sense, because when you are in gratitude, no matter where you are in your situation, it’s a roof over your head, or maybe someone smiled at you today, or even when you’re driving and someone lets you cut it.

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You’re thinking about those things. Or let’s say you only have two items and you’re in the checkout and someone lets you go ahead of you. All of those things are gratitude, but we forget to really acknowledge those situations. What I do believe is that when you have more gratitude, the energy that you were putting out to the universe is going to bring you more, that same energy, because it’s appreciated. It’s sort of like when your kids are little and they don’t appreciate things. And so you start taking back. If they don’t, they’re not in gratitude, right? You say, well, if you’re not going to appreciate that, I’m going to take this away from you. So the more gratitude you have the universe in response to providing more of that.

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However, also when you look at Gratitude at what it does to your energy, I think it really works on a cellular level too. And it can affect you on so many ways because you’re not in that place of a need or in a place of this, you know, I have to have this or this is not going to work. Thank you. And that limiting belief, and I think it does create this overall feeling of enrichment for your life. So I think you feel more alive. I think people sleep better. I think it’s well, will science proves that you have a better immune system and I think you can look at life as when you have Gratitude is helping others too.

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And realizing that. But at the same time when we were looking into this podcast and information, because I think one of the big things is how can you look at it differently? How we talk about it so much in our society? How can you look at it differently? Because people talk about all the time, practicing gratitude. Well, why is it that we know there’s all these benefits and it’s still is not that important to most people it’s not, or it’s kind of like a, oh yeah, I’m in Gratitude. You know, so looking into this, there was a study that was done at the university of Pennsylvania and they found that people who wrote a letter of gratitude felt happy or for a full month afterwards.

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And so it was that mean like writing a thank you card to somebody, a thank you letter to somebody that made an impact on your life. Yeah. And they felt happier. They had it, must’ve boosted something within their body chemically and they felt happier for a full month after that. And then not only that, but people who wrote down three positive events each day for a week had happiness levels raise for six up to six months. Wow. That’s better than medication. a few years back when I was doing other types of mentoring programs, part of that was to pay forward.

2 (8m 42s):
So people actually, when we had the yellow pages or white pages, they would pick people out of the phone book and send them a letter about how amazing they were any return. And you mentioned getting them in the mail where they put positive things on people’s windshields, because I think we live in a society sometimes imagine getting a positive note on your windshield visit, you parked too close to me or trying to advertise something. But there’s just those little things can really make someone feel better. You know, me, when someone, when we’re out in public, I will say, oh my God, that’s really great outfit. Oh, who did your hair? I think we forget to acknowledge.

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And we just kind of put those blinders on and we just get through the day versus taking even those 30 seconds that it would take to acknowledge something as a compliment to someone else. And I know you put up with me when I do those things. I mean, I think it’s, it’s obviously it’s great and it lifts people up around you, you know? So it’s not that that’s not it at all. I know we all can benefit from slowing down and paying attention to people around us. And just so you guys know, Dana sometimes will run out and she doesn’t have any makeup on and she’s so beautiful. And I tell her all the time, you’re just so beautiful and it is a hundred percent true.

2 (10m 6s):
It’s giving those compliments to people that are not expected. Just feel blessed to be with somebody in the presence and the caring that we need to give to each other. And when we should, the other thing is I think is finding a way to get our brain to practice this right? And it’s anything that we do for a certain amount of time becomes practice. And I, I’m not the person that likes to do something personal, you know, me like let’s exercise. I can really fall off the wagon very easily. No. So I would, I was thinking the other day is I don’t want to have that limited feeling of I’m really in a good place.

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Why don’t I have more gratitude? So I want to really get it into the practice to be able to do that on a daily basis. And so there are some things that we can do to have gratitude on certain, like if you’re, well, you’re a morning person and you’re not, I’m in gratitude when you let me sleep in. But is it, you know, when do you find those times to right. I mean, and we talked about this too. The goal is not to have a journal full of your declarations of gratitude. That’s not the goal. No. So if you do that, that’s great. Sure. That’s great. But the actual goal of making this original or a practice is to train your brain because if you train your brain, you’re actually instilling that as a default feeling.

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So that automatically starts to happen, which gives you a more fulfilled feeling in life. I think, I mean, I do think it would. Yeah. Did it help you lose weight, change that vibration I’m in gratitude for the food that serves me? Absolutely. So we want to do what we want to think about is some different ways to bring in that feeling of gratitude. That’s really our target new ways, new ways, because I think what happens is some people pray, some people bless their food. Some people are in gratitude for the, they may have a practice already, but what are some other ways that it’s not something that you have in your current life or that you’re doing on a normal basis, which would be me to define ways boring?

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Are you bored with it? You just write in a, you know, have you tried the writing in a journal? And you’re like, oh, I don’t want to go back to writing what I’m in gratitude for. You know what I mean? Like what are some new ways that, that you can practice gratitude and keep it fresh? One of the ways that you can do this is even thinking about what you’re in gratitude before it happens before something happens. And I don’t know if that, I mean, when I thought about that, I thought thought as we think about what we’re in gratitude at the moment or what we’ve been blessed with, but think about, oh, I’m going to be blessed for that great vacation sitting on the beach, but that work Jane has given me the look, everyone.

2 (13m 24s):
So I think it’s realizing that we can have these specific moments where we can bring gratitude in. I think I really good at sometimes asking people like, what are you taking away or what feels really good? What’s the nugget here? I mean, I, that’s kind of, my daily practice is doing that with clients, with students and teaching people to lead those small things because I think it’s pointing them out and we can kind of put everything in a big, like a bubble that we really need to look at specific. And I, I really love looking at one or two things that people are in gratitude for. You mean when you meet with them with having them recognize that it was our kids and things like that, you know, we’re sitting down with dinner or, or talking like, Hey, what was that really good about today?

2 (14m 8s):
And I think it’s realizing, how do we ask that question for the morning, as you we’ve talked about today is that, you know, you’re a morning person, I’m a night person, but waking up and smelling that coffee and you bring it. And she puts whipped cream on top of the light. Okay. But it’s, it’s but again, it’s habit. The fact that someone made vegan with crane is that not in gratitude, I should be having a party. So it’s finding those small moments where we feel that we can appreciate and make acknowledge them. And it’s, it’s actually making it where it’s so comfortable at almost.

2 (14m 51s):
It’s an thing where you feel like, wow, even putting your hand on your chest and going, I am so in gratitude, I’m so thankful for this. And even when someone takes the time to talk to you, to look at you in the eye, you know me, I love Thank you, handwritten. Thank you notes again. It’s someone taking that time because we don’t do that today. We text, we email, we don’t do those other things. So that’s a great suggestion is to write a note to somebody you’ve never acknowledged you to acknowledge them for how they helped you or what, how they made you feel or whatever the case is.

2 (15m 31s):
That’s a great way to start. I think that we are so hard on ourselves and for a lot of us in our jobs or with family, we feel so judged. We never think we’re good enough. So when you give someone a compliment, when you’re in gratitude, I, without a doubt, believe it’s going to change the energy of that individual for that day. I think not for quite some time. Yeah. Because I could see how writing a letter of gratitude to somebody if I received or when I have received things like that, it’s huge. It’s, it’s tremendous. And I, I never forget it. No. Right. The other thing people have heard of the gratitude chart, I guess it’s not the same as the swear jar so do you put money in the gratitude jar or do you put little notes in there about what you’re in gratitude for?

2 (16m 30s):
Maybe there’s a tough day and you, you know, you pull out whatever you wrote to remind yourself how it felt that one day to bring that energy back, we can look at a photo, we can taste something, smell something, hear a song, and it can take us back in time. It’s the same thing. When you written something as a gratitude and put it in a jar, put it away, pull it out when you’re not having a great day and you read it, it’s going to take you back to that moment. And it’s going to raise your vibration again about all the things that you’re in gratitude for. And when you hit that bump on the road, guess what it is, it’s a bump in the road. It’s not devastating. It doesn’t take you down as fast.

2 (17m 10s):
You know, you can pull yourself back up and remember what you do have versus that moment of judgment or things that have been tough for that day. But I do like the swear jar too. So can we have both? I said, you know, how about a, in the swear jar we have, we put money there and be in gratitude for the trip of that. We’re going to take with me swearing. I think the other thing is there’s a lot of judgment towards the younger generation now that they don’t work as hard. They change jobs. If they’re not happy, they change things. They’re not willing to, to work the way maybe other generations, we can teach them to have gratitude.

2 (17m 53s):
But I also know that they’re not willing to put up with things the way other people have, but the gratitude for them too, is they have more opportunities than other people did. And so when we look at and judge these young people about looking what they’re doing, but they also want to be happy, which I think is important to look at because some of us stayed in bad relationships or bad jobs for a long time thinking we had to stay, but it’s also teaching the people coming up in our world as an example of having gratitude for what we do have. And especially people that are trying to buy homes, trying to have. Now the homes are so expensive for rent and things like that. But if they have gratitude for other things, is that going to help them be able to have gratitude for where they are so that that energy and vibration changes so that they can find that life that they want.

2 (18m 46s):
Th these, my son was telling me the other day, Thomas, he’s getting into a new career and he was talking about how long he can work for the particular career that he’s looking at. And in that career, he’s forced into retirement after 20 years. And so we were having that conversation and talking about options and opportunities, other opportunities. And he looked at me, he said, I don’t want to work more than 20 years. He said, if I’m done, I’m done. I’m going to enjoy my life. And I don’t think most of us think of it in those terms. It’s different opportunities. Of course, different people have different opportunities, but just the fact that he said, you know, maybe I’ll work, part-time teaching or something, but I don’t want, after that point, I want to be done and enjoy life, which that’s going to be at 45.

2 (19m 41s):
I want to have a podcast on these millennium, mullet millennials. It is especially for me, but people in my generation believe, oh, you know, they’re not working as hard. They’re not as dedicated. They don’t want to put their ears to the grindstone. And I really think it’s the people in my generation complain about how hard it is to work and, and how long we have to work before they get their benefits. And they stay there. So instead of having gratitude for having their job, they think about the time they have to spend before they can have a life after their job. Yeah. So eventually that will be a podcast for us, but it’s remembering too that all the freedoms that we have, the blessings that we have and to acknowledge where we are in life, no matter what, we’re all having something we’re looking for in our lives.

2 (20m 33s):
I was even thinking about Ukraine and seeing some of the stuff we are very blessed to have it, but to see a war and people having to leave their homes and their country for us to say, I’m in such gratitude, do we to go to that place to find gratitude, right? We shouldn’t, we should have gratitude for so much every day and feel blessed for what we have. And so I think what is important is that is people listen to this, sit down and start thinking, what are you in gratitude for today? And every day start making it your practice. And I would love to hear the stories later about doing this for 30 days.

2 (21m 16s):
How does your life change? How do you feel? Does it serve, changing how you see the world or positive things happening to you? Are you seeing things showing up with ease, which is really great. We don’t have that, but limiting belief is we have to work hard to get what we want. That’s an old limiting belief. Can we have more gratitude in find ease in our life? Exactly. But one of the other things is I wish I would have bought the practice to my child when he was young. If I would have taught him differently. Not, not that I didn’t teach him to be grateful or thankful.

2 (21m 60s):
Yeah. But if I would have taught him the practice, the daily practice as a tiled, I feel his life would have had more ease to it as he was growing up and getting older. We’re not too old. We’re not no, but what, just knowing a one-time act of thoughtful gratitude can give you an immediate boost of happiness and reduce depression symptoms by 35% up to 35%, just knowing that VAT and knowing everything I’ve been through, everything you’ve been through, just knowing that is powerful.

2 (22m 40s):
It is powerful. And I know that I have been talking about this. I think we’re going to make this a daily practice. And I don’t. So we can a journal. Are we going to do the jars jars? That’s some big jars we’ll do that. Absolutely. And I would love to hear other people’s stories about if they do this daily practice, how is it going to change their lives? So continue to listen to us on our podcasts, follow me on my website, dept shepherd.com.

3 (23m 17s):
Thank you so much for listening to the show. Each Monday is a new episode of spirited straight talk. Make sure you hit follow. So you don’t miss any of the guidance or bonus episodes. Your experience at the show means a lot to us, and we would love for you to leave a review or let us know about more topics you would like to explore. You can also follow Deb on social media and connect with her website at Deb Sheppard dot com. That’s Deb S H E P P a R d.com. If you want join Deb on one of the shows or have a reading from her on the show, you can submit a request on the podcast page of her website. Thank you again and see you next week.