The Mind Body Project
The Mind Body Project
Seeds of Growth: The Silent Force of Everyday Gratitude
Remember when we started that simple Facebook Live show?
We never envisioned it would bloom into the podcast you hear today. This episode of the Mind Body Project is a heartwarming reflection of our humble beginnings and how the power of gratitude played a significant role. Not just during the holiday season, but every day, even during the toughest times. Listen as we share how this simple yet transformative habit can inject positivity into your life, turning your outlook around.
Joining the conversation, Aaron Degler opens up about his journey and the lessons he's learned along the way. He shares his experiences of neglecting his own personal growth, but also the resilience and drive he had to always find his way back. We discuss the importance of planting seeds for personal growth and how this is a key mission at the Mind Body Project. Aaron's candid sharing serves as a reminder for all of us to always take time for self-growth and gratitude. So tune in, let's embark on this gratitude-filled journey together.
Welcome to the Mind Body Project podcast. After over a decade in the health and wellness industry, Erin realized that our bodies change only short-term unless our mindset changes. For long-term success, Both our mind and body are forever linked. We are continually building up new ideas and tearing down old ones in our construction zone we call our mind. After this podcast is over, make sure you give it a like and a share and please subscribe and review this podcast. I would now like to introduce you to your host, the man connecting your mind and body to create a limitless life, Erin Zegler.
Speaker 2:Welcome back to the Mind Body Project. Thanks for taking a long time to join me today. Today, if you're watching this on YouTube, you can see that I am in one of my favorite chairs in my house, in my office. It is just a place that I just feel comfortable, I enjoy, and so I wanted to speak to you today and come from this place that brings me joy and comfort and talk to you about it's a week of Thanksgiving and, as always, we think about gratitude and the things we're thankful for. So I just wanted to visit with you a little bit today about gratitude and thankfulness, and especially in this season of Thanksgiving. We're more intentional about it during the season, during the holidays, and so I just wanted to share a little bit and come from you, from the place that I'm grateful for, which is this chair in my office. As I was preparing for today's show, I got to thinking about this chair and sitting here and with my bookcase, with all the books. Some I've read, many is still a lot to read through. But as I was thinking about this space that I'm in, and I thought about all the years that I've had this space probably the Mind Body Project has been over two years now the show has been going and before that I'd wanted to start a podcast and I'd bought all the equipment years before and just hadn't quite pulled the trigger to do it, to start the podcast, because of all the reasons that I've talked about in so many shows, of what will people say, what will they think, how it will come out, all those different things, all those things we each have insecurities about. But as I thought about that, I thought, you know, before I even started the podcast, just audio. Only just this year I started putting on YouTube. I had in this very spot, each week on a Friday evening at five o'clock, I would go on Facebook Live and do the conversation corner and, of course, my chairs. If you're not watching on YouTube, my chair is in a corner Next to my bookshelf. I have a lamp here, I have metals and stuff behind me that I've gotten during running events and different things, and this was my idea behind that was that I would just sit and have a conversation, just as if you and I were sitting in a coffee shop or in our living room or if you were sitting across from me in my office. We would just have a conversation and some of the topics were just like many that I've shared with on the MindBody project and it was just a conversation and I don't know how long I did that for maybe a couple months, it wasn't that long. But those conversations you can still find on my YouTube channel, which is Aaron Degler. You can find those, you can look back and you can see those conversations I had and I thought about that, I thought about gratitude and I thought about the conversation corner.
Speaker 2:At the time I thought you know, that kind of fizzled out. It wasn't very successful. They didn't have any main people view, all those different things. But you know, as I got to thinking about getting ready for today show, I thought about but I'm grateful for that opportunity, I'm grateful for taking that step out. And with Facebook Live, I mean it was going on live as I was doing it. So it was a little different format. Here I can edit, I can do some different things. I can, you know, make my voice sound a little better in editing all those kinds of things, but on Facebook Live it was going straight out. There's no, oh, let me do a redo. There just wasn't. But you know it was grateful for that opportunity as I thought about it, to have that practice, that practice that To speak to an audience as I spoke, being a Facebook lab, I thought who is on the other side?
Speaker 2:Who is watching this? Now? To do the same now with with the show is Is who is listening? Who's that one that needs to hear those words that I speak? Maybe see my mannerism, see the guests, maybe they have on. Who is it that needs to see what I am doing? So that just gave me an opportunity to reflect, to be grateful for. At the time I thought it's a flop, it's not working. But fast forward a couple years ago. You know that was very valuable. That was very valuable to doing what I do now and which is, you know, producing the mind body project on a bi-weekly basis, and so just made me have an opportunity of being thankful and having gratitude.
Speaker 2:And, and during this season we, we become more emotional and we really think about all the things work grateful for. But you know I like to say gratitude is an attitude we hear about. You know we give more, we're more Caring, we're more thankful, more, have more gratitude, all those things during this season. But from Thanksgiving to Christmas a little bit before Thanksgiving all the way through the new year. We really have that big sense of gratitude and just that big emotion, but I urge each of us to carry that on through the year. It's, it's an attitude. What am I thankful for? You know, sometimes we have the lousiest of days. That's just. This is just a stinky day, but isn't there something in that day that we can look at and be Grateful for, have some gratitude towards them? It's what happens, is what we find is that that starts to become a habit. How many times, or how many people, we may be one of those people that everything is the sky is falling, everything as well as me Because we haven't taken the opportunity, or others have not taken out the opportunity, to say what am I thankful for today?
Speaker 2:What? What can I have gratitude about for today? What, what went right? What went right? I mean, after the alarm went off, we got up. The day could have went south all day long, but we're so thankful that we were able to get up with our alarm. We got up, we had electricity, we had a warm house, a cool house, whatever season it might be. We could flip on the lights, we could turn on the faucet and they all worked, those things we take for granted. But couldn't we have gratitude for those and be? I'm so thankful that I had those that had a warm house or a cool house, or I was able to take a shower, I was able to take a bath, I Was able to get dressed in close and go out to work, go off to school, whatever it may be, we can be grateful for those small things.
Speaker 2:No matter what happened after we got up and we did those things, we can be grateful for that. Maybe you know the day didn't start out right, maybe a hot water heater went out, we didn't have a hot water, electricity's off, all those things. And then we get to work, we get to school, we get to our organization we're volunteering, wherever it may be, and we see somebody and they just have a nice conversation with us. They just give us that smile that we need. They just give us that pat on the shoulder and says hey.
Speaker 2:I'm glad to see you today, just something, and the rest of the day may have gone down the drain, but at that moment we can say I was grateful for that person To give me that smile and have that brief conversation. Whatever it may be, I was grateful for it. So we find that that starts to become our attitude of you know, today's been lousy, that was a lousy thing, that just happened. But we turn immediately and say what am I grateful for today? And it doesn't happen all the time. I'm just as guilty of it as any of us have of the day getting away from you, the day. Just, you know, I have a friend. She always says you know, you waller in the swamp, you waller in the she actually calls it. You just waller in the crap for a while. And sometimes you go I don't really want to get out, I'm just gonna waller here for a little bit, and that happens and that's okay. But that shouldn't happen every day all the time, and we shouldn't want to stay there. Sometimes we just want to waller around a little bit in it, but then we get out. But that's a rarity we want to work on. When those things go south, when they go down the drain.
Speaker 2:We have that attitude of what am I grateful for what? When we start looking for those things, we start looking for those opportunities, we start looking for those reasons to be grateful. It's no different than if we buy a red car and we haven't really noticed any red cars, but all of a sudden we see tons of red cars. Are there any more red cars out there than there were out there before? No, we just now notice them more because we have a red car. Same thing is true with gratitude. Are there more things out there to be grateful for than there already was? No, not necessarily. But since we're changing our attitude towards gratitude and we're starting to have an attitude of gratitude, now we start looking for those opportunities. We see those opportunities oh, I see that one. That is a great opportunity to be grateful for. That's the thing to be grateful for, that.
Speaker 2:And then the list goes on. And then we start to see that our days start to change. Our days start to change from being full of doom and gloom to full of opportunities for gratitude. See, the day didn't change. We changed. We changed our attitude from a what was me attitude to a gratitude attitude, and now we start to look at the day differently. That's why so many times we want to blame the day on others. Sometimes others may call some things, you know. That may be true, whether it's work, relationships, whatever it may be. There may be some things there sometimes, but when we go into that day looking for how can I be grateful? We view that day completely different than if we go into it without an attitude of gratitude, and I really want to encourage each of us to, during this season, think of yes, we have a lot to be grateful for.
Speaker 2:But what happens on January 1st? Thanksgiving's over, christmas is over and of course, january 1st we have all the New Year's resolutions, so we might have a little bit of. I'm still going to be grateful, we might still have a little bit of that. But what happens January 17th, 18th or February 2nd?
Speaker 2:When we're getting further and further away from those holidays where we're really grateful for things we really bring it to the forefront, we start to forget about those daily things that we're grateful for. So it has to become a habit. I have a challenge going on with a small group class, training class, right now that they're on a point system and they do certain things cardio and strength, they get points. And if they do a daily habit, they get a point. And so I encourage them to pick a habit. That's something that they want to work on and they want to do, and they have to do the habit all month long, all of November, and we'll have a different habit for November, for December. But some picked, actually a few picked, one picked. I'm going to write down three things I'm grateful for. That becomes a habit because you start to write those things down. Another person said I'm going to text and encouraging text to at least one person every day and that makes us start to that habit, starts to make us look who are we grateful for? Who do I want to encourage today? Who am I thankful for? Because aren't we grateful for somebody? If we are sending them encouraging texts, that means they mean something to us.
Speaker 2:When we start taking the active, not only noticing in our daily life things to be grateful for, but now we start to write them down, that has power. I really believe that it's a different way of when we're grateful, whether we type it or write it. When we write it, I see it as you know you're grateful, you have those ideas and they come through your mind, through your heart, out your hand. There's a process there that imprints from mind, heart out. Your whole body feels it because you had that thought. It went and then it became emotional in your heart and then it became an action, as you wrote it out. And that, again, is how we change an attitude. An attitude starts with a thought, then an emotion, then a behavior. Same thing when we write it out Thought, emotion, your heart, action. You write it out, it becomes, it starts becoming grained when we have that attitude of gratitude and we start to write those things that we're grateful for so many times.
Speaker 2:We hear about a gratitude journal. It might just be those things you write on a daily basis that you're grateful for. You know, would writing it be good? Yes, but if you can put it in your notes, in your phone, it doesn't matter. If you want to jot it down on a post-it note, if you want to voice record it, there's a million different ways. There's no right or wrong way to start looking for those gratitude moments, those things that we are grateful for, because Thanksgiving will come and go, christmas will come and go, valentine's Day will come and go, easter will come and go, all these dates will come and go and before we know it, we'll be back to this same day again next year. Anything about being grateful? And you might say man, this year I'm really going to pay attention, I'm really going to be grateful, I'm really going to have an attitude of gratitude. No-transcript.
Speaker 2:As you listen to this episode, listen to me talk. Today is the day you start creating the attitude of gratitude. What does your year look like when, every day, you focused on that attitude of gratitude? Every day you focused on it? How your life going to look different 365 days later, until this day next year? It's going to look completely different. Your outlook on life is going to be different, your demeanor is going to be different, your relationships are going to be different. Your world is going to be different.
Speaker 2:So I challenge you don't just take this as going until the first of the year. Have a new year's resolution. I'm going to carry it on. Don't make a resolution, just start creating the habit. A habit, we hear so many times, takes 21 days to create a habit, but on average, it takes about 100 days to create a habit 100 days. So we get upset with ourselves when, after 21 days, we don't have the habit. Why do I forget to do that? Oh, it takes 100 days. So that may mean, you know, and that's the average. Some are quicker, some are three, 400 days to get the average, so that's just the. Or to get the habit, so that's just the average.
Speaker 2:So the key is just keep working on it, keep doing it on a daily basis. So I'm going to focus, I'm going to be intentional about my attitude of gratitude. Each day I'm going to find something to be grateful for, not just because it's Thanksgiving holiday, not because just because it's a Christmas holiday, just because it's the right thing to do. I want to be able, those gratitude moments to be all around me and I want to be better able to see those. And how do we do that? We do it on a daily basis. We start doing it more and more and we start seeing it more and more.
Speaker 2:And I would love to connect with you on, you know, if you need some help on those, you know, go to my website, erendeglercom. I'd love to connect with you there. There's through email, through text, whatever it is. I would love to connect with you and maybe share with me some of your things that are gratitude and how that attitude of gratitude has changed for you. I'd love to connect with you in one-on-one coaching, in group coaching, whatever it may be. I would love to connect and hear your success of having an attitude of gratitude.
Speaker 2:That is the most rewarding thing is why do I do the Mind Body Project? Why do I? Why do I put out this? Why do I spend my time? It's to touch a life, to change it just a little bit, to say you know what I did 12 days of an attitude of gratitude. I forgot about it for a month and then I went back to it and then I forgot about it for two months and then I went back to it for a little bit. But that seed is started, that's planted, and that's the purpose of the Mind Body Project is to give you some of those seeds that you can plant, and some are going to be ready to harvest sooner than others, but we just have to be patient. But I see it as my responsibility to help you plant those seeds.
Speaker 2:Thanks for spending a little time with me today. And I tell my wife come every night before I go to bed. It's bomb of the night, double A out.
Speaker 1:Thank you for listening to today's podcast. If you would like to connect with Aaron, you can do so by going to erendeglercom or find him on social media as Aaron Degler on Instagram, Facebook and YouTube. Once again, we greatly appreciate you tuning in. If you've enjoyed the show, please feel free to rate, subscribe and leave a review wherever you listen to your podcasts. We greatly appreciate that effort and we'll catch you in the next episode of the Mind Body Project podcast.