Can the simple act of practicing gratitude truly transform your life? Join me, Sally, as we embark on an empowering journey during World Wellbeing Week to explore how cultivating gratitude can change your mindset and how you see and move in the world. In our latest episode, we delve into the incredible impact of gratitude on our well-being, even amidst the hustle and bustle. You'll learn practical techniques like gratitude journaling, daily reflections, expressing thanks, mindful appreciation, and gratitude walks. These small yet powerful habits can shift your focus from what you lack to the abundance all around you, fostering a more positive and resilient mindset that enriches your daily experiences and relationships.
Tune in and let's cultivate an attitude of gratitude together, steering us towards lasting happiness and well-being as we work through our very own 7 day program, designed with World Wellbeing Week and your life, in mind.
Can the simple act of practicing gratitude truly transform your life? Join me, Sally, as we embark on an empowering journey during World Wellbeing Week to explore how cultivating gratitude can change your mindset and how you see and move in the world. In our latest episode, we delve into the incredible impact of gratitude on our well-being, even amidst the hustle and bustle. You'll learn practical techniques like gratitude journaling, daily reflections, expressing thanks, mindful appreciation, and gratitude walks. These small yet powerful habits can shift your focus from what you lack to the abundance all around you, fostering a more positive and resilient mindset that enriches your daily experiences and relationships.
Tune in and let's cultivate an attitude of gratitude together, steering us towards lasting happiness and well-being as we work through our very own 7 day program, designed with World Wellbeing Week and your life, in mind.
This week on the Reverse, reset, restore podcast. We are participating in World Wellbeing Week, a celebration dedicated to nurturing holistic health and happiness. My name is Sally and I invite you to embark along with me on a transformative journey through a carefully curated 7-day wellbeing program I've designed just for you. Each day is all about empowering you with practical tools and insights to enhance your overall well-being. Come along and check out today's special episode.
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Change Comes From Within. Do you ever think that your life is so busy that nothing else outside of your daily routine can ever get done? I think a lot of us tend to let the wants and needs and must-dos of everyday demands dictate what we believe our lives should look like. Some of us even try to score brownie points, bemoaning the chaos we often sign ourselves up for. With our modern lives pulling us in every direction, it's easy to overlook the simple joys and blessings that enrich our lives. We even undermine them or excuse them as insignificant. Yet by taking time for reflection and by practicing gratitude, we can profoundly enhance our overall sense of well-being and fulfillment. I want to encourage you and by you I also mean me to stop being enslaved to this idea that we have to rush around trying to please people or do 101 things in quick succession. One of the easiest ways to take moments for ourselves and slow down is by creating space to give thanks each and every day. We're all guilty of not taking time to appreciate the small things in our lives, but when we cultivate an attitude of gratitude for the big, for the small, for the good and even the seemingly bad things, it can truly change your outlook. Let's explore how incorporating these practices into our daily lives can lead to a more positive and resilient mindset. Into our daily lives can lead to a more positive and resilient mindset. Gratitude is an attitude and it can not only change your life but have a powerful impact on those around you. You could be the person who makes another person's bad day better or at least a little easier, by the simple act of acknowledgement and thanks, from the person who serves your coffee to the person cleaning the toilets at work. When we offer thanks for services others are doing for us, we build good and gratitude into the world. We can be world changers. One small word of thanks at a time. I know a lot of people don't believe it's necessary to thank someone for doing their job, but we all feel uplifted when shown some appreciation. Here are just a few ways that you can start to infuse your life with more gratitude.
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Number one gratitude journaling. Every day, take a few moments to write down three things you're grateful for. These can range from significant achievements and cherished relationships to small everyday pleasures like a warm cup of coffee or a beautiful sunset. By acknowledging these blessings, you're shifting your focus from what's lacking to what's present, fostering a mindset of abundance and appreciation. This simple practice covets a habit of gratitude and positivity. It's also something, if you've got tangibly written down, you can go back and refer to, especially in moments where you're feeling like life is sucking or the world is hard, or you want a bit of a break from your current reality. Going back to a gratitude journal reminds you of the beautiful things that you experience every day.
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Number two daily reflection. At the end of the day, take a few minutes to reflect on your experiences. Acknowledge your achievements, however small, and consider challenges that you might have faced as opportunities for growth. Be grateful for whatever happened today, whether it was good experiences or difficult ones. What did you learn? How can you grow? Could you have responded or reacted in a different way? Did you practice self-compassion or empathy for others. These few moments are not about judging your actions or inactions, just noting them and considering the events of the day and your responses. If you find yourself critical towards your thoughts or your behaviours towards others, or critical of how you think other people behaved, this is a moment to reflect on practising self-love and forgiveness, or grace and gratitude for the lessons. You'll do it all again tomorrow and there are always fresh opportunities for learning and loving ourselves.
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Number three expressing thanks. Take the time to express gratitude to others, whether through a heartfelt thank you, note, a kind gesture or simply saying I appreciate you. Expressing gratitude strengthens relationships and fosters connection. I like to tell people I like them and why I make a point of always saying thank you to those who have helped me, whether it's bringing water to my table, if I'm eating out or if I'm paying a bill or doing my grocery shopping or getting off the bus. Acknowledging people through a simple thanks is an easy thing to do, but we have no idea just how much that might mean to someone, especially if they are going through something tough.
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Number four mindful appreciation. Incorporating mindfulness into your daily activities by savoring moments of joy and beauty. Notice the little details that bring you happiness and pause to appreciate them fully. I love looking at clouds. I know I talk about them all the time, but I do. I love looking at clouds. So going outside and staring up at the sky every day so I can appreciate them is an easy way to practice mindful appreciation. You can also do this with your body Another way of cold, fading self-love and healing your relationship with your physical self thanking it for what it does for you rather than focusing on the ways it doesn't. For example, I have cultivated a habit of thanking my body for all it has done for me. Every night. I acknowledge particularly any sore parts that feel ferocious and furious and angry. I acknowledge them and I thank them for their work. So if my neck is bothering me, I'll say something like hey, thank you so much for carrying around my head today and holding it up that I could keep working. I appreciate that. It's completely changed the way I now respond to my body. Instead of being angry and abusive towards it because I'm in pain, I'm offering it love and peace, and it's a much better way to live. Number five go for a gratitude walk.
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Take a walk outdoors and consciously focus on gratitude. Notice the beauty of the nature that's all around you, the fresh air filling your lungs, the ability to move your body, the sounds that you can hear. Nature is a soothing balm for humans. It's amazing how quick it can positively impact us on both a physical and mental level. Even if you live in a concrete jungle, you can still look for local parks or trees, or even just enjoy the neighbor's garden. It might be a bit of a challenge to find it, but it is worth it for your peace of mind and your physical well-being. And if you really can't get outside to a park or into nature, no worries. Pick a video on YouTube that shows you your favorite nature scapes. Make a video on YouTube that shows you your favorite naturescapes, whether that be mountains or oceans, or rivers, or farms or forests, the choices are unlimited and you get to see the world. It's kind of a win-win. Whether you're outside, walking in it or watching it on TV. Notice the things that make it feel good. The bright red leaves of an autumn tree, the crisp snow on a ski field, whatever is going to bring you joy, whatever is going to make you think, wow, what a beautiful place to be, is going to help cultivate gratitude within you.
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There are a ton of benefits for practicing gratitude. I'm going to give you five benefits that research has shown that regular practicing gratitude can provide us. Number one boost of your mood and optimism. So gratitude stimulates the production of dopamine and serotonin, which are our feel-good chemicals and neurotransmitters our feel-good chemicals and neurotransmitters. These chemicals play a crucial role in regulating mood, promoting feelings of happiness and enhancing overall psychological well-being. By fostering a positive outlook, gratitude helps us appreciate life's positive aspects and cultivate optimism, even during challenging times. Number two enhance emotional well-being.
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Practicing gratitude has been linked to improved emotional regulation. It encourages individuals to focus on what they have rather than what they lack, thereby helping to reduce your feelings of stress, anxiety and discontentment. By shifting your perspective towards positivity and abundance and what you do have, gratitude helps create emotional balance and resilience in coping with daily stresses and life's uncertainties. Number three gratitude strengthens relationships. Expressing gratitude fosters deeper connections and strengthens interpersonal relationships. When individuals acknowledge and appreciate the kindness, support or contribution of others, it builds trust, respect and mutual appreciation. Gratitude acts as a social lubricant, promoting a positive atmosphere in relationships, enhancing communication, fostering empathy and understanding. It's just an all-around wonderful way for us as a community to show each other love and respect and regard.
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Number four foster resilience in regard. Number four foster resilience. Gratitude cultivates a resilient mindset by shifting your focus from challenges and setbacks to opportunities for growth and learning. It encourages individuals to find meaning and silver lining even in difficult situations. Fostering adaptive coping strategies. This resilience helps individuals bounce back from adversity to help you overcome obstacles and maintain a positive perspective amidst life's inevitable ups and downs. It's kind of like that expression is the glass half full or is the glass half empty, depending on your perspective. If you see the glass half full, you tend to think of things in a more positive light, whereas if you see the glass half empty, you may tend to think of things in a more negative context. Choosing to look at the glass as half full could be compared to how we can view the world through the lens of gratitude. Compared to how we can view the world through the lens of gratitude. And number five promote physical health. Beyond mental and emotional benefits, gratitude has been associated with improvements in physical health. Research suggests that grateful individuals tend to engage in healthier behaviors, such as regular exercise, better sleep habits and seeking medical care when needed. These behaviors contribute to overall wellness and longevity, highlighting the holistic impact of gratitude on health.
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Again, I want to bring up another expression that we normally use you are what you eat. Same sort of principle applies here Obviously, gratitude, not food. But it's food for your soul, right? It's food for your mind. So, if you can be grateful for what you have and the things that you go through, and you can see it in a lens of hey, this has made me a stronger person, or this has made me a more resilient person, or a more caring and empathetic person, that's what you're eating and that's what you're going to continue to grow and develop within your life. By integrating reflection and gratitude into your daily routine, you can cultivate a sense of purpose and fulfillment.
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Start the day with gratitude to set yourself up for a positive mindset. This will help build resilience if things nosedive during the day, but it also allows the universe to send more positive interactions and experiences your way. Ending the day with gratitude not only creates closure, but it also prepares your mind for restful sleep and renewal, ensuring that you wake up ready to embrace each new day with optimism and energy. And energy and I know that I've talked about this before but one of the techniques that I do is that every morning, before my feet hit the floor, I write down nothing more than a minute. Just write things that I'm grateful for. I say in my head I'm grateful for my partner, I'm grateful for my comfortable bed, I'm grateful for the alarm, I'm grateful for coffee to help me get out of bed and inspire me. Whatever you do the first thing in the morning, if you can, to make that step of acting with some gratitude and presenting the day with this positivity on your mind, it makes me feel like I've set my day up for success. I've set my day up to see the good in situation. Does it mean that it works every single day and I never have a bad day? Of course not. I am human. But it just means that it allows me to make that conscious decision in the morning that I want to start my day this way and when you end your day in the same manner, I want to be grateful.
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I'm going to talk about the things I'm grateful for One of the things I'm going to talk about in our cortisol series in August. We're going to talk about sleep patterns and how cortisol impacts your sleep. I am going to share one of the techniques that I've been doing over the last couple of months to help me improve my sleep pattern, so hopefully you'll stick around for that. That comes out the first week of August and it's technically the last in the series of the cortisol series we've been running for the last six months, so I hope that you can join me as we finish off today. I just want to talk about how, by incorporating gratitude into your daily life, how it's a really powerful tool for enhancing your overall well-being and your happiness. If you practice gratitude through journaling, through reflection, through mindful appreciation for going out into nature and just being in that moment, you'll cultivate a mindset of abundance and positivity. You'll find that you're actually having much more greater good days than bad days.
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Start today by taking a moment to reflect on what you're grateful for and watch how it transforms your perspective on life. How do you practice gratitude in your daily life? I would love to hear about it. Please consider sharing your experiences and your tips in the comments below, if the podcast streaming platform you're listening to allows that. Otherwise, head on over to the Reverse Reset, restore Facebook or Instagram pages and let us know there, and be sure to come back tomorrow as we take a look at financial wellness.
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If you are a regular listener of the Reverse Reset Restore podcast, you know that we always end our episodes with a quote. Well, today we're doubling the fun. I couldn't decide between these two, so we're doing both of them together. I hope you enjoy them and that they're as meaningful to you as they are to me. The first one comes from Rebecca Solnit, who says Every minute of every hour of every day, you are making the world just as you were making yourself, and you might as well do it with generosity and kindness and style. And our second quote is author unknown gratitude turns what we have into enough.