Harnessing Gratitude and Emotional Intelligence: Transforming Challenges into Growth Opportunities

Transform your outlook on life by tuning in to my enlightening conversation with Nikki Gangemi, an international board-certified master in neuro-linguistic programming and hypnotherapy. Nikki and Jami share profound insights on the power of gratitude and its intrinsic link to emotional intelligence. Drawing from the wisdom of experts like Daniel Goleman and Shirzad Shamim, we explore how self-awareness, self-regulation, and intrinsic motivation can enhance your relationships and overall well-being, especially during challenging times such as the pandemic.

Discover how gratitude and positive thinking can be a catalyst for personal growth and daily interactions. Jami guides us through the practice of gratitude meditation, revealing how focusing on what we appreciate about our loved ones can amplify feelings of appreciation and love. We also delve into the concept of reframing negative emotions as "another 'effing' growth opportunity" or "AFGO," and in Positive Intelligence parlance, how leveraging the wisdom of our future selves can help us navigate present challenges more effectively, fostering a mindset that attracts positive experiences and relationships.

Finally, Nikki introduces the transformative CALM Method, a powerful tool designed to transition from mental chaos to clarity and action. Learn how to become conscious of your emotions, evaluate your thoughts, explore alternative possibilities, and make new decisions with actionable insights. We also share simple yet impactful practices like sending handwritten letters and thank-you cards to those whom we admire and who have had a positive impact on us, emphasizing the importance of everyday gratitude and grounding techniques. Join us for a heartwarming episode packed with practical advice to cultivate a more compassionate and grateful mindset in your daily life.

Transcript

Jami: 0:06

Hello and welcome to the podcast Emotional Intelligence, Your Greatest Asset and Key to Success. I'm your host, Dr. Jami Carlacio, coming to you from the Greater New Haven, Connecticut area. A s a positive intelligence, or PQ, coach. I'm committed to helping people develop both emotional intelligence and mental fitness. That is, you'll come to regard problems as situations that help you learn and grow. PQ is a way of being and doing in the world that enables you to develop and sustain a positive relationship with yourself and others, at home, at work and everywhere in between. Please subscribe to this podcast and tap the like button so more people can enjoy the benefits of PQ. And now here's the show.

Jami: 0:56

I'm excited today I'm going to be here with my friend, Nikki Gangemi, and we are going to talk about gratitude. So before I go any further, let me introduce Nikki to you. For those of you who don't know her, she's fabulous. Nikki is . . . s he's made three significant pivots in her life, from actress to teacher to entrepreneur. This firsthand experience equips her with a unique perspective on navigating major life transitions. And if you haven't had one, just wait-- you will.

Jami: 1:28

As an international board certified master neuro-linguistic programming practitioner, hypnotherapist, speaker, trainer, and author, Nikki brings a blend of expertise, compassion, and empowerment to her coaching practice. She helps other entrepreneurs, perfectionists, and people pleasers build unshakable confidence and feel empowered to pursue goals they aspire to without letting fear and self-doubt rob them of any more time. I think we all need some of that, Nikki. She helps her clients transcend personal and professional boundaries through the transformative NLP coaching and her proprietary CALM method, C-A-L-M, and we will definitely get to talk about that-- which equips people with the internal tools necessary to attract prosperity, relationship transformations, and to elevate their life and their business. So welcome, Nikki. Good to have you here.

Nikki: 2:30

Thank you, Jami Thanks for the beautiful introduction.

Jami: 2:33

Yes, thank you again for being here. I'm excited to talk about this, especially because I'm a member of a 12-step group and we constantly talk about gratitude, because we were all passengers on the Titanic and we were some of the lucky few that survived. And so we hold each other up and life has its ups and downs, and certainly a lot of them. Certainly a lot of them, but when we stay sober, that actually pays great dividends. But before I go any further, I want to just say a few words about gratitude and the relationship to happiness. So the Happiness Project did this study and they asked people to think of people who had the greatest impact on them, the biggest influence, and they were told to write a letter to the person and then to pick up the phone and call that person and read the letter to them. And so for those who actually did pick up the phone and personally express their gratitude, the people who wrote the letter . . . their happiness increased by between 4% and 19%. So, either way, when you express gratitude, you actually become happier. A d you know, the pandemic has really done a number on us and it has magnified our need for this whole- being experience, and I know that you have a lot to say about that, but if there's ever a time to think about our emotional intelligence and our emotional awareness, it's now. So Daniel Goleman is sort of the emotional intelligence guru, and there are a lot of different ways that we can measure our emotional intelligence. One is self-awareness-- not just being aware of who you are, but your emotions, your strengths, your weaknesses, your values, and to recognize the impact that these things have on other people. And then self-regulation. You know, when we get angry or whatever, it's easy for us to have a knee-jerk reaction, but emotional regulation asks us to pause and really look at that. And, as Shirzad Shamim says, in Positive Intelligence, it's like when you have a negative emotion, like anger, it's like putting your hand on a hot stove. Yep, okay, it's hot, it's there. Now take your hand off, because it's just going to burn you. It's not going to help you.

Jami: 5:08

And then social skills: emotional intelligence and gratitude help with your social skills. If you're in a mindset of "I'm angry and the world's bad and people are bad, you can't possibly be in a good mindset. And so thinking about things you're thankful for, even when life can suck, helps. And self-motivation finding that intrinsic motivation to fulfill our goals, and so the comparisons between practicing gratitude and strengthening our emotional intelligence has been linked to moral cognition, perspective taking and fairness. So our research in gratitude shows that building positive relationships and increasing empathy and practicing gratitude heightens our awareness of our emotions, our values, our strength and our understanding of others. And so those are some of the things I wanted to say, just to kick us off right now. So, nikki, I'll just leave it to you to take whatever you want out of that and say something.

Nikki: 6:13

Oh, wow, you said so many golden nuggets in there and I was . . . I was taking some notes as you were talking. I love the metaphor of the hot stove, that if we and I'm sure we've all done this by accident, even by taking out the cookies from the oven, and you burn your finger and we pull away immediately; we do it with the physical burning, and yet we don't often do it with our emotions. We can feel angry or worried or fearful, and instead of pulling away, we can just keep our hand on the hot stove, so to speak, sometimes for decades. Right? So I think it's, you know, this conversation is great because it's bringing awareness, which is the first step to change, to become aware of these things.

Nikki: 7:05

So that's the one thing I wanted to say, and also for me, I've been interested in practicing gratitude for decades, and something I became aware of fairly recently is that I would . . . I would stay cerebral and think about the things I was grateful for, whether it was my life, my family, you know, all those things that most of us are grateful for, and then I had this realization that I wasn't feeling the emotion in my body. So I would think it and I would say well, I'm grateful for this and that, but then I was missing the feeling and I realized how important it is to get into the feeling place of feeling gratitude and appreciation.

Jami: 7:56

I love that and you are so right.

Jami: 7:58

One of the ways that I do that is through meditation. So whether I'm doing a gratitude meditation or I'm writing in my journal, when I think about the things I'm grateful for, if I just spend a moment and contemplate, and immediately I can feel it in my body. And one of the things that I'm called to do in some of the meditations is to think of somebody I love, think of somebody I love a lot and think of why I'm grateful for that person in my life. What is it about that person that makes me feel grateful? And I always put my son first. But as soon as I'm in that mindset, I can transfer some of that love and that good feeling outward and I can send it as in metta, as in loving kindness, and I can sort of spread that. It kind of like you and I talked about the other day. We talked about energy, and so when we're in gratitude and we're in that kind of positive mindset, that's the energy we're putting out into the world.

Nikki: 9:00

Yes, I love that. It is powerful to use a gratitude meditation. And while you were talking, it made me think about what helps me sometimes, because we could say, you know we're grateful for our family. We could pick a specific person. You said your son you might think of. You know, one of your children or your spouse even. And what has helped me is to get real, like zoom into a specific moment. You know, what is it about this person that I appreciate? When I think of this person, what do I see and notice, what images, maybe some experiences that you've had together, so you could relive those moments. What do I see, what do I hear? And then what do I feel? And that's how you could really get that feeling of gratitude and appreciation in your body and start to vibrate at that energy level and attract more to be grateful for.

Jami: 10:09

And so, even if sometimes we can even attract that negativity, if our magnet is in bad shape, you know, if we're feeling negative, guess what? Nothing positive comes to a negative magnet. It's always going to be that thing like attracts, like. So it behooves us to find things. I was thinking too in terms of, say, positive intelligence. When we're in a place where one of our saboteurs gets us whether it's the people pleaser, the controller, the hypervigilant .. if we can arrest that and start focusing on the sage pathway, that neural pathway where we can consider empathy and we can explore, okay. So yeah, I'm really angry right now or I'm really sad right now.

Jami: 10:57

It's not that you can pretend the feeling isn't there, but notice it and then be curious about it and even, you know, be grateful that that information is there for you to look at.

Jami: 11:13

So it's actually information and maybe that's another way of practicing gratitude is to thank the saboteur for that information. Or, as as Shirzad Shamin says, you know, it's Jedi training. So when a saboteur comes and knocks at our door or enters our living room and takes the remote and turns on the TV, say, "oka, I have some tools now and I don't have to believe anything you say and I don't have to act on anything you say, say, and I don't have to act on anything you say, and so that's also something to be thankful for, even though sometimes, as I've said a million times, sometimes it's that something happens. That's really tough and I call it an AFGO another effing growth opportunity. And as soon as I do that, as soon as I make it into an AFGO as opposed to poor me look what just happened I can get some distance from it. And when it's a growth opportunity A I'm growing and B it's an opportunity.

Nikki: 12:20

I love that. I wrote that down. A-F-G-O.

Jami: 12:24

Yes. And depending on the company you're in, you can actually say the word.

Nikki: 12:28

Yes, yes, you could say . . .yeah instead of using it as an acronym. Yeah, it's true, and that's something that I have learned to do when I teach clients is when something is presented in front of us and a situation that maybe we're not pleased with or we don't like the result that we're getting. If we can go to the question, what is the opportunity here for me? What can I learn from this? That's going to help me to grow and expand and move forward. And then, once we can get the lesson, usually the situation changes in a positive way.

Jami: 13:07

Absolutely it does. And I was also thinking that I have joined networking groups that were very expensive and it didn't turn out. So I left, and there were a lot of times when I was just miserable in the group and I think, "oh my gosh, how much money did I spend doing this thing? And then I think, but wait a minute, what did you learn about yourself during this time? What did you learn about being an entrepreneur? What did you learn that you can then take and do it differently next time? So, even though I've spent a lot of money making some rather expensive mistakes, they were mistakes I needed to learn.

Nikki: 13:44

That's right. Like you said earlier, when something's happening, even an emotion that we don't like how it feels, that it's information, we're getting some feedback, and I like the metaphor Abraham Hicks gives of the navigation system, that a negative emotion is simply feedback, that we've gone off track and we can recalculate. Yeah, and actually off track and we can recalculate.

Jami: 14:06

Yeah. And actually, speaking of navigation, well, it's one of the sage powers too. It's asking our older self. Asking our older self, our younger self asking our older self, what would you tell me to do right now? If I were 20 years into the future, what would I say? And if we think about that and we think about the wisdom that ostensibly we have in 20 years, we usually get a good answer. turn left or you miss a spot. Your GPS starts going kind of haywire in the car trying to figure out what you're trying to do and it reroutes you and it will reroute you. Maybe it has to go a little bit around the block or a long way, but it reroutes you, it gets you back on the track.

Nikki: 15:02

Yes, and have you noticed, Jami? Just this awareness just came into my mind that that navigation system is always nice and friendly and patient as it's rerouting you. What if we could be like that voice of the navigation system when we realize that we're off track and instead of putting ourselves down and, you know, beating ourselves up, we can just, recalculating, turn left?

Jami: 15:31

Yes, oh, I love that, I love it. Your navigation system doesn't say "you idiot.

Jami: 15:37

tur. I just had this big blue line, this big arrow telling you to turn?

Jami: 15:41

"What were you thinking? Yeah, so, if we can, if we can also, I think of .. One of the things that helps me is, uh, the, the serenity prayer, and also the prayer of saint francis. And the prayer of saint francis, as a friend of mine says, is our job description. Well, he says it's his, and I think of it as mine, to make me an instrument of your peace. And where there's hatred, let me sow love, and where there's injury, let me bring pardon. And I think of how Having that loving attitude toward ourselves helps us to have it toward others.

Jami: 16:18

And again, when you go to a grocery store and the clerk is in a bad mood or whatever, instead of thinking "wow, she should be in a good mood, ask yourself, wonder what's going on with her. And maybe something happened and she didn't really want to be at work that day or something. You know, I have a friend that I made at divinity school, who wasn't friendly to people she didn't know, but as soon as she knew you, she was your best friend. And one day I noticed that since she didn't know me, she didn't want to talk to me. So I said you know what? I love your nails. I think those are so beautiful Instant friends. She just wanted to be seen, and so I was grateful that I found a way to connect with her. So part of, I think, gratitude is also connecting, whether it's with your body or yourself or with other people.

Nikki: 17:13

Yeah, absolutely that's . . . I haven't thought about this in a while, but now that you're speaking of that, something I used to do is if I was out and about and I ran into someone that maybe wasn't friendly or had an attitude like you said at the supermarket, I would just imagine this beam of light coming out from my heart and just sending it to them and just thinking, you know, "I wish that person peace, because usually when someone is upset or behaving in a certain way like that, they're usually hurting in some way and they just don't know how to express it.

Jami: 17:49

Yeah, yeah. And going back to the happiness project experiment, can you imagine somebody calling you, Nikki, and reading a letter they wrote to tell you how grateful they are to you, for you, and what kind of impact you've had on their life?

Nikki: 18:06

That would be novel, because that really never happens. Yeah, yeah, that would like make somebody's day if they were to, even if they were to receive a letter in the mail. Right, we usually receive bills and flyers and advertisements in the mail, but can you imagine getting a letter from someone that you know handwritten, saying what they appreciate about you? It's a handwritten letter. I know what am I? Let me ask Google. Yeah, you don't really leave an imprint on them in a positive way.

Jami: 18:41

Yep, and I am committed to doing that. Today I'm going to write a couple of letters to people that I never write to, and even though I love them very much and they love me, we don't talk that often, so I'm encouraged now to do that. So, thank you, yeah. Yeah, I mean, yeah, I get. I get bills in the mail, I get flyers in the mail for things like a new roof, and I live in an apartment complex. It's like I don't need a new roof. Maybe, maybe the building manager does.

Nikki: 19:12

Right, exactly. Yeah, that would be something to look forward to. And yeah, that could actually change someone's attitude towards the mail. I know myself I sometimes I leave it in the mailbox for days because it's typically nothing that I really am excited to receive, and then I'll see it like the lid isn't closed all the way because it's over full and it's like all right time to take the mail out. So that could change someone's attitude towards the mail and make them be excited. It's like, oh, I wonder what might arrive today.

Jami: 19:42

Yeah, yeah yeah, yeah, that's a good point. I wanted to see if I have just a sec here. I have some cards that are, of course, so this is something, um, that I have, uh, from I don't know if anyone can see it because of my background I'll take a screenshot and put it in the show notes. But it says thank you for a positive attitude, being kind and a good work ethic. So I got a whole bunch of these from an organization and I hand them out to people randomly, like at a restaurant or at a grocery store or a coffee shop, and they they're just . . . their eyes widen and they're like "thank you. And the other side of it says keep it going. When you see someone doing something good, give them a card and then to request free cards, visit wwwselfnoworg. And it's the Santoro Foundation. So again, I'll put this in the notes so you can check it out and it it makes a difference just having just someone getting a card like oh my God, wow, she thanked me.

Nikki: 20:54

Yeah, yes, and that would encourage them to do that behavior again, because they were acknowledged for it and they it's kind of it creates a positive anchor. So it's like oh, I did this behavior and I had this really good feeling. I want that feeling again. Let me do this behavior again so it could encourage more kindness.

Jami: 21:16

Yeah, it's a pay it forward kind of a thing right. And I think I have somewhere in one of the descriptions that gratitude is an action word and so it isn't just oh yeah, thank you. It is the taking the action that when you're feeling grateful, you reach out to somebody or you write it in your journal or you do something like create that positive vibration you were talking about earlier.

Nikki: 21:45

Yes, and something I want to say that you mentioned earlier about being grateful, even when maybe things are difficult or it might be hard to be grateful, and something that I've done which has been helpful. Let's just say somebody wants to feel freedom. It could be freedom in the area of money, it could be freedom in a relationship, but maybe they don't feel free in the relationship that they're in and they have to improve it and work on it. One thing you could do is you can think of another context where you have felt freedom. You know when was there a time in my life where I felt freedom and for me I thought of being on the swings.

Nikki: 22:30

Remember that feeling when you were on a swing and you were swinging real high. Maybe you got a little tickle in your stomach, right, because you were like swinging so high and the breeze in your hair and it's like, ah, that just feeling of freedom, and you can use that to get to the feeling place, because maybe you can't feel the freedom in your relationship or in the area of money yet. So you can use a substitute to get to that feeling, because that's really what it's about. Like you said, our emotions are magnetic.

Jami: 22:59

Yes, and again we act on them right. So we have a thought, and the thought you think a lot becomes a belief, and then the belief turns into an attitude and the attitude becomes a behavior.

Nikki: 23:11

Yes, yeah, and we end up seeing like a belief is also a filter. So we end up looking through the lens of that belief and we find evidence to prove that it's true and it just reinforces the belief.

Jami: 23:25

Right, we have confirmation bias. Oh yes, and we can use it for good. You know exactly, we can confirm. You know, if you believe the best, then you're going to look for the best. If you believe the worst, that's all you're going to find. And if you turn on the news, that's all you're going to find.

Nikki: 23:43

Oh yeah, you know people who turn on the news and watch a particular channel, for example. That's how grandmother actually she's 99 years old. I was talking with her the other night and she was bringing up all of this stuff on the news and everything and she's like it's you know, saying basically it's not safe out there. And I said well, in my world it's safe. I show up, I work from home, I attend a lot of networking meetings and have lots of connection calls with people and everybody is focused on how can they grow and improve. So in my world things are great. It's like where do you put your focus and what do you allow to to come into your awareness? So I'm very selective and particular, unapologetically, with what I allow to consume my mind. So news is a is a no no for me.

Jami: 24:40

Yeah, and that doesn't mean you live in a bubble and you have no idea what the world's going on around you. But turning on CNN or Fox or NBC or whatever channel you watch, that's going to and I hear people talk. "Oh, I turned the news off and then the people who watch the news think the world's going to hell in a handbasket. But I recently completed Reiki master training and William Rand, who trained us, said the world's actually getting better and it's hard for us to see that because what sells in the news is fear, and so if you have a fear mindset or a negative mindset, you're not thinking. What are you grateful for? You know you're not thinking about. You know the light you can see in other people. It exists, but it's a matter of do you want to look for it? Do you want to see it?

Nikki: 25:32

Great point. Yeah, it's like it's what are you looking for? I've been even something like my keys. I have walked around my house looking for them, like now I'm going to be late, where are these keys? And it turned out I was holding them in my hand I'm not even kidding you, this has happened. Or my sunglasses, like where are my?

Nikki: 25:53

sunglasses, and then I'll talk to my dad. So you know, just because we can't see something yet doesn't mean that it's not right there in front of us yeah, I thought you were going to say something else, but you're getting senile.

Jami: 26:06

I don't know, Nikki, I suppose you. No, I've actually had to have my son call my phone, or I actually I have a go-to saint. I pray to Saint Anthony all the time. Saint Anthony, please help me, and I always get the help I need.

Jami: 26:25

So, for all of you out there who are Catholic or some version of of Christianity that believes in saints, St St Anthony is the go-to saint for finding things. Yeah, just a little nugget. Now before we close. I had mentioned that in in the intro that you have something called the CALM method. If you could just tell us a little bit about that, what that is, that'd be great.

Nikki: 26:51

Sure. Thank you, yes, the CALM method was a inspired idea that came to me to help people go from the chaos in their minds, all the thoughts that we have, the thousands of them per day. And how can we calm down that nervous system and relax so that we have clarity and we can make a decision and then take action to move forward. So it's an acronym and each letter stands for a step and just a real high level overview. The C in calm is to become conscious, conscious of how you're feeling. Are you feeling worried? Resistance.

Nikki: 27:31

The A is to become aware of the thoughts you're thinking, because usually those thoughts are what's triggering the emotion. So become aware of the thoughts and then to be like a lawyer and put them on trial. Is what I'm thinking? Are these facts?

Nikki: 27:45

Jami Host: Oh, I love that.

Nikki: 27:45

Nikki guest: Are they beliefs, attitudes, interpretations, a story that I'm telling myself, and 95, at least 95% of the time it's not a fact. There's some holes in the story. So then we can move into the third step, the L, which is lean into what else is possible, what's another option, and that's where you can reframe those negative or unhelpful thoughts into either neutral or positive thoughts that are more focused on what you want. And then M is make a new decision. So, now that you've changed your focus and you've calmed down the nervous system, what's going to be the decision? And then take action on it to move forward toward that goal.

Jami: 28:34

Oh, that's great, that's perfect. And again, when we practice a method like that, when we become conscious and aware and make those different decisions and pivot again, what I find is, if I'm grateful for the learning opportunity and I grow from it, even if it's just a little bit, then I'm in a better place than I was, and that's something. And I wanted to just close because we're almost out of time. But one of the things I used to do and I use my written journal now but I used to keep the gratitude list on my phone, on a notepad, and I would just write one, two or three things every day and then I would read it at some point and go, wow, and sometimes it was the same thing.

Jami: 29:25

It might be a person, it might be my breath, it might be the sunny day, it might be that I got a job I didn't know I was going to get. It can be anything, and that's the thing about gratitude. I can be grateful that I've got all 10 fingers and toes you know it doesn't have to be something huge, because I'm grateful that I'm mobile, I'm grateful I can exercise. You know, right now I'm grateful for the trees that are providing shade in the window that normally gets the summer sun.

Nikki: 29:55

It's those little things that we often take for granted. I'm grateful for Wi-Fi Because just last week I lost my Wi-Fi for three and a half hours and I couldn't do anything from my MacBook. I'm like "I can't even work, I can't do anything business related without Wi-Fi.

Nikki: 30:09

For three and a half hours and I couldn't do anything from my MacBook. I'm like I can't even work, I can't do anything business related without Wi-Fi, and I always have taken that for granted. So yeah, I like to say I'm going to look around and what are five things I could see right around me that I'm grateful for?

Jami: 30:22

And you could start there, yeah, and that reminds me of using your senses, and that's again, that's how we interrupt our saboteurs is by getting right, grounded in our breath, our sight, our hearing, our touch, whatever, and I was thinking too. One of the things I do to find joy is I look at flowers. I stare at them and I think what a wonder how this flower was built. I have an orchid behind me that's not in bloom right now, but when orchids are in bloom, they are perhaps, for me, the most phenomenal flower on the planet, because they're so beautiful and intricate and I just think, wow, only Mother Nature could do something like that.

Nikki: 31:06

Oh yeah, I love that. Just stare at a flower and take deep breaths or, you know, stare at nature.

Jami: 31:15

Whatever you need to stare at that's got natural beauty. And you know trees and I was at my Reiki retreat. I went outside with somebody and we just stood next to a tree with our bare feet and I just looked at the bark and it was grounding and maybe that sounds really, I don't know, nonsensical, but it kept me in the place of nature and myself in the world, because I can get lost in my head, like you were saying. You know you can get lost up here, but then you're not really that present, right?

Nikki: 31:58

Exactly yeah. So getting grounded, it might sound nonsensical to some, and it's also because it's that easy when we can just stop or pause and just zoom into a moment and use our senses. That's where we find peace.

Jami: 32:17

Yeah, you know, you just reminded me. I've got a glass of water here and it's easy to just be grateful. Hello, cheers, cheers. You know I can turn on the water and I have fresh water. I have a Brita filter so I filter my water, but I can get in the shower and expect the hot water to come on. You know, I can get out of bed and expect my two legs to take me to the kitchen to get the coffee that's been made, because I have a timer on the coffee pot. And one thing I hear people say is well, you should, you know, "except these people don't have that or those people don't have that. And it's true, there are a lot of people who can't turn on the water and expect it to be clean, and there are people who may not be able to get out of bed easily. But that doesn't mean gratitude is a zero-sum game. In other words, we can be grateful and it doesn't take away from somebody else whether they have something or not have something that you have.

Jami: 33:20

Well said.

Jami: 33:23

Jami: And on that note I wanted to give you final words if you wanted to leave us with anything.

Nikki: 33:29

Thank you. Well, in keeping with our topic on gratitude and happiness, let it be easy. You know, yes, there might be things going on in your life that you don't like or you don't prefer, and so it can be hard to feel grateful. And when you slip into the moment, like you mentioned, putting your feet on the floor and you're like supporting you to go get that cup of coffee or being outside in the breeze, just find one simple thing that you could zoom into and just breathe into that feeling of gratitude.

Jami: 34:03

Yeah, and one thing I do is I pray every day, and I talked to my spirit guides, and the first thing I do is I pray every day and I talk to my spirit guides and the first thing I do is thank them, and just thank them for being there and taking care of me and showing me what I need to do next, you know what is the next right action I need to take, and just thanking them and acknowledging their presence in my life is also very helpful. And so, yeah, thank you so much, Nikki, and for all of you. If you're interested in finding out more about how emotional intelligence can change your life, you can see my information in the show notes. And if you want to find out more about the CALM method and Nikki Gangemi, her stuff will be in the show notes as well, as well as the link to her book. And until next time I'll see you at the PQ Gym, but before we leave, I just want to leave you with something thankful. [Song "for giving me the best day of my life. So thank you.

Jami: 35:14

That was from Dido, I guess I'll just put a link to this on in the show notes. You can listen to the whole thing. It's quite beautiful. And again until next time. We'll see you at the PQ Gym. Bye, bye-bye.