EP 45: Can Gratitude Really Interrupt the Stress We Are Feeling?

Our mission is to give you tools and strategies that will help you move from being stressed to feeling your best.

In the month of November, we are exploring the roles gratitude plays in stress and wellbeing. In this episode, we discuss the psychological, physical, and social benefits of gratitude. Are you ready to make gratitude a priority in your life?

Co-hosts Deb Timmerman and Barb Fletcher are certified HeartMath® Trainers, and certified stress educators, who are skilled at helping people discover the power of living form the heart.  To take the Stress and Wellbeing Assessment in Canada, click here. To take the Stress and Wellbeing Assessment in the US, click here. 

Follow Us:

Website: LessStressinLife.com/podcast/

Stay tuned for more conversations with Deb, Susie, and Lindsay as they empower you to live well, manage stress, and build a thriving, healthy life!

Transcript

SPEAKERS

Barb Fletcher, Deb Timmerman

Deb Timmerman  00:00

You're listening to the less stress in life podcast. Your hosts, Deb Timmerman and Barb Fletcher are on a mission to help individuals and organizations manage stress and change. Together, they bring you real conversations, inspirational stories, and strategies to help move you from being stressed to feeling your best.

Barb Fletcher  00:24

Hello, everyone, I'm Barb Fletcher. Welcome to our series of 52 Practical Tools for Less Stress in Life. This is episode 45.

Deb Timmerman  00:34

Our goal is to give you tools and strategies to help you move from feeling stressed to feeling your best. Our favorite mental wellness practice is using gratitude as a way to get ourselves in a state we call coherence using HeartMath. The positive emotional aspects impact the heart brain connection and shifts the body into a wonderful state of alignment. Before we learned how to use gratitude to shift into alignment, we each had gratitude practices to jumpstart the process of shifting from that state of where we felt like we didn't have any control in life. It helped us begin the process of creating new neural connections that moved us through our thought process of being stuck in the negative to looking at possibilities. In positive psychology research, gratitude is strongly and consistently associated with greater happiness.

Barb Fletcher  01:29

So, gratitude can benefit us in many ways. What are the different aspects, Deb, that gratitude can impact us?

Deb Timmerman  01:42

Well, in a recent article from positivepsychology.com, they point out three: psychological, physical, and social. So, mind, body, and I kind of think in a way spirit.

Barb Fletcher  01:59

I think it's a wonderful framework for us to understand the different paths that gratitude can demonstrate in our life. So, can you talk a little bit about what are the psychological benefits? 

Deb Timmerman  02:14

Well, maybe I can best start by giving an example and then tying it back. So about 10 years ago, after being married for 35 years, and not having a good relationship with my ex-husband for many years, I decided to move out and start fresh, start a whole new life. And up until that time, I had been working with a few coaches and practitioners around energy work and tried to clear some of that junk that was kind of stuck in my body, but I was really wired with what I would call a negativity bias. So, if the glass was half full to other people, I saw that glass half empty, and someone suggested that I start a gratitude practice. So, I took a mason jar, and at the end of each day, I had to write down three things I was grateful for. So, at the end of the day, instead of dwelling on what was awful in my life, I had to choose three things that went well that day and I think that for me, teaching me to shift into that positive space of emotion and thought, really increased my mood. It was something that brought more happiness to me, and I began to switch the way I saw things, and it was much more positive than negative. So, it was like I had to train my brain and the article supports that. They say happiness, positive emotions and thought, increase self-satisfaction and enhance mood are four of the benefits for having a gratitude practice.

Barb Fletcher  03:57

My practice is probably a bit more accidental. So, my husband and I will lay in bed at the end of the day, and recap some of the highlights, which then translate into moments of gratitude, where we've just really enjoyed our day. And I think the benefit for me in that one is it just sets the tone for sleep and rest and perspective. So it's not necessarily formal with the jar, but we do spend a bit of time just thinking about some of those positive aspects of our day before we go to sleep,

Deb Timmerman  04:45

You know, we do that when we reconnect after we both come home from work. The question isn't what happened today. It's what was good about your day. So the question is framed to talk about what went well. And so that's sort of an informal thing we do and I still do this day, even though I don't use the jar anymore, at night, I do exactly what you do, I lay my head down on the pillow and I think about all of those good things that happened during the day and I go to sleep on that positive feeling and I think I wake up much more positive the next morning.

Barb Fletcher  05:17

Second aspect that they spoke of was physical. Do you have an example for that one?

Deb Timmerman  05:23

Well, here's what the research says it benefits our sleep, which we just talked about, it benefits our blood pressure, and it benefits our immune health, and they find that people who have a gratitude practice, they're just overall in better shape, or they're more fit.

Barb Fletcher  05:40

For me, when I spend time outside doing physical activity, whether it's gardening or preparing for fall, or just going for a walk, I find that those activities just allow me to appreciate some of the smaller things whether it's a chipmunk or a squirrel that are done dashing by. I looked out the other day, and there was a chipmunk laying on our deck, sunning. Now we could view that as something negative or challenging but it really for me, it was just such a wonderful demonstration of nature at its best.

Deb Timmerman  06:21

The social benefits are a huge aspect too. Could you share what some of those are?

Barb Fletcher  06:26

So, things like better communication, more empathy, stronger interpersonal skills, maybe more like ability, and more involvement as a team member more engagement.

Deb Timmerman  06:42

We're talking yesterday, you shared something that happened over the weekend with a family member that was really positive. Where some people might see being with family as negative and point out some of the negative things. Can you share that?

Barb Fletcher  06:58

I think whenever we can shift and have some appreciation or empathy for people who are experiencing challenging times, I think we just feel that overall calm and appreciation within us and everybody has challenging family members and experiences. As I was sitting this morning, I was thinking about how my jam over my career has been aging and people who are aging are often looking at deficits and when I could sit with them and appreciate their wisdom, and the shifts and challenges they were facing, I always felt appreciation and gratitude for that time and that experience.

Deb Timmerman  07:45

Tying that back to the topic of stress. When we can stay in that positive space and see the good, what happens is, not only does it shift our biology from the stress hormones being on to being in more of that renewing state, but it just makes us feel better and see the possibilities rather than the negatives in the deficits.

Barb Fletcher  08:09

And the world is challenging. There are all kinds of bits of information that are bombarding us that should we channel our focus there, we can feel that discomfort. So, any tools that we can bring, that allow us to feel that ease and comfort are ones that we should embrace.

Deb Timmerman  08:31

The rest of November, we're going to feature guest speakers who use gratitude in some way in their business or their daily lives for positive gain. So, we hope that you'll tune in to their sharing's with us and get some nuggets about how to use gratitude in your life to make a difference in stress. Barb, do you want to share the call to action today?

Barb Fletcher  08:55

Deb spoke earlier about that mason jar, and we're encouraging each and every one you might need to put to in, because today's November the second, but we would love for you to deposit at the end of the day a slip of paper with some words, or wisdom, as it relates to the feelings that you had as it related to gratitude for the day. It may take a bit to get started when we're facing challenges, so be gentle with yourself. And you know, it could be that cup of coffee you had this morning. It could be the smile you had from a friend or call. It doesn't need to be a big event. Just those things that created a little bit of warmth in your heart and allows you to feel better at the end of the day. So we will invite you to share a little bit of that on our wall on Thursdays to inspire others will have a thankful Thursday post that you can share an image or perhaps a few words. And there's always momentum when we can share with others, some of our good aspects that we are experiencing and may trigger them to realize that they have more in their life than they actually understood.