EP. 48: Exercising your Gratitude Muscle can Make you Mentally Strong Guest:Sharon Saraga Walters

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

This episode's guest is Sharon Saraga-Walters, Sharon has spent the past 35 years in the health and wellness world. After graduating with a BS in Health Promotions, she launched a business as a Personal Fitness Trainer, then trained to become a Massage Therapist and is now an author and gratitude coach.

Transcript

SPEAKERS

Deb Timmerman, Sharon Saraga Walters

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. Hello, everyone, I'm Deb Timmerman. Welcome to our series of 52 Practical Tools for Less Stress in Life. This is episode 48. My co-host Barb Fletcher is a little under the weather today, so she won't be joining us. Our goal is to give you tools and strategies to help you move from feeling stressed to feeling your best. 

Today, our guest is Sharon Seraglio Walters, Sharon has spent the last 35 years in the health and wellness world. After graduating with a BS in health promotions, she launched a business as a personal fitness trainer, then trained to become a massage therapist, and is now an author and gratitude coach. Welcome, Sharon. 

Sharon Saraga Walters  01:05

Thank you so much. I'm so glad you're here today, I'm excited to have this conversation.

Deb Timmerman  01:12

Tell our listeners how you got to be an expert in gratitude.

Sharon Saraga Walters  01:18

People call me an expert, but I got to this place just from my own life learning. I really wanted to be the best self. I'm in some great fields, you know, with wellness and massage and all those things and being in those fields, I felt it was really important for me to be my best self for me to show up in when people saw me that I really I walk my talk. And I really present the best part of me. So in that journey, the two things that I that drew me in my life was always for many, many years was exercise. And I did a lot of personal growth work. And the thing that really stood out for me in the personal growth world over the past 10 or 15 years was really was gratitude. So I just explored those two, I call them my superpowers of gratitude and exercise. And I just explored it. I've been practicing it for years. And I just think it was through doing my work on myself and exploring it all during reading that I became definitely my own expert. 

Deb Timmerman  02:22

So, what is your daily practice look like?

Sharon Saraga Walters  02:25

So that that's a great question that is always interchanges I've written three books. And let me say that my last book that I just wrote, it came out in a few months ago. It's about four steps to I call it exercise gratitude or criticize the book is called gratis nice 365. So let me back it up a little bit. So back maybe 10 years ago, I would say when I got into gratitude, the main thing I really did was to in gratitude journaling. That was what I did. And it was really helpful for me, it really did a lot for me. But what I found is through time after time, after years, I needed something more. It was like that wasn't enough for me. And so I spent about a year really exploring this, how do I go deeper with this work so grateful for the journaling. But there's something else that's missing. My first book is called the 28 day gratitude workout. And what I realized a year after that book was my routine starts with a wake up. And when I wrote that book six years ago, what came to me later a year later was I realized, I didn't really notice how I wake up, I just got out of bed. That was it. There was nothing about my wakeup that I took any notice to the other shot for me was I never felt gratitude, to be alive to start a new day. That was really quite something here. I'm into gratitude. We learn different levels and different places in our lives when we get different things and it was my time a year later to see well, here's my next step in growth. 

Deb Timmerman  03:59

So it sounds like you've done this in layers. So, you started with a gratitude journal. And then you added the waking up in the morning and doing a little bit gratitude practice. So, circling back to that question about what your day looks like, do you still journal?

Sharon Saraga Walters  04:17

I do journal it looks different on different days. But yes, for right now, my daily practice is really unintentional, and given attention to my wake up, you know, how do I wake up? I did it every morning now. I mean, it is ingrained in me now. It's important for me, I believe it's an important thing and it doesn't have to take a lot. It's just doing a check in for me. I say thank you mean, that's the first words that come out of my mouth, potentially in my mind, and sometimes I say it aloud just thank you to start my day like that. Instead of just going clueless. 

Deb Timmerman  04:50

How do you get yourself back on track or keep yourself on track during the day checking in? Could you tell us a little about that. 

Sharon Saraga Walters  04:58

I have been working this for a long time. time, it was my persistence in my working at it. So, I'm not expecting anybody to be like this. So, I get that. So, you're going to hear the major powerhouse deal here is how I'm doing it. So I have a wake up that I do, then I have a gratitude morning routine, which I do whatever that is, it can be journaling, whatever that is for someone to do to get you in a state of gratitude, a state of calm a state of really ready to take on the day getting in that state of mind. So that's my next thing I do. And that can be anything from I can watch a book, I could do some journaling. For me, I do a lot of post around gratitude. I know some people don't use social media in the morning, I give people an exercise every single day around gratitude, how to exercise gratitude for the day. 

Deb Timmerman  05:48

What do you do when you get off kilter? What do you notice? When you slip back into those old habits? What does that look like for you in your body or your mind?

Sharon Saraga Walters  05:59

I don't notice it in my body as well, I guess I do kind of in my body, but it just feels yucky. It really feels. So, I'm grateful for that. It feels so yucky. It's like, where's that other state? Where is that? I call it my Disney state. It's like, where's that state that I love being in. And I'm glad that it's so it shows up pretty quickly in me. And on somebody the other day, it's like, I've learned how to have grace with it. Because I used to get so mad and so frustrated and just shut down. I have found to have grace with it. Because life is going to it's going to ebb and flow. Life just happens. And so, I just want that grace. And I just know that okay, what am I not doing. And typically, what happens is that I'm not giving enough attention to gratitude, for me. I just had that the other day. So, I said in the morning about doing gratitude. But then in my day, when I love in the in this in my latest book, I say top and give me three credit reps. So it's a focus in the afternoon, finding at least three gratitude’s in your day. So see, it's really amazing and it doesn't have to be three, if you could just focus on finding one gratitude, one gratitude a day, you've made a difference.

Deb Timmerman  07:18

In the heart math world where I practice, it's about our emotional state. And that's what I hear you saying, you notice that you're not feeling as good as you could or you're not in that Disney state. So your body or your mind, something is giving you a clue and you're paying attention to that. And using that time to intentionally shift out of that state. So sometimes I think people feel like, all of these practices are supposed to come to us really easy, and they're automatic. But it's really about awareness, isn't it? You have to really be tuned in and be aware and it's a choice. You could stay in that yucky place or not.

Sharon Saraga Walters  08:02

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, it is a choice. And for me, I don't know if it just took time, but gratitude for me. It is the quickest thing that shifts me to another place. It's almost immediate. We had some snow today. And I could have looked at it like, oh my gosh, it's snowing. I'm from Florida. So. So luckily for me, I just said, Wow, look how beautiful it is and that's gratitude too. It's like if you can shift something, the words so quickly, it really makes a difference. And it doesn't take any time. 

Deb Timmerman  08:35

I'm kind of chuckling because we had snow here, too. I love snow. It's pretty, I just don't want to drive in it. And today, I happened to be scrolling through my own social media and yesterday I did a post about find three things about the weather you're grateful for. And I had to really think about that today. I could have been in that state of this is yuck, or really enjoy it. The trees were absolutely beautiful. It was pretty. I teach Tai Chi on Tuesday mornings. So we use the snow and part of our meditation today. But if you're not aware, and you're not thinking about where you are, it's so easy to get into that that other state and bring yourself down. It changes your chemistry. Yeah. I'd love to hear more about your Graticise365 project. Tell us a little bit about that. What was your inspiration for it? And if I hear the words 365, and I think daily, so share some more. 

Sharon Saraga Walters  09:35

So as I was saying, you know, one of the things for me, I have found in this work that I needed to go deeper, deeper, deeper and in doing so I spent like a year really sitting what is it that I need to go deeper and really up my game because I think in anything in life, we have to kind of do that when we've learned something and we're wanting more and more and this has been a creation that that I've been in the driver's seat creating the whole thing, so I didn't really look at that. So that's when, like you were saying, that's when I came up with these four steps in the book of gratifies 365. And it's intentionally showing people if they choose, I think a fairly easy way to implement gratitude from the time you wake up in the morning, throughout your day until you go to sleep, I share each step in many different choices that they could go with or create their own. Bringing gratitude is an action, not a reaction, taking the action. And it can be something so small, even if you said, thank you all day long. If you said it first thing in the morning, you said it, on your way driving to work at lunch, and before you go to bed, to saying thank you just saying that. Even something as simple as that. It's incredible. When day in and day out, you start to say that. And then the other thing that could happen, maybe not. But for me it did. I do a gratitude walk. And when I say I'll just say thank you the only step I take, I just say thank you, thank you, thank you. And things start to filter in when I when I want to think of more

Deb Timmerman  11:09

I love that, what would you say to someone who says they don't have time for a gratitude practice? 

Sharon Saraga Walters  11:16

I would say that if somebody has some little bit of desire, or wanting something, I just say that any little, teeny step I don't like I just said in the same Thank you. Or if you can just find one thing to be grateful for. Who doesn't have time for that. But that's if you have that desire to want to do that it starts it starts there. Like a fitness program, like eating program, any anything, it starts with the someone having the desire. And if you have that desire, then it's it can be done just by one little one thing. And I think if you have the desire, but you don't know how to get started connecting to someone like you who gives a framework for how to get started. And a method is really sometimes the best gift you can give yourself. Sometimes it's just you read a book, and you start to implement one tiny thing, and you habit stack and build those habits. And before you know it, you've got a full-fledged gratitude practice every day and right what I have thought about the gratitude practice is just like anything, you don't use it, you lose it a little bit. It can come back Quicker, quicker. This is a live process. For me, the gratitude work will always be in my world. It's not a one and done. And I'm okay with that. 

Deb Timmerman  12:37

So, it's really about building your gratitude muscle. I think you shared that met me when we had our pre meeting and were talking that you have it's a muscle you have to exercise. The more gratitude you give it, the stronger that muscle gets.

Sharon Saraga Walters  12:52

Absolutely. Absolutely. 

Deb Timmerman  12:55

So where do folks who want to connect with you find you.

Sharon Saraga Walters  12:59

My Facebook page, it's called gratisice365. And it's gra t i c i s e, because a lot of people don't get the spelling of that and on that Facebook page, I'm an Instagram as well, the same name, I share a different gratitude exercise every single day. So even if people want to just explore and see what that's like, I'd give a prompt every single day. My website is graticise365.com. We did a global gratitude summit back in 2018 2019, with 30 amazing doctors and experts on gratitude that is free for anyone who wants to explore that. So my website is a really great place as well. 

Deb Timmerman  13:43

So I found something kind of unique on your website, you had a little questionnaire or a little tool to figure out where you are in terms of how much gratitude, can you share that? 

Sharon Saraga Walters  13:57

Yes, you know, you didn't ask me some questions. You were going to brief me a little bit about you know how I came up with all this and I just want to say that when you know you're on your path, and you're doing what you're supposed to do, the ideas, the creations that have come through me. I've never had it before in my life as it keeps happening. In this book what you're speaking of after I wrote the 28 day gratitude workout book I said I wanted to find what a way people could gauge it. And it's called the gratifit test. What is your gratitude fitness level? And I it just I took 18 Questions from the book of the 28 day credit to workouts people take the test it's simple. Well in the granite in the 20 day great to work up book. It was the very first book I wrote in there very simple, but powerful exercises to do one every day. And as you saw in the in the questionnaire, you know those are pretty. They're good questions are things that we don't think about because backing everything. And up here. What had me do this whole work was when I got the awareness of how much I was taking for granted in my life. I mean, I knew I had gratitude, I believe. I always say that I've got more gratitude in my DNA, I believe I was born with that. But I also know that I really took so much for granted in my life, the simple things and that's what started the 28 day gratitude workup of my first one. 

Deb Timmerman  15:25

Well, I thought the grad fit tool was really good. I thought I had a really great practice but I have room to grow. And there were some things on there that I had never thought of before. So, I thought it was really good. If you mind sharing each one, I'm curious one of those that I can't recall right off the top of my head what they were, but I did not score in that top percentile. I scored underneath that. So, which meant that I had room to grow. And I just thought it was a great tool for getting you to think a little bit more about where are you at? What are you doing? And what areas could you improve in? 

Sharon Saraga Walters  16:10

Yeah, thank you. That's so true. And the thing that I found in that gratifit test, what I've been working on with everybody is, I so encourage people not to do it as a competition and not to judge themselves on those answers. I did a workshop with that test. I gave different hand signs for the numbers. So, I think when it was never, in some time I had people place their hands on their heart when they gave it when they shared that that was their answer for that, because it allowed them to give themselves grace if it was never, or sometimes, 

Deb Timmerman  16:45

I think we do hold ourselves to these crazy standards. And what you said about it not being a competition, I think is really important. This is really about personal growth and about looking for areas that you can stretch or grow your practice, not trying to fit into this box. That's what told me that I've done a lot of growing because there was a time, if I would have taken that, I would have tried to figure out how to get to 100. Because that's how we're wired. And that's how the world pushes us. So I just thought it was such a neat way to just do a quick self-assessment, and look for ways that you could move yourself along or stretch or grow yourself. Without that, and I thought the language that you used was very user friendly and it was very anti competition with yourself kind of language. 

Sharon Saraga Walters  17:37

Yeah, thank you. Absolutely. And you know, and I share with people too, when they have those answers of those questions when it's like I never do it. Or only sometimes I tell people, you that is the greatest gift by choosing those two, you just been given the greatest gift, because you get to see an area that you didn't realize that you had that was that you now can do something with that. So, it's a real gift. 

Deb Timmerman  18:02

Yeah, so here's our call to action for listeners this week, jump on over to Sharon's website and take that gratifit assessment and see where you are. If there are some areas for growth that you have. Not, I'm not going to ask you to make a plan. I'm just going to ask you to put that in your awareness and try to be more aware and every day, maybe just pick one area that you want to grow in and start with that. 

Sharon Saraga Walters  18:30

Great. That's great. 

Deb Timmerman  18:32

Thank you so much for having this chat with me today. We'll post all the links to your connections in our show notes, so that folks can find you easily and I wish you lots of luck and wonderful travels with whatever life brings you next. 

Sharon Saraga Walters  18:48

Thank you so much.

Deb Timmerman  18:53

Less stress in life is possible. If you're new to this kind of thinking and would like to explore what's possible for you. We'd love to connect. You can reach us through our website at less stress in life.com. That's less stress in life.com