GRATITUDE IS MY SUPERPOWER
I first encountered the transformative power of Gratitude after having a serious pity-party--we’re talking window staring, whimpers, and mascara-running-ugly crying. I was 2ish months post-op from a painful spinal injury and cervical fusion, uncertain of what the future held for my yoga-dance body. I had a 102* fever. Ryan had just left for a family gathering. And I was alone. On Thanksgiving. Cue feel-sorry-for-myself music...REM’s “Everybody hurts...sometimes.”
But that’s not the end of the story.
As a spiritual person who grew up singing in charismatic southern churches and a yogi who taught others to cultivate Santosha, or contentment, while practicing intense asana, I knew a little something about a Gratitude practice. Basically, saying “thank you” shifts our brains from searching for the negative, collecting evidence of our inadequacy or lack, to seeing and believing something different. With gratitude our brains start to detect new patterns of positivity. And you feel better. I wanted to feel better.
So I pulled out my phone--which could have been a humdinger of comparison had I gotten on social in my weakened state--, and started scrolling through my pictures. Lucy in all her stubborn-elegant beagle charm and cute corgi butt. The James Bond hotel in Switzerland where not only did we get an upgrade but could actually hear goat bells echoing from green mountains. Smiles of students from classes, workshops, and retreats who received value from my offerings. And, most importantly, that one of me and Ryan at the top of a Ferris Wheel in Antibes, France...WHERE HE PROPOSED TO ME. I started saying thank you, in my heart; and then, maybe strangely, out loud. Prayer is simply speaking your heart out loud.
And I felt better. Even as my body held the memory of those tears, something else came through--appreciation, fullness, hope. As if all my broken places were filling with gold. Gratitude made kintsugi of me.
And this practice, this SUPERPOWER can do the same for you.
In Shawn Anchor’s brilliant and hilarious TED Talk “The Happy Secret to Better Work,” he suggests we can raise our level of positivity in the present to create a happiness advantage, which is your brain at positive performs significantly better than at negative, neutral, or stressed. At positive, your levels of intelligence, creativity, and energy all rise!
And even greater news: YOU CAN TRAIN YOUR BRAIN. Small changes ripple outward, such as writing down 3 GRATITUDES a day (Emmons & McCllough, 2003). In just 2 minutes a day for 21 (30, 60) days in a row, you can reroute your brain toward the positive, allowing your brain to actually work more optimistically, more successfully. Why?
Because dopamine, which floods into your system when you’re positive, not only makes you happier (the record skips from REM...Cue: The Jackson Five, “Can You Feel It!”), it turns on all the learning centers in your brain, enabling you to adapt to the world in a different way.
Anchor reminds us, “when we write 3 new things we’re grateful for, our brains retain a new pattern, scanning the world not for the negative, but for the positive first.”
This, my friends, is what it means to have a S U P E R P O W E R. The more you use it, the stronger it gets.
And good vibes are catching. They spread in your home, creative life, workplace, friendships, yoga studio, neighborhood! Maybe even all the way to the White House... maybe.
MOVEMENT
Today, as you practice yoga or dance to your current heavy-rotation song (mine), see if you can notice the feeling of Gratitude in your body. Maybe it’s spaciousness in your breath, or a solidity in your legs, or an effervescent feeling in your heart.
What is the feeling of Gratitude in your body?
Contrast is a great teacher. What is the feeling in your body when you cannot access gratitude? When you are not able to say thank you?
JOURNALING
Now that you’ve moved and made a connection with your body, grab your favorite journal and pen, and find a few moments to write:
What are you grateful for right now? In this season of your life?
What are you grateful for in these areas of your life:
Body
Home
Relationships
Creativity
Career
Spirituality
Community
Challenges
Food
Notice the snowball effect--the more you acknowledge, the more you see you have to be grateful for, and more importantly, you feel grateful. That positive flow of good feelings helps us shapeshift to stateshift.
From Not Enough → to More Than Enough
From Obstacle → to Opportunity
From Heartbreak → to Resilience
Consider aspects of your past for which you are grateful. And, if that’s a gnarly request, focus just on the past year. What are you grateful for?
What missed opportunities do you now see as dodged bullets? (His name was… :)
Think of a specific time in your past when you felt deep gratitude. A trip you took, that thing they said, when you were once brave or vulnerable or honest, etc. Recall this time, this day, in as much detail as possible. Where were you? How old were you? What sensory details come to mind (what did you see, smell, hear, taste, touch)? Evoke the scene in your body, your mind, on the page. What is the FEELING? Marinate in it.
Allow your mind to travel to the future. You decide how far you go. Visualize the future you want. Let yourself see beautiful outcomes to some of your current unknown situations. Where will you be? How will you be? In this imagined-yet-real future, for what are you thankful? (For example, I might write, “Thank you for the book I’ve written, which inspires and helps others.” Or, “Thank you for Athlon’s success and our ability to not only pay off our credit cards, but also make a downpayment on our forever home.” Let yourself really go. Wouldn’t it be great if… “Thank you for that apartment in France where I go every summer to write, drink rose´, and read for unadulterated pleasure! Oh, and I lead retreats in a chateau here also, so THANK YOU!).
Gratitude helps you appreciate your life out loud.
In hand and heart,
Leslie
If you know someone who might appreciate awakening their Gratitude superpower, please share.