Gratitude And Joy

Today we are talking about being grateful and how practicing gratitude can put you in a better mood and help you find more joy in your life.

Transcript

Welcome to Life,

Lessons,

And Laughter with your host Glenn Ambrose.

Hello.

Welcome to the podcast.

Today,

We are talking about gratitude,

Thanksgiving,

And how it brings joy into our lives.

Is that right,

Ben?

Yeah.

So,

I sent you an article.

Oh,

That's where I would find it.

I sent you an article like a week ago or maybe a little bit more about this subject.

And it was by Google's former happiness guru developed a three-second brain exercise for finding joy or something.

And I just,

You know,

I read the article.

It was fun.

But it got to this route,

Which was like,

If you're grateful,

It leads to joy.

And I just wanted to talk to you about that and pick your brain.

Yeah.

And I read the article and it was a good article.

I like the idea behind it and I like the fact that they put some action steps into it,

Some very little simple things that you can do.

And it's just basically training your brain to be grateful.

And if you do that,

Then all of a sudden you see joy come into your life,

Which,

You know,

It's a big miracle.

If you train yourself to think of things that bring you joy and things that you're grateful and thankful for,

Just little things throughout the day,

Just little tweaks to how you're thinking and how you're looking at things,

Then more joy comes into your life.

And that's a good start.

It's a good principle.

It's something that really anybody can do to start chipping away at it.

Yeah.

So the point of that article was like three,

If you pause to feel grateful,

It can change your entire mood.

Right.

And there was a podcast that I was listening to a couple of weeks ago that was talking about.

.

.

Was it one of ours?

No.

Okay.

No.

Not a fan of this show.

But it was talking about,

You know,

If you're stressed and you need like,

You're going out of control and you need something to calm down and change your mood,

You know,

Sit down,

Really focus on like five things that you're grateful for.

Yeah.

You know,

There's lots of different little exercises that have been created around the gratitude list and oftentimes creating a gratitude list or also journaling and having a gratitude list be a part of that.

And there was an aspect of that that came up when the Great Love Project,

When I started that,

You know,

Because when you're posting something that you have love for,

You have gratitude for on a daily basis,

Putting something online and saying,

Hey,

I have love for this.

Hey,

You know,

This is part of the Great Love Project.

This is something that I have gratitude for.

You know,

If you do anything like that on a regular basis in your day,

You implement that,

It gets you focusing on things that make you happy.

And then you're going to walk around being happier.

You know,

It's everything's energy.

So if you put your attention and your efforts towards something that you're grateful for,

Then it's going to take up more of your consciousness and you're going to be walking around and more grateful than you were before.

And then you can go in on a slant of the law of attraction.

And if you're spending more time being grateful for things,

Well,

Then you're going to bring in more things to be grateful for.

It reminds me of something that you said probably five episodes ago,

Which was you can't pray and worry at the same time.

Yeah,

That's been coming up a lot lately.

Those two thoughts can't occupy the same space.

Right.

And same with negativity and positivity.

You know,

You can't be angry or sad and happy at the same time.

So if you're grateful for something,

It's a positive emotion.

So you can't be actively grateful about something.

And if you're focusing on that,

It won't allow.

Right.

Yeah,

You can't be focused on gratitude to the point where you have that feeling of gratitude.

You know,

If you're thinking about something you're grateful for and you notice the feelings within you are different,

You're feeling something good.

It could be calmness.

It could be joy,

Peacefulness,

Happiness.

You could be elated.

It's always something positive.

So when you're in the middle of that,

You can't be angry too at the same time.

So that,

You know,

Let's say that last 10 seconds.

Well,

That's 10 seconds that you and your body is experiencing something positive as opposed to something negative.

You know,

And the more often we do that,

The more beneficial it is.

And there's been studies like,

You know,

Happiness,

They've studied everything at this point.

And they've studied happiness in a lot of detail.

And there's college courses on the science of happiness.

And so when they've looked into this,

They found certain people have a propensity towards happiness more than others.

But everyone has the ability to change the level of happiness that they experience.

And it's by doing things like this,

By focusing on it,

By focusing on things that you're grateful for.

You know,

People that have a propensity,

You know,

Everybody can raise their level of happiness that they experience in their lives,

Regardless of where they're from,

Their environment,

Their circumstances,

Any propensities that they have,

Like DNA wise,

Towards being more happy or anything.

Everybody can raise their level of happiness by doing things like this.

What do you think about the,

Like someone who,

Because I know that this is a ridiculous thing to say that people don't have things to be grateful for.

But what if somebody's in that mind space of like,

You know,

I don't have anything to be grateful for,

Or like I could find it,

But there's a million things that are horrible.

That's the problem is they're focusing on the things that are horrible.

And they're not focusing on the things that,

You know,

So the more,

So if you focus on the things that are wrong,

Then they're going to take up more of your consciousness.

And you know,

It's just gonna expand and take up more and more and more and more.

If you focus on what's wrong in your life,

It never gets better by focusing on what's wrong.

You know,

The only way it gets better is by focusing on a solution or what's right,

Either how you can get out of it or what's going on right in your life.

You never get out of a negative situation by climbing deeper into it,

Putting more energy towards it and expanding it.

You know,

So if you start,

If you start,

You know,

You can start anywhere.

I mean,

If somebody's alive,

They have something to be grateful for.

And if that's all you have,

We'll start there.

You know,

Well,

I can see,

I can breathe,

I can hear,

I can talk.

If you can do any of those things,

You have something to be grateful for,

You know.

And that's where you need to start.

And it's just,

If you spend enough time focusing on that,

You'll get more clarity on it.

You know,

It's just when somebody's in a negative mindset,

You go,

Okay,

Well,

I'm supposed to be grateful because I'm alive.

Well,

I don't want to be alive,

So screw that.

Well,

You know,

I mean,

That's just,

You're not even giving it a chance.

You know,

You're bound and determined you're going to stay there.

And nothing works with people like that.

You know,

I mean,

If you're bound and determined,

You want to be miserable,

And there's no way anything else is going to happen,

Then you're right.

I mean,

Because you're bound and determined now.

Now,

If you put effort into changing that,

Then you can change it.

But it does require effort on your part.

You know,

Nobody comes in here and just,

You know,

Touches people on the head and then makes them happy and clears up all of their problems.

You know,

Your life is your responsibility.

So you actually need to put effort into this.

And I always like putting timeframes on it.

You know,

Depending on your situation and who you are,

It can be,

You know,

It could be a week,

I'd like it better if it was like a month,

Maybe even three months.

I mean,

Really,

You know,

What are you trying to do here?

You're trying to change your entire life and your entire way of being and experience happiness.

So that's a pretty big deal.

It deserves a fair amount of attention,

Because its payoff is greater than anything you've ever experienced in your life.

So you know,

So if you can put a month's worth of effort towards something,

Or three months worth of effort towards something that has less of a payoff,

You certainly can do it for this.

You know,

So if you can put,

Take a month or three months and go,

You know,

I'm just going to go after this with everything that I have,

I'm going to come up with creative ways to remind myself to stay positive.

I'm going to write,

Like one time I printed out the word gratitude in all different ways on a computer and I filled up like two sheets with a bunch of different little pictures of gratitude.

And I printed them out and I cut them all up and I taped them all over the place.

You know,

And there's,

I think there's one on my computer over there still,

That was like last year,

But I put them in my car,

I put them in my,

On my bathroom mirror,

You know,

In my bedroom,

On my computer when I open it up,

On the coffee maker,

And I taped them all over the place.

And it was just an effort to remind myself to be grateful.

You know,

Do things like that,

You know,

Take some time and make a gratitude list,

You know,

For five minutes before you go to bed,

Open up a book and write down five things you're grateful for,

For that day,

And try not to repeat the same thing over and over.

As people put my family that I'm able to eat,

That,

You know,

And it gets so mechanical that they don't get the creativeness out of it.

So try not to repeat the same thing,

You know,

But doing these little things and putting effort in,

Do that for a month,

Do that for three months,

Just,

Just try it.

I mean,

If it doesn't work,

We'll gladly refund your misery.

One thing that we're going to start trying is,

Hopefully,

Hopefully I remember to do this because Dave read this somewhere and had the idea that we should do it like a year ago and I wish that we had started then.

Make like a jar that like every day or every so often you write something good that happened and you put it in the jar and then on New Year's Eve you open the jar and you read everything that happened this year.

That's a great practice.

I don't think I've heard of that one yet.

Do you like it?

You should do it.

I love it.

Yeah.

I think that's a good idea.

So yeah,

I just keep forgetting to buy the jar and post it notes.

I should use a cup.

I should really put some effort into this.

It doesn't actually have to be a jar.

You can throw it in a Tupperware bowl that you have at home.

Yeah,

I should do that.

So now remind you to get the jar.

Is gratefulness or can it be the practice of it like a meditation?

Yes.

I mean anything is really a meditation.

Well within reason.

But anything that connects you to the source of good can be a meditation.

So if your meditation is kind of like it's connecting to the source of good really.

It's connecting to that peacefulness,

That calmness,

That lovingness,

That oneness that is out there.

It's connecting to it.

So anything that vibrates at that rate,

At a positive rate is connecting to that.

So I mean if you're just sitting there in gratitude,

Like a very famous quote,

I forgot who said it,

But very famous quote is,

If the only prayer I ever said was thank you,

That would be enough.

And that's true.

It's like if you just sit there and you just say thank you on a regular basis,

That would be enough to completely change your life.

It's that mentality of gratitude that does it,

Connects us with the divine,

That kind of,

That divine source of good that's out there.

Did you get the quote?

Yeah.

I figured that's what you were looking at.

Eckhart.

Meister.

Meister Eckhart.

Meister Eckhart,

Yeah.

Yeah,

That's a very famous quote.

So it's,

You know,

That can be the basis of anything.

That can be an unbelievable starting point or a jumping point,

A catalyst,

You know,

To your spiritual walk.

Because I mean really,

What's the point of,

You know,

A spiritual walk?

I talk about a spiritual path and a spiritual walk all the time,

But what's the point of that?

The point is to experience joy,

Is to experience happiness,

To walk in that,

To enjoy life.

And really there's no better way to walk in gratitude than to walk in gratitude.

You walk in gratitude,

You're going to be enjoying your life.

Then all of a sudden it starts shifting bigger things within you.

All of a sudden you start looking around and you're going,

Oh my God,

Everything,

This is all happening for me.

You start seeing how life is actually supporting you in your walk.

And then you're grateful for that.

And so your understandings expand just by looking at life through the eyes of gratitude for what you already have.

It's kind of like a gratefulness,

Joy circle.

Yeah.

It just constantly expands and feeds itself and grows larger and takes up more of you.

The more you think about gratitude,

The more joy you feel,

The more joy you feel,

The more grateful you are.

It is a very simple,

Wonderful starting point,

But it's also a good time.

Like I said,

I did that gratitude thing,

That was like last year or something.

So sometimes I'll feel like I want to kickstart or I want to,

Jeez,

I'm really not.

.

.

My life is pretty,

It's peaceful.

I don't have much drama in it.

It's enjoyable.

I love what I do.

I feel fulfilled and I'm heading in the right direction.

Those are kind of things that basically are with me all the time.

But sometimes I need a little booster shot of joy.

So last year,

That's what I did,

Is I focused on gratitude for a while and it helped.

So yeah,

It's just a wonderful practice and it's endless,

The benefits you get from it.

That's the law,

Is expand,

Expand,

Expand.

What you focus on expands.

And one,

For two reasons.

One,

Just because that's what has to happen,

Because everything's energy.

So if you focus on something,

You're putting your attention,

Which is your energy on it,

So it expands and it becomes a larger part of your life.

And then the other aspect is,

Like I mentioned,

The law of attraction.

If you're putting out that,

Boy,

I'm really grateful,

Boy,

I'm really appreciative of these things that are in my life,

Then you get more things to appreciate.

So this week is,

Was Thanksgiving.

Yes.

Is,

Right now,

Was,

Whoever's hearing this,

Hears it.

Do you like that there's one day a year that is supposed to really focus on it?

Yes,

I do.

And I think it's kind of ironic that I was,

I had my regular doctor appointment and they're like,

Oh,

We'll get your regular blood work done,

Whatever,

And stuff.

I said,

Okay.

So I went there this morning and somebody was talking,

Actually it might have been on TV,

And they were talking about Thanksgiving and they're saying how there's no pressure to it.

And I was like,

Isn't that interesting?

The one holiday that has thanks in its name,

And it is one of the lower pressure holidays out there.

It doesn't mean that there's none and people don't put pressure on themselves,

But it is one of the lower pressure holidays.

If you don't celebrate Thanksgiving,

A lot of people aren't like,

Oh my God,

You're bad.

If you don't celebrate Christmas or Easter,

Well then you're a bad Christian.

And there's not as much judgment to it and there's not as much pressure.

And I mean,

You go,

That's one of the reasons why I like it too.

But I don't think that that's a coincidence,

That it's one of the lower pressure holidays and it's about Thanksgiving.

It's just a simple,

It's harder to screw with that.

It's just about giving thanks.

It's called Thanksgiving.

Right.

So it's like,

Okay.

And crazy deals on toys and electronics.

Well of course.

Now.

Yeah,

Now.

They have to create Black Friday because they couldn't screw with Thanksgiving.

And now they're just inching you into Thanksgiving.

So yeah,

It's the Thanksgiving,

I think is,

It's an attitude.

You know,

It doesn't have to be one day.

What do you do usually?

Do you usually see your family and stuff?

Yeah,

Usually I go up to Massachusetts to where I grew up and I sometimes I check out the football games.

Sometimes I don't.

It just depends if I wake up early enough because it's a no pressure holiday.

So you know,

I'm just very relaxed.

My son and I wake up whenever we wake up.

We don't set an alarm or anything,

You know.

And if we're sitting around the house kind of ready and we're like,

Let's get out of here and it's early enough,

Then we'll go check out the football game where I went to high school.

And if not,

We'll just go straight up for lunch.

You know,

We have after the football game is when we eat at my sister's house.

She's the next town over.

There are people listening to this right now who are like,

Thanksgiving's no pressure.

I know.

Of course there's no pressure.

You don't cook.

Right.

Oh yeah.

And that's true.

I mean,

I'm not going to say that that's not true.

It's even less pressure for me.

Right.

Absolutely.

And that type of pressure,

You know,

It's the pressure you put on yourself.

You know,

We have to take responsibility for our lives.

If you don't want to cook,

Don't.

Right.

I mean,

Nobody's got a gun to your head,

You know.

And if you don't want to cook as much,

Don't.

If you need help,

Ask for it.

Demand it.

You know,

Have everybody that's coming bring something.

You know,

There are ways where you can,

You know,

You can take responsibility for your life.

And whatever pressure you put on,

You know,

You're putting on yourself.

Yeah.

You know,

And the one thing also I want to mention is,

Thanks,

This has been a spiritual tool that has come up a lot in a lot of different situations.

And it's come up in like marriage counseling,

Couples counseling,

Stuff like that.

Because oftentimes in a relationship when it starts to fall apart,

People are focused on the negative aspects of their partner.

You know,

So if they start,

So they will use this as a tool to just list good things about your partner,

Start focusing on the good things.

And just that alone has saved countless marriages.

Countless.

Just focusing on the good in the other person.

And all of a sudden you start seeing it more.

And the things that you didn't like start taking up less of your consciousness.

And all of a sudden they don't mean that much anymore.

And now when you're,

You know,

Nobody believes it.

You know,

When they first start,

They go,

No,

There's no way that when he does this,

It's not going to bother me.

And then all of a sudden a few months later,

It's really not bothering them.

Or sometimes the dynamic between the two gets so much better because they're focusing on the positive.

Then all of a sudden the other one,

They're able to have a loving conversation about it.

And they go,

You know,

Actually when you do that,

That actually hurts my feelings.

Oh,

Well I had no idea.

And they're actually able to listen.

Whereas before when they're all negative with each other,

You know,

When they say something,

The other side just defends.

You know,

And nothing ever gets heard between the two.

So just a little thankful experiment in people's relationships can be enough to completely go all the way from filing divorce papers to being better than ever in a relationship.

You know,

It's that powerful.

So you would say the conclusion of this,

That gratefulness equals joy.

Yes.

Yeah,

Because it's just anything good is a version of love.

You know,

Gratitude is a version of love.

Joy is a version of love.

Happiness is a version of love.

You know,

Absolutely anything good,

It's based in love.

And so it just depends on,

You know,

It's just a different version of it.

So they're very closely related.

So if you do anything good,

Then you're going to experience good feelings.

You know,

So if you practice gratitude,

You're going to experience joy.

And the whole idea that we started it with that like little moments of gratitude can and like for the little things,

Like be grateful for the little moments and it'll make you more conscious.

Yeah,

It's like even if you pay attention very closely,

Breathing will give you joy because it's something good.

It's satisfying a need of the body.

So like if you just get real quiet and you take in a deep breath and you pay attention to how you're feeling like in your heart area,

You get a positive sensation.

It can be calmness.

It could be a soft sense of joy,

Something like that.

Just because so you can be grateful for each breath that you take,

You know,

So it can be little things like that.

And the other thing that I've done to really that's been very helpful is sometimes if I'm if there's something negative,

Something specific that is taking up a lot of my mental time,

Then I'll use that as a red flag to like to remind me to think of something positive.

So like,

So you know,

Just use this little red flag every time something negative every time that thing pops in your head,

You go,

Oh,

I'm thinking about that again.

So that means I need to think of something positive.

And then you know,

List a couple things,

Couple things that you're grateful for or something,

You know.

And if people want help being grateful and everything.

And they can,

Yeah,

Look me up.

Can people find you?

Look me up,

You know,

And I do.

I do work with people and my practice is definitely expanding.

So you know,

I'm working with with I can work with people all over the country and all over the world,

You know,

By Skype and by phone.

So you know,

And I also give free consultations.

So like if you're interested,

You know,

Reach out,

Contact me,

Shoot me an email or give me a call off the phone number off the website.

And you know,

We can set up a time and chat a little bit and you can get a feel for what I do.

And if it's something that you'd like to try,

You know,

I like I said,

I do I do work with people and I just got another client from Dallas and I'm in not Dallas from Denver,

And I'm in Rhode Island.

So it's you know,

And the work over the phone goes really well.

So if anybody's interested,

Reach out at life dash enhancement dash services.

Com and you can email me from there or give me a buzz from there.

And there's a Facebook page and stuff for the great love project and for life lessons and laughter and you can stay connected on Facebook with all of that stuff.

And there's a Twitter.

Oh,

Yeah,

There's everything.

That's linked.

So this Twitter or Facebook for you know,

I'm connected with all that stuff.

So whatever social media Avenue that you're you've got,

You know,

You can find me either Glenn Ambrose,

The great love project or life enhancement services.

You should you should make a Glenn Ambrose life enhancement services Snapchat.

Snapchat.

Yeah.

Do you even know what that is?

Yeah,

I have the great love project has a Snapchat.

Does it?

It does.

Have you snapped stuff?

Do you make a story?

No,

I did.

Like I did one or two things like when when I first set it up,

But that was about it.

It's just that's the one that's gone in 24 hours.

Right?

Yeah,

The story has gone in 24 hours.

If you send people things directly,

It's gone after a couple seconds.

Yeah.

So I was like,

This really is not a good outlet for you.

The great love project.

You can call them happy snaps.

Yeah.

I don't know.

I just well,

That's going to do it for this.

Holy cow.

So reach out and focus on some gratitude and experience some joy.

Thanks for listening.

Reviews

Loved it ❤

Another wonderful podcast! Thank you Glenn for the positive impact you are making on the planet ! 💕🙏🤗

Awesome! So grateful for all that you do, and all that I am 😁💜x

Great- i'm just loving your talks!

Great talk. Loved it. Thank you. ❤

Simple practical advice to life changing thoughts.