The Kingdom: The Power Of Gratitude

We throw around the word gratitude all the time, but few of us know the real origins of the practice, why every religion and spiritual practice talks about it, and how to use gratitude as more than just a fluffy concept, but to make real change in our lives. Gratitude might be the most important practice you can do—but only if you learn to do it properly. Learn a special 4-Part Process to Real Gratitude in this heart-opening session of The Kingdom: Gratitude In, Gratitude Out, Gratitude Up, and Letting Go.

Think of The Kingdom like spiritual church—for everyone! All beliefs are welcome to these prayerful masterclasses.

Transcript

I'm Justin Michael Williams,

And welcome to the Kingdom.

This is Spiritual Church for Everybody.

We begin each session with a prayer.

God,

Universe,

Spirit,

All that is,

All that ever has been and all that ever will be,

We thank you.

We honor you and we give you thanks,

Especially on this day.

That given everything that's going on in the world right now,

That you have brought us together,

That we have the opportunity to be together.

That we have this moment in our lives to praise and be grateful.

And that even though the world can be so uncertain and can be in such turmoil,

That we can ground into a space within ourselves that is endless and infinite,

Immovable and unshakable.

The space within us where all things are born.

The all within the all and through the all,

Knowing that we are all connected.

And then even though we might express differently,

There is that space within all of us where we are one.

Where we will return to one and where we can come from the oneness in us all.

May you guide our words and our actions today,

All the words in the chat box and the words that I say to open and inspire the hearts and minds of everyone who's here and everyone we touch throughout this day and this week.

We thank you.

We thank you.

We thank you.

I want to say thank you for being in our lives.

We want to say thank you for being in our lives.

We don't know.

We don't know what we would do if we didn't have you in our lives.

In our lives.

We want to say thank you.

For being in our lives.

We don't know.

We don't know what we would do if we didn't have you in our lives.

In our lives.

We want to say thank you.

For being in our lives.

For being in our lives.

Thank you for being in our lives.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

May all be happy.

May all be blessed.

May the words that are used today inspire our hearts and minds and may we take the message that we need today right into our hearts so that we can change our lives and change the world.

Ashe aho salam.

Amen.

Om Sat Nam.

So it is.

Thank you.

Thank you all.

So,

You know,

As we get into the teaching today,

I wanted to talk about perspective.

And the reason why I want to talk about perspective before we even get in,

I can't get into the main area of the teaching without actually talking about perspective.

Because,

You know,

In the first week we talked about the power of being,

Knowing that you get what you are and not what you want.

And if you didn't catch that session,

It's really the ground of being for everything that we do here and the recording is there available for you on YouTube or wherever you want to grab it.

And then in the second week,

Last week,

We talked about the things that we need to let go of.

We talked about forgiveness and making space and what we needed to pluck out in the garden of our lives to make space for new growth so that our energy wasn't going towards the things in our lives that are dying,

But going towards the things that are blooming.

And now,

Since we talked about the being and we talked about what we need to let go of,

I wanted to talk about how we actually draw new energy in.

How do we draw new energy into our lives?

How do we actually grow more of what we want in the garden of our lives?

And so before I can get into the concept of today's teaching,

Which is not about perspective,

I have to talk about perspective.

Because what we have to know and understand is that we as humans,

As people,

Right,

Having,

As Oprah always says,

Spiritual beings having a human experience,

We see things through a certain lens or through a certain perspective.

Always,

Whether that perspective or lens is true or not true,

Whatever we choose to believe as a collective or as individuals is what we create our world based upon.

And this sounds like,

When I talk about this,

It almost sounds very theoretical sometimes,

But it's not theoretical at all.

It's very practical.

So if you think about it just on the collective level,

If we go back to something that makes this super obvious for us,

Think about this,

Okay?

In ancient times,

Ancient Greece,

Ancient Rome,

Ancient Egypt,

Ancient India,

It was widely believed around the world that the earth was flat.

And this was not like a myth.

This isn't a myth.

This was like truth.

Like this is what people really believed,

Right?

And so their entire reality in that time was created based upon the perception that the earth was flat.

People literally thought if they traveled too far away from their homeland,

They would actually fall off the edge of the earth.

Like,

Not a myth.

This was believed as truth.

So much so that there were like models around it.

And I'm not talking about the modern flat earth people.

If you're a flat earth person,

Welcome.

There's no judgment.

But what I'm saying is I'm talking about the ancient flat earth,

Where if you look at ancient Egypt and look at some of the things that were created and how even their religions were formed and the way they praised the stars and the way they praised their lives and the different formations on the rocks and the drawings and the art.

It's all created from this perspective of the earth being flat,

Which is we know we know today is not true.

Right.

But because it was believed as truth,

Then that's what reality was created from,

From the perspective.

And we might say,

Well,

We don't believe in that kind of stuff now.

Like we've grown beyond that point.

We have science.

We have this.

We have that.

No.

But we have so many perspectives today that are not all necessarily harmful,

But that we believe are true,

But that are not true.

And then we create our world based upon those truths.

So let me give you another harmless example,

But one that you guys will see how we do it today.

So let's talk about the sunset.

So the sun sets,

Right?

Wrong.

The sun does not set.

The sun don't set nowhere.

Right.

Like from our perspective here on earth,

Depending on where you are on the planet,

Actually,

The sun sets.

And then we have day and night,

These concepts,

These these concepts that we've created based on our belief of the sun setting.

But from a different perspective,

Go to outer space.

Right.

You're an astronaut.

You work for NASA.

Go to space far enough away from the Earth's orbit.

Does the sun appear to set?

No.

Sun doesn't set the sun.

The earth would be circling around the sun.

The sun would just be there.

It wouldn't be setting like you said.

Well,

Don't set nowhere.

Right.

But because of our perspective,

Do you guys see our perspective on the planet?

We have created our entire reality.

We have in yoga rituals for praising and honoring the sunset and the moon and the rising and this and the falling and darkness and light and daytime and nighttime.

And we have our coffee in the morning and good morning and good night and all the things that we do,

The rituals in our lives based on the sunrise and the sunset that is fully based upon our perspective,

Which is not truth.

Because what is truth if it is not based upon our beliefs and our perspective?

Our perspective creates what we believe and what we believe is how we create our lives.

And this works on so many different ways.

And we see that if we want to change our lives,

We not only have to change what we believe,

We can't just say,

I believe in that now.

We have to change our perspective first.

And so I talked about how this works on the collective.

But you've seen this on the individual level.

You've seen this with your family members that may have once been homophobic or people in your life who have made once been racist or tone deaf and didn't understand or who were dealing with white supremacy.

People in your individual life and family.

This isn't something out there.

But once they change their perspective,

Once they had a new perspective,

A personal experience,

Then their beliefs changed.

I think about my parents,

You know,

Like my my mom was not OK with me being gay when I was younger at all.

And now my mom be out there literally protesting for gay rights,

Wearing rainbow flags more than I have ever worn in my whole life,

Literally.

And it's because she's had a change in perspective and a change in belief.

And so it's changed the way that we live our lives,

The way we relate and the way we experience and create our world together.

And so this leads me to an important topic today and the most powerful way that we can change our perspective.

And so that and I'm saying changing our perspective so that we can change our world.

And yes,

My mom's here today,

Barbara.

Everybody sees her there.

Hey,

Mama.

So today we're talking about the power of gratitude.

And I know what you guys might be thinking when you come in here,

Like,

OK,

We've heard about gratitude,

Like I know enough about gratitude.

Everyone's always talking about gratitude.

But I think we're going to talk about it a little bit differently than you might expect today.

Emily said,

You're an awesome mom,

Barbara.

She is.

She's so wonderful.

She,

Y'all,

She came and picked me up,

Took a three hour drive from the Bay Area to Big Sur yesterday to pick me up and then drove me back home.

It's just the most beautiful,

Wonderful thing.

I love her so much.

So gratitude.

So I was just feeling the gratitude for my mom right now and just the love in my heart.

You guys will always hear me geeking out about my mom.

She's just the best.

So gratitude is a word that we throw around in our community so often we throw it around.

But I don't think we actually understand what it really means and the science and the power of what it really means.

And the way that we know this is important is because in every religion from Christianity,

Catholicism,

Judaism,

Islam,

Buddhism,

Hinduism,

Ancient African traditions,

Ancient Egypt,

Every spiritual self-help book you have ever read talks about the power of gratitude.

And it's for a good reason,

Because this is a practice that quite literally has the power to change our lives.

And I love this quote from Meister Eckhart,

Which is not Eckhart Tolle.

This is someone in ancient Rome.

It says,

If the only prayer you say in your entire life is thank you.

Then that will be enough.

If the only prayer you say your entire life is thank you.

That will be enough.

And that's because gratitude is the gateway to happiness,

Not the other way around.

And this is the thing.

Most people think that in order to be grateful,

You have to be happy first.

We think about it the other way around,

Like,

Well,

I don't got anything to be happy about in my life right now.

So I don't got anything to be grateful for.

My life is so hard right now,

So I don't have anything to be grateful for.

We think that we have to be given things to be happy about to be grateful first.

But that's not actually the way it works.

And all the science has shown,

Shown and proven,

I'm going to put out some things for you guys in a moment,

That gratitude,

When you are grateful,

When you have a consistent practice of gratitude,

The perspective of your life changes.

The perspective of your life changes.

And if the perspective of your life is different than what you're experiencing,

Whether it's harm or uncertainty or coronavirus or money loss or job loss or this or that is looked at through a new perspective.

Because again,

What is truth other than our perspective and our belief on a collective and on the individual level?

So people with a regular gratitude practice experience less depression,

Are more resilient following traumatic events in life.

And that means that even though they have trauma,

Even though we all experience shit going on in our lives,

Excuse my French,

We have the capacity to hold it so that it doesn't take us down,

But it allows us to grow.

People who experience gratitude,

Have a regular practice,

Are healthier physically.

They're healthier psychologically.

They get more restful sleep and they experience less fatigue and burnout.

And one of my favorites,

This is an actual study that they did,

Is they did a study,

An eight week study on heart failure patients.

And they found that heart failure patients who kept a gratitude journal for eight weeks actually showed reduced signs of inflammation in their bodies and in their hearts afterwards.

So it is proving that gratitude isn't just this thing that affects our minds,

But it actually affects our bodies and lives on a physical and on a cellular level.

And this is super powerful,

You guys,

Because this is something that doesn't cost us anything,

That doesn't require us to do anything,

But choose to shift our perspective.

And the thing is,

Is I know that it's easy to be grateful when things are going well in our lives,

Right?

It's super easy to be grateful all the time when things are going well in our lives,

But it's not that easy to be grateful when things are going wrong.

And that's what I want to focus on for us today,

Because in this moment of uncertainty,

In this moment of unrest,

In this moment of doubt and confusion swirling around us,

It's more important now than ever that we anchor into our practices,

That anchor us into the right perspectives so we can learn the lessons that we can need to learn and grow and evolve into the fullness and the freedom of our lives.

So I want to read to you guys just one quick thing from,

And I have my gratitude journal right here.

This is my gratitude journal.

I like to have pretty ones.

My friend Tim had inspired me to start doing gratitude journals again.

And so I've been keeping up with it every night,

But I want to read to you just a quick,

A quick passage from Stay Woke.

So this is from my book and this is on page 206.

And it's about the gratitude practice.

So this is really important.

So I want you to listen carefully here.

It says,

The reason we call it a gratitude practice is because sometimes you have to force it to feel it.

When you write down something you have to be grateful for or express gratitude out loud to a friend,

You allow the energy of gratitude to move through you.

Pay attention to that.

You allow the energy of gratitude to move through you when you express it.

And as gratitude circulates through your body and onto paper or out of your mouth,

The byproduct of gratitude,

Which is happiness,

Will reverberate through your system.

This is especially helpful when life gets tough.

In those moments when we're feeling at our lowest,

We can always turn to gratitude to elevate our mood and change our lives.

What I read that for is because there's a few points that are important to keep in mind,

Okay,

Really,

Really important to keep in mind.

First of all,

Gratitude is a practice and sometimes you have to force it to feel it.

It's a choice.

It's a perspective.

It's a way that we're choosing,

A lens that we are choosing to look at the world.

And as spiritual beings having a human experience,

As people who are here on this planet,

Which I know you are,

That are here to choose growth and here to choose change.

And here to choose love and here to move forward.

We have to choose this,

Especially in the moments when we're lost in the shadow.

And the second thing that I want to make sure I noted to you guys is gratitude is proven scientifically to create happiness.

And people ask the way that this works.

But if you think about it,

Okay,

Like gratitude,

When we express it,

Whether we're talking it to someone,

We're writing it down,

We're thinking about it,

We're praying about it,

We're doing this whole thing.

And I'm going to walk you guys through the four phases of gratitude that I created for you guys.

Is gratitude.

So first of all,

We may not be feeling grateful.

So we have to summon this energy,

Whether it's from God,

The universe,

Whatever you believe,

We have to summon our energy of gratitude and it has to move up and through us.

You guys can't see me.

I'm like my arms are just going up from the root all the way up and through our hearts,

Out through our mouths,

In through our minds and out.

And so we feel the gratitude move through us and what's left inside of our bodies.

Again,

This is the science when the gratitude gets expressed and leaves us.

So the gratitude is for going out.

But what is left over in our bodies is joy,

Is happiness,

Is lessons learned and is a new perspective.

And so this is the power of gratitude.

And,

You know,

We all have a story.

You guys know I like to keep it super real with y'all and keep it as vulnerable as I can with you in this.

And so,

I think about I'll tell you guys.

I don't think I've ever told this story.

I was I was actually had to pause for a moment.

I was like,

Am I going to tell this story?

I'm going to tell the story.

Not because of something to hide.

It's just something that I haven't brought up.

So I remember my first heartbreak.

You guys remember your first heartbreak?

Mine was dramatic,

Y'all.

So dramatic.

So my first heartbreak.

I was in college and I was dating this guy who will remain nameless.

And we were together for a couple of years.

I had come out of the closet.

He was my first serious boyfriend.

And we were together for a couple of years and he was in the closet.

My mom already knows what's coming.

He was in the closet and my family and me and everybody.

He was the first person I brought home for a holiday.

The first person I introduced to my family.

The first everything.

And he was in the closet.

I was the first guy that he was ever with,

Which was already the problem.

And then,

You know,

There was a lot of love being built.

And so we're together for a couple of years.

And I remember just feeling like,

Wow,

I really helped him and,

You know,

Using my authenticity to help him come out.

And I recognize,

You know,

That in that time in my life,

And I don't know if any of you guys relate to this,

I had that moment in my life where I like to save people.

I don't do this no more,

But I like to save people.

I was called upon the people who needed growth and needed healing.

And,

Oh,

You're so this,

Justin,

Like so inspiring.

So heal me.

We don't do that no more around here.

You shouldn't either.

And so,

You know,

It's not that relationships aren't for growth mutually,

But we've got to be careful and set our boundaries.

And so anyway,

I'm trying not to say his name.

So I come home.

Well,

I'll tell you the real story,

OK?

So I get invited to go to one of my friend's birthday parties.

Her name's Megan.

She's a good friend of mine for the last 12 years.

And I leave in a taxi.

This is before there was Uber from UCLA to go to her birthday party.

And I get to the club and I realize that I forgot my ID.

And so my ex-boyfriend,

My boyfriend at the time,

He stayed at my house because he wasn't invited to the party.

It was just like a small party of her close girlfriends.

And I forgot my ID.

So I have to get back in a taxi and I come back to my house,

To my apartment where my boyfriend was waiting for me.

And I walk into the house and I'm like,

What is that noise?

And I walk into my bedroom.

And in my bed,

In my bed,

This man is sleeping with my best friend.

One of my,

Not my best friend,

But one of my closest guy friends together.

Y'all,

I,

Yes.

I didn't just walk in on kissing or anything.

I walked in on the act.

I got snapped.

Y'all,

It was just over,

Game over.

OK.

And so I was so distraught.

I didn't know what I didn't,

I didn't even know how to handle something like that.

I didn't have the capacity to handle something like that.

I know you guys see the comments.

We are spilling tea.

So things happen.

I may have accidentally gotten physical for the first time in my life.

I literally like blacked out,

You know,

No joke.

And I may have had some drinks back then in college,

Too.

And he leaves and I'm just broken into pieces,

You guys,

Like completely broken into pieces.

And I call my baka and I call my mom and my sister,

My sister Jessica,

Who's amazing.

She was like literally getting in her car to drive from the Bay Area to L.

A.

She's like,

Where he at?

I'm going to get him.

I'm like,

Where he at?

So nobody did anything,

But I call my grandma and my grandma.

She actually tells me right then in that moment,

She said,

Be grateful.

And I said,

What?

I remember thinking what?

I'm crying.

She said,

Be grateful because you don't know why this is happening to you right now.

I was getting ready to leave to study abroad and do all these things.

And she said,

There is a reason you found this out.

And this reminds me of this Maya Angelou quote that I love so much.

God put a rainbow in every cloud.

God put a rainbow in every cloud.

And we all have our stories.

We all have these moments in our lives where we have things happen to us and we're just asking why.

Why?

I don't understand how this could happen to me.

We have the cancer diagnoses and the unfair things that happen in our families,

And we have the things that happen in our jobs and things that happen in our lives that hurt us to the core,

That break us down and break us open.

And sometimes we're left asking why.

But we can only be broken open if we turn to gratitude,

If we turn to that power within us and around us that's moving through us and all of us all the time.

That is here showing us that life is not happening to us.

But as Oprah says,

Life is always happening for us.

And this is about our perspective.

This is about us choosing,

Choosing to see things through a different perspective.

And so let me talk to you guys for a moment.

And I know you're thinking of the things in your life.

I want you to even just feel for a moment a challenge that's happening in your life,

Or a moment where you've had to turn to gratitude,

Or a moment where you've had to look back and you realize why something happened.

And I recognize afterwards why that happened.

Check this out.

Y'all,

I was in college,

Hot mess,

Living my best life in WeHo in West Hollywood.

And that moment separated me from my entire group of friends,

Because what happened is the two of them ended up first lying that it happened and saying that I was making it up,

Which I was not making it up.

And then I left to study abroad in Spain.

I came back from Spain.

And though the two of them were together as a couple,

And because I was gone for six months or four months or whatever it was in Spain,

All my friends and them,

They all got along and I was missing.

So I came back to know everything shifted.

And what happened in that moment in my life is I started my business from that separation.

What happened in that moment in my life,

That breakdown,

Is I had my first breakthrough and stepped into my spiritual practice,

And did my first meditation training,

And did my first yoga training,

Because I was trying to find the rainbow in the cloud.

And so in every cloud that we see that comes into our lives,

We have the choice to have the perspective to look for the rainbow in the cloud,

And not just to be sitting there in our shorts and our tank top,

Looking up at the cloud that's raining,

Saying,

Leave!

Why are you here?

Leave!

I want you to leave!

Why is this happening to me?

Leave!

Why is it raining?

And that's what we do when we're not choosing gratitude.

We're yelling at the storm instead of trying to find the rainbow in the clouds.

And this is all about perspective,

Because we create the world around us and our lives based on the power of our perspective,

Both individually and collectively.

And so I want to talk about,

Before I give you the gratitude practice,

What gratitude is not.

Because a lot of times we avoid going to gratitude,

Because we think if we go to gratitude,

Then we're ignoring the things that are wrong,

We're doing this,

So let me talk about what gratitude is not.

And I did this last week for the forgiveness,

And I heard from you guys that it was so helpful,

So I wanted to do it again.

Gratitude does not mean you should always be happy.

It does not mean that at all.

And it does not mean that you stuff down the problems in your life or ignore the things that you need to change.

It means that we have the capacity to not pretend the clouds are not there.

That would just be stupid,

Right?

It'd be like having a storm,

Like I said,

And going outside instead of having your umbrella,

Going outside in your flip-flops and a tank top and shorts and then wondering why you're cold.

We have to see the storm for what it is,

Knowing that there's a rainbow inside of the storm.

This is what these practices have the ability to do to show us the capacity.

So it's not spiritually bypassing our difficult emotions or situations.

And gratitude is also not to be used as a weapon.

And what I mean by that is when somebody comes and tells you that there's something going on in their lives,

You don't say,

Oh,

You should just be grateful.

You should just be grateful that you have this and you should just be grateful that you have that.

No,

No,

No,

No,

No.

There are real things that we have to deal with in our lives.

And we have to face those things head on,

Knowing that if we turn toward our pain,

When we turn toward the storms,

With the spirit of gratitude in our hearts,

Knowing that things are happening for us and not to us,

Then we move through them and not just stuff it down.

Because if we stuff it down,

What happens when you stuff stuff down,

Y'all?

It just ends up seeping back into your life in some place that it doesn't belong.

And this is how we end up in the same cycle,

Same relationship,

Same stuff,

Over and over and over.

Because like I said last week,

What doesn't heal repeats.

What doesn't heal repeats.

And it's going to keep showing up in your life until you change your perspective.

Do you see why I started with this?

It's not reconciliation.

Just because somebody does something to you in your life and you can be grateful for what they taught you.

For example,

My ex,

I could be grateful for what I learned from him for being a sacred teacher in my life.

It doesn't mean that we're best friends now.

It doesn't mean just because I'm grateful for it and I honor it and I know what I learned that now,

OK,

That means we're good.

No,

You can be grateful and still hold people accountable.

Gratitude is not condoning,

Saying what people do is OK.

Gratitude is not forgetting,

Gratitude is not excusing,

Gratitude is not minimizing the hurt and pain you're going through.

And gratitude is not forgiveness.

Last week,

We talked about the power of forgiveness.

And if you guys want to go into that lesson,

Make sure you learn it,

Because it's very clear to understand that sometimes we think that,

Oh,

I'm grateful for it now and I've learned the lesson,

So I've forgiven.

But you all know from last week,

That's not how it works.

That's just more pushing it down.

That's more spiritual bypassing.

So let's continue into the four phases of gratitude and then we're going to get into our practice.

So these are the four phases of gratitude.

So I was looking at all the wisdom teachings.

I have all the little books next to me,

Got every Oprah's book,

My book,

Got all the books.

And I was trying to look at a common thread.

And this is what I try to do here for you guys is to pull together the common thread of all the different wisdom teachings.

And I said,

OK,

What are the four phases of gratitude?

What are the phases that we have to go through?

And this is what I came up with based upon all the teachings that I see in the most simplified way.

I love simplifying things.

Gratitude in,

Gratitude out,

Gratitude up and then letting go.

Gratitude in,

Gratitude out,

Gratitude up and then letting go.

Gratitude in is being grateful for the ways that you've shown up yourself.

We skip this,

Which is easy to be grateful for everyone else and all these other things and all things are going through us.

But we forget to celebrate ourselves and to be grateful that we are choosing to show up for our lives.

And so I always try to be grateful,

Like when I do something that I'm like,

Yes,

I did that.

When I sing,

When I feel nervous or when I do this,

I'm like,

Thank you.

Thank you,

Justin.

Thank you for showing up,

Because it's not just about the practice.

It's about the actions and us showing up.

And so gratitude in is remembering to be grateful for yourself and for the ways that you're showing up for your growth and your transformation and your family and your life.

Because you are choosing to do those things.

That's gratitude in.

So important.

And then there's gratitude out.

Gratitude out.

Actually,

You know what I want to do?

Let's just do this for one moment together.

Close your eyes if you're willing for a moment and let's feel the gratitude in.

So this is not just a concept.

I'm going to weave together our practice right now.

So think of one thing in your life that you have to be grateful for about yourself.

One thing.

How have you shown up for yourself?

How have you shown up for your family?

You can list multiple things if you want,

But at least pick one.

What have you done that you have to be proud of?

We don't celebrate ourselves enough.

So do it right now.

And as you're thinking of that thing,

I want you to tell yourself.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And put your name in it.

Thank you,

Justin.

Thank you,

Christy.

Thank you,

Carol.

Thank you,

Brenda.

Say your name.

And I oftentimes this is what I do.

You guys know I go real woo woo with stuff.

I like to imagine the childhood version of me,

That younger me who always wanted these things to be possible and who can never accomplish those things unless I showed up as the man today to do it.

And so I imagine that childhood version of me just looking at me and saying,

I'm so proud of you.

Thank you.

Thank you for fulfilling our purpose.

Thank you for showing up.

I love this.

You guys see it has never occurred,

Right?

I love this.

A lot of you guys aren't doing the gratitude.

And this is so important.

So let's move to the second one.

So I'm going to explain it and then we'll drop in and do it as a as a practice together.

Second one is the easy one for us.

Gratitude out.

And you can type in your gratitude ends right now if you guys want to type them in the chat box.

I want to see what you guys are grateful for for yourselves.

Let's call it out.

Celebrate yourselves.

And you can celebrate each other in the chat box,

Too,

When you guys are typing it in.

So talk to each other.

All right.

Gratitude out.

Gratitude out is simple.

It's being grateful for the people in your life,

The things in your life,

The things that are showing up in your life that you just have to say thank you for.

And they could be the simplest things.

Like I was so,

So thankful.

I was telling my mom over and over in the car that she came to pick me up from a three hour drive yesterday or that she had food waiting for me when I got home.

You know,

Little little things like this gratitude out.

I love this.

Emily says,

Doing what I'm saying I'm going to do.

Maggie says,

I'm grateful for being so generous with my time and my creative energy.

Ah,

This is amazing.

I'm grateful for the way I take care of myself.

I'm grateful for never giving up.

So let's take a moment to practice gratitude out.

And here's the thing I want you guys to know.

One of the tenets of gratitude,

One of the main takeaways that I want to remember is you can't be too general.

You can't just like,

I'm grateful for my life.

I'm great.

You guys have heard me say I'm grateful for my life.

I'm grateful for my house.

I'm grateful for my job.

I'm grateful for this.

Those get old quick.

You can't change your perspective with that.

You have to be specific.

I'm grateful for this one specific thing that happened,

Not just general.

You have to see it in the micro ways that it's shown up in your life for this to work.

So let's do gratitude out.

Eyes closed if you're willing.

Hands over the heart to release oxytocin into the body.

There's science behind that,

Too.

And think of some things that you have to be grateful for from the outside.

This is where you think of your home or your family.

But don't be that general.

Be specific.

Like,

I'm grateful that I have air conditioning when it's hot outside today,

Like that level of specificity is what's needed.

I'm grateful that I got to talk to so and so on the phone today.

And then let's move to the third step.

Gratitude up.

Gratitude up.

Is giving gratitude to that power greater than us,

Knowing that we wouldn't even be here if it wasn't for that force,

That greater force that is within us and moving through every single one of us at all times.

So gratitude up.

I remember my Baca,

My grandma teaching me this.

My grandma's we call my Baca and my family.

And I remember when I was first starting to make money and first starting to like kind of step up into my career when I was in my early 20s.

And I feel so old when I say that now.

I'm 30.

I'm 32,

By the way,

You guys.

So my early,

Early,

Early 20s.

I remember her talking on the phone and she said,

Don't you ever,

Ever forget where you came from?

And don't you ever forget what's making this possible for you and who is making this possible for you?

Don't you ever think that it's you doing this alone?

And I know that I wouldn't have been able to start the kingdom alone.

I would even have the idea for the kingdom alone.

I would have been able to do anything that I'm doing alone,

Because if it was based on what the world says I'm supposed to do and what society says I'm supposed to do,

And the expectations of what the world says people like us are meant to do,

We wouldn't be here.

We wouldn't be living these lives.

It's a mere every day.

I think this is a miracle.

This is my life is a miracle.

I literally believe I feel so emotional thinking about like my life is a miracle.

That I could grow up in a home with gunshot holes on the outside of my house with all the things that I've dealt with in my life.

And to end up traveling and teaching and speaking,

Being able to speak to all of you and knowing the lessons that I learned.

That was not me.

That was something greater.

And so that's gratitude up.

And sometimes it's not even words.

Sometimes it's just a feeling.

So for a moment.

Close your eyes and give yourself a moment to feel that gratitude up,

Whether it's a prayer or an intention or just a feeling to say thank you.

This is why from day one,

You guys have always heard and this is in my in all of my prayers.

I don't even end them with a man or a hoe or any I end them with thank you.

Because if that's the last thing that I say to spirit from this domain.

And I said the last right thing.

And then the final phase.

Is letting go and letting go is about knowing that no matter what is going on in our lives,

No matter what storms are coming over us,

That there is a power and a force within us and moving through us.

That has a bigger vision and a plan for our life than we can ever,

Ever possibly plan or imagine for ourselves.

And one of the things that I love from Oprah's Wisdom of Sundays book that I have right next to me right now,

I even know what page it's on,

174,

Because I whenever I'm having trouble in my life,

I turn to this page in the book.

And she says,

Know that the divine force at work within all of us has a bigger dream for you than you could ever imagine for yourself.

And success comes when you surrender to that dream and allow it to lead you to the next best place.

There is a force that is moving.

And our job is not to try to push that force to go in a certain direction,

But to change our perspective,

To be in the spirit of gratitude.

I would love to give us a moment to do our power nugget.

This is kind of your golden nugget.

So close your eyes if you're willing.

Hands over the heart.

And if you could pick one thing that you could take away from today's lesson,

Just one thing.

I know you can take away more than that,

But if there was one thing that you wanted to make sure you remembered from today's practice,

What would it be?

Think about it.

It takes about 30 to 45 seconds to commit something into the long term memory.

So think about it,

Think about it,

Think about it.

And then we're 40% more likely to remember something when we wrote it down.

So I invite you guys now to type in your golden nuggets into the chat box so that we can see them and have like a cascade of golden nuggets coming through.

So I'm going to give you guys your power action for today because we did the practice.

And you guys know that I like to give you an action every single time.

And this one is simple.

Okay.

Practice is very simple.

Is to practice one of the four phases of gratitude every day,

Including today.

OK,

The four phases,

Gratitude in,

Gratitude out,

Gratitude up and letting go.

So really the first three.

And what I want you to do specifically.

Is especially if you're doing gratitude out or in is every day this week,

Express gratitude to one person via the phone or text message.

One person,

It could be simple or it could be long every day this week,

And I want you to see what happens in your life.

And I want you guys to report to me how you're feeling.

And the reason I'm doing this is notice how you felt when you were like doing your gratitude in and typing it.

Notice how good that felt.

So even if you're expressing gratitude in text,

Your mom or text,

One of your friends or text say,

I'm so thankful that I did this today or that this happened today or that I showed up in this way today.

Be witnessed in your gratitude in and watch what happens and watch how that affects the person you're sharing it with.

This is how we spread the message.

You guys,

It's not by preaching it,

It's by living it.

And that's how people learn.

So gratitude in,

Gratitude out,

Gratitude up,

Letting go one day,

One time every day this week.

And the reason I'm saying one is because if you try to do five or six or whatever,

Then you'll say,

Well,

I didn't have time.

Y'all got time to express gratitude to one person every single day.

I don't want to hear no excuses.

You have time for one.

OK,

You can use email,

You can use text,

You can use phone.

Yes,

You can use whatever you want.

And if you have any amazing stories that come from this,

Please share them with me.

My team always passes me your stories and I love hearing your stories.

Thank you all for being here at the kingdom.

This is our third week and we're building something incredible.

We have the power to invite people in and to invite people in with our hearts for the sake of coming together and changing the world.

This is not a space for divides.

This is not a space to conflict with our religious practices.

This is a space where we can come together inside of those things,

Inside of all of our beliefs to give thanks and gratitude to that power,

That force that's inside of each and every one of us so that we can step into the calling and the blessing and the gift.

That is this one big,

Glorious,

Magnificent life.

Let's close with our closing intention as we close every week.

Hands over the heart,

Eyes closed.

May you be happy.

May you be free.

And may we always find freedom and peace.

We love you.

So it is.

Ashé,

Aham,

Salaam,

Amen,

Sat Naam,

O.

Thank you.

Thank you.

J'Rin is going to play us out.

I love you.

I thank you.

I honor you.

This has been Justin Michael Williams signing out.

And I'll see you right here in this special place that we're creating together.

I hope you enjoyed this session of the kingdom.

One of the best things that you can do right now is share this session with somebody that you love.

It is only by each of us sharing inspiration in the corners of the world that only we can reach,

That we will rise together.

Thank you so much for joining me for this session of the kingdom.

I'll see you in the next one.

Reviews

Thank you Justin for this wonderful session. My golden nuggets, rainbows in the clouds and to end a prayer or quiet time with ‘Thank you’ 🧡

Gratitude is the lenses that I choose to look at the world through

100 days ago i started my meditation journey with one of your morning meditations. Today, I celebrated my 100 day anniversary with that same morning meditations (several other meditations) and I listened to this talk. Thank you. Gratitude has become something I practice everyday now, something more powerful all the time and it’s crazy how it keeps growing and how my insight keeps growing because of it. Thank you for being part of my journey. ❤️❤️

Gratitude in, gratitude out, gratitude up, letting go. So simple, I love it! Thank you 🙏🏽

🙏🏽🙏🏽🙏🏽🙏🏽

Insightful, honest,inspirational advice filled with love and gratitude

Beautiful as always, i am so grateful to have found you🙏JMW❤️🌈

Fantastic session! Thank you for being so authentic!