The Ultimate Gratitude Practice

You've probably been doing gratitude all wrong. Neuroscience has isolated the top gratitude practices that increase mood, decrease stress, and look after our brains. In this session, I want to share all of them with you. If you would like to know more please come check out my course "Your Brain on Gratitude".

Transcript

So in this ultimate gratitude practice we're going to go through some breath work before embarking on each level of gratitude known to science.

The end result is you feeling happy,

Connected and invigorated.

This is best unseated and have a pen and paper or something to take notes on.

It's not your typical meditation so there will be an interactive element.

So we're not just sitting and thinking,

We're sitting and writing.

And when you're ready,

Let's get in to this ultimate gratitude practice.

The first thing I want you to do is sit up nice and tall if you're not already.

Open up that diaphragm,

That belly breathing muscle.

And that's because we're going to start with a round of breath work.

Just one round.

It's going to look like this.

We're going to use forceful exhales through the nostrils.

It's called Kalabhati breathing.

It sounds like this.

That's all you're going to do.

We'll do single speed,

Then double speed.

After one round,

I'm going to ask you to hold your breath and doing the combination of this breathing and that breath hold is going to increase your serotonin,

Giving you the ultimate gratitude start.

So get ready for the Kalabhati breathing in three,

Two and one.

Let's go.

That's it.

Just follow that rhythm.

Follow my breath.

It's like a little workout for that diaphragm.

You can bring some thanks to this body,

To this breath,

This sweet breath that keeps you alive.

All right,

Get ready.

We're going to switch to double speed in three,

In two and one.

Let's go.

Slightly harder now,

But that's okay.

You got this.

Not too long doing this.

If you're starting to sweat,

If you're starting to increase temperature,

That's what we're after.

That's a sympathetic nervous system waking up.

That's your serotonin increasing.

That's your gratitude getting ready to fire.

All right,

Last few breaths.

Then we're going straight into that breath hold on an exhale.

In three,

Two,

One,

Exhale.

Okay,

Just hold your breath.

Let that serotonin just seep into the cells in your body.

Enjoy it.

Embrace it.

Feels good,

Doesn't it?

Okay,

We're going to come into a recovery breath.

Deep inhale and then hold in three,

Two,

One.

Hold your breath.

Just enjoy the sweet new air after that breath hold and we will continue.

Embrace our gratitude practice after your next exhale in three,

In two,

In one.

Well,

There you go.

Serotonin is now truly active in your system.

So let's ride off the back of that and get into these four levels of gratitude.

Step one,

You can open up your eyes.

Now make sure you have something to write on.

Now I suggest having four columns to write in and that's of course because there are four levels,

So one column for each level.

Make sure there's plenty of room so you can see what you're doing.

Level one of this gratitude is our gratitude list.

So in column one,

Write down three things that you're grateful for.

I suggest using the dimensions of health,

Wealth and relationships.

They cover some of the most important aspects of our life.

I'll leave you to write those things down now.

Now if you need more time,

You can always pause whenever you need to,

But I'm going to move on just to keep the gratitude train going.

The first thing I want you to do is close your eyes and imagine your life without each of those things.

Really vividly imagine one at a time for about 30 seconds what your life would be like without each one of those three things on your list.

So close your eyes and imagine life without that first item on your list.

All right,

Start to think about the second item on your list.

Imagine your life vividly without that thing.

Maybe it's a person,

Maybe it's a part of your health.

Just imagine your life without it.

All right,

Last thing,

Bring it to your mind.

Imagine your life without the last item on your list.

Okay,

You can blink the eyes open now if you had them closed.

Look back at your page.

You should have those three things written on your list.

I want you now to imagine the network that goes around each one of those things.

And by network,

I mean what are all the things that make this thing possible.

So for me,

My morning coffee is something I love.

So I think about the plant that makes it.

I think about the people that grow it.

I think about the people that pick it,

That package it,

That get it to me in the store.

I think about the person that stocks the shelves,

The person that is at the checkout when I buy it.

That is the network of things.

So just draw a spider diagram coming off each one of your things,

Just for a few seconds,

Just thinking about the network of each one of those items of gratitude on your list.

All right,

Good.

Let's move on to gratitude level two,

Gratitude in action.

Now building on that list you just wrote of things you're grateful for,

How are you going to exercise your gratitude?

How are you going to take these three elements you wrote down and use them today?

So if you are happy for your health,

How are you going to exercise your health?

If you're happy for your relationship with your brother,

How are you going to exercise that?

Will you just think it or can you call him?

Can you message him?

Can you make a plan to see him?

And when it comes to your wealth,

Is there a way that you can exercise that?

Maybe it's by giving back.

Maybe it's by taking your partner out for dinner.

Write down in this second column how you are going to act out your gratitude for these items.

Okay,

Nice job.

In that same column,

I want you to write down three things that are going to bring you pleasure today.

So three things your day has ahead of you that are going to be enjoyable.

Could be your morning coffee,

Could be your co-worker,

Could be your walk to the station.

Now with this list of pleasures,

I just want you to commit to giving those pleasures all of your attention by giving them all five senses when you come to them in your day ahead.

When you walk,

Enjoy that walk.

Don't listen to a podcast.

Just listen to the world around you.

When you eat that meal,

Focus on that meal.

Don't do other things at the same time.

All right,

You got it.

You got your list of three things that are pleasurable and you got your commitment to give them all your attention when you come to them later.

That is planning your pleasure.

The last thing for level two is to see if you can recruit anyone to enjoy in these pleasurable activities or in your exercising of your gratitude.

So just think for a moment and write down a name of anyone that could join you on any one of these pleasurable things or in your exercising of your gratitude list.

Take a few moments to think about that.

Okay,

Level three gratitude.

What you need to do here is think of a story of gratitude.

It could be a fictional story,

Something like Lord of the Rings when the hobbits get kneeled to by everyone around them.

It could be your own favorite movie.

It may be a song that has a story of gratitude,

A thank you story.

I think of Tupac's Dear Mama.

Anything like that where you witness gratitude,

I want you to think of it just for a moment.

Bring it to mind and just jot down some of the elements of that story.

Who is involved?

How the gratitude is displayed.

This is your second hand gratitude.

Okay,

Still in level three,

I want you now to write down in that same column an annoyance in your life,

A slight struggle and a hardship.

Starting from something just small irritating in your life,

Then something a little bit harder and then something that you could see as a setback or a hardship in your life.

Now just writing these things down is useful in itself,

But we're going to take it a step further in a moment.

Now I want you to think about how each one of these things actually was useful in your life.

And if you can,

Find a way to be grateful for each one of these things.

Tough I know,

But that's why it's level three.

Give that a go for me now.

All right,

Now level four gratitude.

Head over to that last column.

Now level four gratitude is all about receiving gratitude and I can't manifest this from thin air for you.

What I want you to do though is set in motion the things that make it likely that you would receive gratitude from someone.

Think about some things that you could do for someone else today.

Give it a compliment to a stranger.

Could you bring your partner some flowers?

Could you take your friend out for coffee?

Just think of the day ahead of you and any opportunities you have to help someone.

I want you to prime your brain to see the opportunity to help today.

Just jot down any ideas you might have to do that.

Okay,

That is you gratitude ready my friend.

Go show the world how grateful you are in your words,

Your actions,

Your thoughts and your generosity.

Good luck out there.

Namaste.

Now before you go,

I just want to let you know there's a whole course dedicated to the subject of gratitude and the neuroscience behind it.

It's called Your Brain on Gratitude and you can go check it out right now under my courses.

I hope to see you in there.

Reviews

☮️🙏❤️😁

Great way to do gratitude in so many forms.

What a glorious meditation. If felt like a whole course in just 15 minutes. Thank you for this. I have been going through a rough patch and needed a shift in perspective and a boost to my gratitude and joy attitudes. This has got me back on track to face the challenges of today with joy, grace, and gratitude. Thank you 🙏🙏