043: The REAL Benefits of Gratitude

Welcome back to The Strong Bones Coach Podcast with Carly! 

This week, we celebrate a milestone of over 2,000 downloads and dive into the powerful practice of gratitude. 

Gratitude is more than a buzzword; it’s a transformative mindfulness practice that can significantly enhance your well-being and support your physical health. 

Join Carly as she shares practical tips for integrating gratitude into your daily life and discusses its impact on your body, mind, and bones.

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If you'd like to get in touch to ask a question about today's episode or to find out how you can get support from my coaching, reach out on the following links:

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Transcript

Carly: 0:37

Hello and welcome back to the Strong Bones Coach podcast with me your host Carly. This week I'm feeling incredibly grateful as we have just hit over 2000 downloads of the Strong Bones Coach podcast. Thank you so much for your time and your energy for listening to what I have to say and for supporting my mission to help as many people as possible live long, strong, vibrant, and fracture free lives. So today's episode is going to be all about gratitude, And not just because of passing some arbitrary threshold, even though your listens are so much appreciated, but it is something that has come up in many conversations with my clients and others in my world just recently. So I want to explore how we can experience gratitude on that deeper level. Now gratitude has become a bit of a buzzword. And if you're around the same phase of life as me, you might remember being told to mind your P's and Q's whilst you were growing up. Whilst that's not a bad thing, it can make the idea of gratitude practices seem like another one of those tick box exercises on your to do list. But there is a real benefit to genuine gratitude practices and supported by studies from mindfulness as well. Gratitude is one of many mindfulness practices alongside mindful breathing, movement, mindful eating. Um, slightly different from that feeling of thankfulness, which is a feeling, gratitude is an action and it has the potential to enhance our well being, which in turn has a positive impact on our physical bodies too. So what does gratitude actually look like? Well, gratitude is synonymous with appreciation, acknowledgement, respect. What words come up for you when we talk about gratitude? I would love to know. It can help us feel positive about things, the circumstances and people in our lives by focusing on what makes us happy. And the root of gratitude very much like mindfulness is kindness. Now there is no wrong way to practice gratitude. It is a form of mindfulness that enables us to be present with the feelings and sensations. of what's good in our life. And let's face it, we can't truly appreciate anything unless we are fully present with it. And this is the root of one of the many benefits to having a gratitude practice. Here are a few ways that we might be able to practice gratitude. Of course, this list is not exhaustive, but for those of you that may struggle a little bit to develop this, to see how this could be helpful, perhaps this is new to you, or perhaps you have tried to implement this within your life and are struggling to keep that going. I know there have been plenty of times throughout my life where I've had a wonderful gratitude practice that's brought me a lot of joy. And then it has felt tick box at times. Maybe at times when I'm feeling a little bit stagnant in life or having a few struggles that aren't too great, but my life's just felt a little bit meh. I've had those struggles with finding the gratitude in the daily life as well. So here's a few ways that you can start to capture those moments of gratitude. You could, start a gratitude journal. So quite often we may choose to do this each night before we go to sleep, just to write down one thing from the day that brought you joy, or something that you feel grateful for. The more specific you are, the better, and remember, sometimes it is just those ordinary things that can truly become extraordinary when we give them the proper attention and appreciation that they deserve. It can be as simple as seeing or hearing a lovely bird. It can be a kind exchange from a stranger or from someone you love. It can be the realization of knowing that if you're here listening to a podcast, that you have access to music, a phone, technology that is here to make life that little bit easier. So I certainly invite you to take that moment to see What would you put in a gratitude journal if you were to start one? And while we're here, just a quick note on journaling. Remember, if every day feels too much for you, or you notice that the pretty journal has gone unnoticed for a few days, don't let this stop you from restarting it again. There is no perfect way to do a journal. You use it when it's helpful. It may fall off a little when life gets busier or your attention goes elsewhere. But there's nothing to say you can't come back to it as and when needed. So remember, it's not about being perfect. It's about what's helpful for you. Another way we can integrate gratitude into our lives, is to give thanks. To be truly intentional with your appreciation of those you interact with each day. So make your thank you special and specific. Instead of a simple thanks, try something like Thank you for holding the door. I appreciate your thoughtfulness. Maybe this feels a little silly to start with. Perhaps it doesn't need to be those exact words, but this not only adds value to whoever is receiving the thanks, but it also helps condition your mind to see those positives a little bit more abundantly. And for those that love a process, there is a way that we can start to Notice gratitude a little bit more easily in our lives, especially if you find this a bit more challenging, or if you find yourself stuck on the same couple of things each day. So that is to recognize, acknowledge, appreciate, and share. It's a bit like a four step process. And it's a great practice to add throughout your day. So you can recognize something good in the world. Acknowledge that what is good in your own world and how this plays out for you, how it adds value. Appreciate those things and then share with others. Sharing your positive thoughts and outlook can sow seeds of gratitude throughout everybody you meet or everyone throughout your community. You never know what ripple effect that can be taking place through this very small and simple thing. next there's something important that I think we do need to address, and that is our experience of gratitude as toxic positivity. It can be too easy to brush off challenging situations, and to feel like gratitude is just papering over the cracks of some genuine struggles in life. So let's cover gratitude in challenging times. Now, gratitude doesn't need to be a form of toxic positivity. In fact, it's the opposite. It's important that we don't ignore those times when we are challenged. In fact, some of my most profound feelings of gratitude have come during the most difficult experiences of my life. Seeing those glimmers of hope, those small things we can be grateful for, can be enhanced or perhaps easier to see during those dark times. The gratitude can really help us find those moments of light, even when things are tough. And perhaps the more we choose to practice gratitude on a daily basis, on those, on those more average, mundane types of days, the better able we will be to see those glimmers when we are finding things hard. As we move on, let's not ignore the experience of receiving gratitude. Now I don't hear people talk about this very often, so I'm going to say it. How many times have you done something nice, purely for the joy of doing it, or from a genuine place of helping and kindness, only to feel uncomfortable when met with a sincere thank you or act of appreciation? No judgment here. I've been there squirming plenty of times. But I do make more of a point these days to receive that genuine thanks in the spirit it is offered. It says a lot about ourselves when we struggle to receive gratitude, praise, appreciation. So if you are recognizing yourself here, I see you. Please do not judge yourself and offer yourself that compassion for all those times when you have perhaps brushed off the gratitude, or those feelings of praise, and just know that this is something you can work on going forward. It does feel so much better to be, to give gratitude when you're also able to truly receive it too. So what could we be grateful for? Perhaps I can give you some ideas, of course, as I mentioned earlier, not an exhausted list, but perhaps this can inspire you to get started on the road towards a more mindful attitude to gratitude. So let's go through a few of these things that might be helpful for you, no matter where you are in life. We may be able to offer gratitude or appreciate our body, perhaps a feeling of a smile as it appears on our face, the feeling of a morning stretch or that stretch at your desk at lunchtime, the ability to take a deep breath if that's something that's available to you. We can easily take these things for granted. We can also appreciate and be gratitude for our mind. The amazing things it can do. And yes, it might take us to places we don't want at times, into overthinking, into anxiety, but it's also capable of some amazing and wonderful things. The ability to learn something new, something that I'm a big fan of, for those of you that are regular listeners, to create and appreciate art, music, each other, good conversations. I always feel extra warm and fuzzy when I've had a really deep, Decent conversation, even with a stranger. So that is one of my gratitude practices at times when those things happen for me. Perhaps we can be grateful for our home, where we live. If we have a roof over our head, it keeps us dry and warm. Perhaps we appreciate our home on a different level. It has our favorite things in there. Perhaps it houses people that we love. Perhaps it's a snooze button on the alarm clock, or perhaps that's something we want to hit a bit less often, but that's not what this episode is about. Appreciating a home cooked meal, the time that we have to be able to prepare that, who we might prepare it with. Of course, there is our community, our friends, family, friends that feel like family, our found family, if you like. I know we foster a lot of this within our Strong Bones Club. It really does feel like a strong community of women at all stages of perimenopause and menopause. And they really have become very much like family to each other, but also to me too. And of course, there are those simple acts of kindness towards strangers. These things don't go unnoticed over time. And you may also benefit yourself just from being able to offer out that positive act into the world. And finally, the appreciation and gratitude for our world. Now we might be exposed to various bits of news that don't feel so good, but there truly are some wonderful things around aren't there? the beauty and the diversity of nature, being able to watch a sunrise or a moonrise, knowing that we have an opening and a closing of each day with different opportunities to offer us. Perhaps even the feeling of fresh air on your skin as if it's the world breathing with you. So I hope you found that helpful today. And my final thoughts to leave you with is that gratitude is a powerful tool that can enhance our well being and help us navigate life's challenges. It's about appreciating the small moments and experiencing life on a deeper level. So before we wrap up, I invite you to take a moment today to note down what you feel grateful for. Or perhaps end your day with a moment of reflection to allow you to do this. Thank you for joining me on this episode today. And if you would like to share your thoughts with me, I'll just say, hi, feel free to email me on hello at CarlyKillenCoaching. com or catch up with me on Instagram. I'm the Strong Bones Coach. me again this week. Until next week, stay strong, take care.