Transform Your Life with This Simple Morning Gratitude Practice

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Are you ready? Let's go. Hello, my beautiful friend, and happy Thanksgiving week. Today, I want to share a really special episode with you. I'm going to be sharing my really simple one minute gratitude practice. And this will change your life if you do it. I know I say that about everything, but it's kind of true.

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So when I was 17, right after I graduated high school, I went and I spent the summer volunteering deep in the Amazon rainforest. And I was living in a village that took us two days to reach by boat. And. It was remote, like there was no running water, not even a well, there was no electricity, no bathroom, no kitchen, nada.

In fact, I didn't even sleep inside. I slept outside in a hammock all summer. We carried water from the river to bathe and then we would filter it to drink and um, even to use the bathroom, I used a little shovel and nature. Yeah, it was that, it was that remote. It was the most amazing experience of my life.

interesting. When I got back [: 00:02:00

And it wasn't just gratitude, it was like wonder because I thought the amount of visioning and engineering and planning and people that had to work together to make it possible for me to just. Go into the bathroom and turn on a faucet and get hot water anytime I wanted blew my fucking mind Like I was such in a state of awe and you might not think about this But if you ever spent a whole summer with no water, you would I promise you would definitely think about it And before I went to live in Brazil, I never thought about electricity.

ok everything for granted. I [: 00:03:00

And I feel this like wave of gratitude and amazement wash over me. So one morning, shortly after this, I wake up feeling incredibly grateful for like my warm, cozy bed. Cause remember I was sleeping in a hammock outside with the mosquitoes all summer long. So this feeling of gratitude just kept washing over me.

And the more I leaned into that feeling, the more profound it became. I thought about all those people that I met in the village who had a, limited mobility. And right in my bed, I started like wiggling my toes and my fingers. And I was just overwhelmed with this gratitude for my functioning body. And then from there, it just expanded.

and the safety of my, of the [: 00:04:00

And I could feel it. I could feel the difference. And this practice or variations of it have stuck with me for many, many years. And Now, it's the very first thing I do when I wake up in the morning. So like every morning, the first thing I do when I realize I'm awake, before I even open my eyes, I'll say like, Oh, I'm awake again.

And I wiggle my toes and I wiggle my fingers and I move my legs and I think about how grateful I am to have mobility. And this is something that's really important to me because I have people in my life who are paralyzed. So having this mobility is I don't ever take it for granted, but in the morning when I'm doing this, I don't just think about my toes.

iggling my toes and fingers, [: 00:05:00

Now here's why it's important that I do this practice before I even open my eyes. I didn't know this back then, like this was way before I understood neuroscience and brain states and all that stuff. So I didn't know what I was doing, but now I do know why it's important. You see, in those first moments of wakefulness, your brain is still in the theta state, and that's the same state where like deep meditation and programming happens.

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So in this state, you can still access your subconscious and the science behind why you would start your day this way is really fascinating because when you practice gratitude in this state, you're literally programming your neural pathways. You're setting up your reticular activating system and that's a part of your brain that filters information.

I've talked about the RAS on other episodes, but it's really important. It's like the colander of your brain and it filters information to look for more things to be grateful for throughout the day. It's almost like installing a gratitude filter for the first thing in the morning. And this is where most people mess up their gratitude practice.

I have to say, they wait until they're fully awake, sitting at their desk with their coffee and maybe their gratitude journal. And then they're, they're going to try and like list off the things that they're grateful for. But here's the thing. By then your brain is already in the beta state. You're fully in analytical mode.

right? Like, Oh, I promised [: 00:07:00

All kinds of things have gone through your brain at that point. And especially, this is really especially important for us women, because we can be fucking hard on ourselves, especially first thing in the morning. How can you feel genuinely grateful for your body when you've already spent 20 minutes picking it apart in the mirror?

Looking at your wrinkles and all the things, right? That's why this practice is the most powerful when it's done before you even open your eyes, before that nasty self criticism can creep in. That's when you can connect with that pure gratitude for your body's incredible abilities, like so incredible.

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And I was like, yes, that's exactly what it's like, only it's better because it doesn't burn like tequila, but it's that feeling of just washing over your entire body. That's what it feels like when you enter into that gratitude state or when you [00:09:00] enter into the emotional state. So again, this is a completely different method than gratitude journaling.

And don't get me wrong. Journaling has its place. It's really important. But here's the thing. Writing down, I'm grateful for my family in your journal is not the same as feeling that wave of gratitude wash over your entire body. When you think about your loved ones and how much, how important they are to you and how much you love them.

That's what we're going for. We're going for that tequila shot, right? The full body experience. And here's another mistake people make. They just rush through their gratitude practice like it's a to do list. And for many people, it actually is on their to do list. That's one thing that they want to do every day, right?

life, the kind that changes [: 00:10:00

It's an emotional experience. It's a whole body sensory like world that you enter. When I do this in the morning and I wiggle my toes and my fingers. I'm not just thinking, thanks for my body. I'm entering the state where I'm feeling the absolute wonder and the miracle that my body is functioning. I'm experiencing the joy and the gift of mobility.

That's the difference between gratitude as practice and gratitude as transformation. So tomorrow morning when you first wake up, again, this is a perfect week to do this because it's Thanksgiving week, everyone's thinking about what they're grateful for, but I don't want you to just think about it before you open your eyes and you reach for your phone.

There are so many people who [: 00:11:00

Start with the simplest things. It can be your bed, your heart beating, your pillow, and just let it expand through your entire body. This is not about making lists or checking boxes. It's about experiencing gratitude in the magical theta state when your mind is most receptive. And here's what I promise you.

If you make this your morning practice, if you truly embody this feeling of gratitude before you even open your eyes and your feet hit the floor, you will start to see shifts in your life. that will amaze you. And it happens pretty fast. Gratitude isn't just about making lists of things you're grateful for.

rt your day off this way, it [: 00:12:00