3 Unconventional Ways to Show Gratitude

Join me as we dive into three creative and meaningful ways to express gratitude that go far beyond the usual thank-yous. This episode is all about capturing the essence of life’s treasured moments—whether joyful or challenging. Reflect on your own experiences as we explore unconventional approaches to showing appreciation that foster deeper connections and make gratitude a part of your everyday life. 

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:30

Hello and welcome to the Cameo Show. I'm your host, cameo, and thank you so much for being here, whether it's your first time joining or you've been here for many of the 90-plus episodes. At this point, I am so grateful to have you, and that's what today is all about gratitude, but with a twist, because we talk about gratitude a lot on this show and in everyday life and you hear people talking about being grateful for the things that you have and the things that you get to do and changing your perspective. But today we're going to twist it from the usual thank yous and gratitude moments and way of expressing that to three unconventional ways of showing that you care. Showing that you're grateful that leave a lasting impact on the people that you care about. Showing that you're grateful that leave a lasting impact on the people that you care about. These ideas are heartfelt, they're creative and, more importantly, they're a little more on the personal side. So let's jump right in, shall we? The first unconventional way of being grateful that I want to lead with is something that is called a gratitude time capsule. I want you to imagine that you have a small box or an envelope that you're going to fill with photos or trinkets, or notes or mementos that you can come back to at a time in the future. This might be a moment when it's easy to find gratitude in sharing an experience with someone, or when you're surrounded by love and the people that you love, but it also might be a moment that is challenging, when you're grieving someone or something and it might feel like the wrong time to be saving things that you'll come back to. But what I want you to keep in mind is that each one of these moments good or bad in the moment later have impacted your life in a way that you may not know how yet, that you can go back to with this time capsule that you've created for yourself, that you've captured now, next week, next month, however many times you want to do this, that you can open up at a time in the future and reflect upon that moment. So, whether that moment is your birthday or your child's 18th birthday or a holiday, when you open that envelope, it brings forth a certain quality that maybe, again, you aren't able to find gratitude in right now, but you're preserving so that at a time in the future, you're reminded of how far you've come or how resilient you were, or how beautiful those moments were. It preserves the quality of that memory.

Speaker 1: 3:03

So I have a box that I didn't really know I was doing as a gratitude time capsule at the time, but when our son Ben was born at 24 weeks, he was 16 weeks early. He was a pound six ounces. It was a very turbulent, challenging, unknown period of time. It wasn't a moment where every day felt awesome and I was reflecting with gratitude. I was clinging to survival, his survival, many of the days that we were in the NICU, unsure what the outcome was going to be. But along the way I filled this box with all of his tiny little blood pressure sleeves or these teensy, teensy little diapers that he swam in because he was so tiny, like the size of a playing card.

Speaker 1: 3:49

So I filled this box with all of these random things, along with pictures, along with notes, a journal that I kept, and I didn't know at the time that someday, many days in the future, I would look back and open that up as if nothing it was a time capsule and find gratitude and all of those moments and for the people that were involved in those moments and the memories that were created in those moments, the moments of the time that I didn't feel like celebrating, necessarily, but that I kept. So this idea of a gratitude time capsule comes up because I unknowingly created one for myself that I go back to at random times, usually, honestly, when we're cleaning out the garage and we're going through boxes of storage to make sure we're only keeping the things that we really should be. But we go through this and other things that I've kept over the years that take me back to the essence of that moment and do just what I said show us how resilient we were, how lucky we are to have him, how grateful we are for the people that were involved and our daughter, her cute little four-year-old self at the time. So take your box, place meaningful things that you're experiencing in this moment to preserve it. Seal it up for a date in the future, date it, pick a milestone or even a time when you need to open it. So maybe a time when you're feeling like you're a failure and you really need something to remind you to focus on gratitude, and put it somewhere that you'll remember where it is, so that you can open it up and relive the gratitude in those moments. Imagine opening that box a year from now or 18 years from now, when your child is graduating high school, whatever the case may be. So that's idea number one.

Speaker 1: 5:36

Okay, idea number two is a gratitude letter. Now, I'm not talking about an in-the-moment thank you card. I'm not talking about an email that says, hey, thank you for this gift, or it was great seeing you, I'm so grateful to have you in my life. Those are like in real time and those are great too. So definitely do those.

Speaker 1: 5:53

But the gratitude letter that I'm referring to is something a little different. We all have those moments when we're doing something and we're like, oh my gosh, my grandma taught me to do this, or oh my gosh. I remember this moment in high school when my coach said this to me and it really made an impact on me. Maybe at the time we didn't recognize that those were such special moments. Maybe we didn't express our gratitude or how thankful we were for that person to be in our life or what they had extended to us. The gratitude letter comes in here when you think, oh my gosh, my coach told me that in high school and it made such an impact on the way that I view things high school, and it made such an impact on the way that I view things.

Speaker 1: 6:33

I want you to grab a piece of paper or a thank you card or another type of card, whatever it is that you feel called to, but in that moment I want you to grab that item and I want you to write a thank you, a heartfelt thank you, to that person. It doesn't matter if it was 20 years ago. It could be someone who is no longer living. The simple act of writing it down, expressing your gratitude in that way, in those moments that are really meaningful to you, not just moments when you feel like you're supposed to say you're thankful or that you're grateful for something, but the moments that really, really touch you, that have sculpted who you are as a person. Those are the moments that I'm talking about.

Speaker 1: 7:14

To write that letter and you know what else that could also include to yourself, if you think back on a memory where you feel really grateful for the decisions that you made or for the tenacity that you were able to show, or the courage, write that down, seal that in. It's a special moment, and when you write things down, they really become real, and I know that sounds hokey and crazy, but sometimes there's so much going on and everyone's so busy, there's so much floating around in our head and we think we've said we're thankful for that or we think we've expressed our gratitude. Write them down, and the bonus is if you actually send it. So I've mentioned the time capsule that I made, unknowingly, when our son was in the hospital as a preemie, a micro preemie, and I have made mention of the nurses that were there that we're so grateful for in our life. I should take the time right now, take my own advice, to write them a letter, send it to them, because they really made an impact in our life in ways that they may not even realize. You know, to them they're just doing their job, they're angels on earth, man, but to us they're a huge part of our story that I'm immensely grateful for that. Maybe in those moments I didn't have the capacity to express.

Speaker 1: 8:34

Number two gratitude letter deep, deep gratitude letters. And the next idea, number three, is a gratitude web. Now, hang with me on this one too, because it can be a little confusing as I'm describing it, but this web is maybe a text strand with a group of your closest girlfriends, or it's possibly with your family members, or maybe your coworkers. Maybe it's an email chain with colleagues. What I want you to do I mean you could even go old school, do letters if you wanted to, like pen pal stuff but what I want you to do in these text strands is start it. First of all, you're the one listening, so you're going to be the one to start it.

Speaker 1: 9:14

Of course, you're going to want to detail this to them so they understand exactly what you're going for here, but send a message directly to one of the people in the group thanking them for something that they've done in the past that has impacted you. With the dot dot dot, pass it on. That person who received that message from you of something that you were grateful for them about, is now to pick somebody else in the group and say something that they're grateful for them about, maybe a moment where they were strong for them, or a moment where you were celebrated because you had successfully achieved something and they were there cheering for you. Whatever the case may be, send a message to someone in that group expressing your gratitude for something that they've done for you that has made an impact on you that they may or may not know about, and then dot dot dot pass it on from one person to the next, and the idea is that it creates this endless web that nobody gets missed and everybody kind of circles back and everyone is reached, and that never has to end. It can continue. It doesn't have to be like all in one day everybody nails it and then you move on.

Speaker 1: 10:21

It could be weeks that you revisit that or that something new happens or that you remember something and it brings you joy and you feel gratitude and feel compelled to send it, and you've established this strand or this email chain that has involved everyone, where you start a new one even better. You've got multiples going on and it creates this web of gratitude and it's contagious and then, without having something prompt you or feeling like you have to, or looking for a reason to be grateful or to change your perspective, it's just kind of happening in your world and that's the energy that you're bringing to this life. Perhaps you could even do it at the table when you're having a family dinner or dinner with coworkers, or you know this week that this is airing, it's Thanksgiving, so maybe at your Thanksgiving table when gratitude is all the focus. But there you have it Three unconventional gratitude practices, ideas that radiate out into the world the gratitude time capsule, the gratitude letter and the gratitude web. Remember, gratitude isn't just a buzzword, it's not just seasonal, it's a way of life and you deserve it and the people around you deserve it.

Speaker 1: 11:36

So if you give one of these a try, let me know how it goes. You can text the show, you can send me an email, you can go to my Instagram and send me a DM. It's all at cameo Elise Braun or cameo Elise Brauncom. I would love to hear from you. It's really exciting to get a message from one of you and know that it has impacted your life. So I'm not saying add me to like the gratitude letter or anything, but maybe, maybe you will. Anyway, thank you so much for tuning into the cameo show. I hope you have health in your body, peace in your mind and love in your heart until next time.