Thanksgiving Every Day: How Gratitude Fuels Abundance

In this special Thanksgiving episode of the Investor Evolution podcast, host Kimberly Hoyt explores the profound impact of cultivating a daily gratitude practice. She reflects on her personal journey and shares the science behind gratitude, including its neurochemical effects and physiological benefits. Kimberly offers practical tips for starting and maintaining a gratitude practice, discussing how it can enhance happiness, health, relationships, and overall life satisfaction. Tune in for inspiration on how to deepen your sense of thankfulness and transform ordinary moments into extraordinary blessings.

00:00 Introduction and Thanksgiving Reflection

02:26 The Science Behind Gratitude

04:00 Benefits of Practicing Gratitude

06:21 How to Start a Gratitude Practice

08:28 Deepening Your Gratitude Practice

09:55 Gratitude for Negative Experiences

11:32 Building the Gratitude Muscle

12:48 Conclusion and Final Thoughts

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Transcript

0:15

Hello and welcome to the investor evolution podcast. I'm your host, Kimberly Hoyt thank you so much for joining me today. Today. We're going to. Take a step back from this world of entrepreneurship and really just focus on gratitude. TIS the season. This is the week of Thanksgiving. And. I wanted to take time to reflect a little bit on Thanksgiving and really what this means for us. Thanksgiving really is a time to reflect on our blessings. But if you were cultivating a daily gratitude practice, Then I think you're missing out on the true blessing of thankfulness. Before I really started. This journey of personal development. About three years ago, Thanksgiving was a great holiday. I loved it. I loved the food. And I loved being able to get. Together with family and friends. But it seemed like it would just come and go like. Every other holiday. And during the meal, we may talk about what we were thankful for, but that quickly moved on to. Sitting on the couch, watching football and the inevitable nap from the tryptophan in that good old Turkey. So as I have. Begun creating and crafting my own gratitude practice. Thanksgiving has become. Much more meaningful to me and I get to look back. On a year of gratitude. And a year of things that I have been thankful for and grateful for. And I actually know what those are because I write them down every day. You know, so it isn't just this. Ambiguous. Oh, I'm so grateful for my family, you know, and the things that we are grateful for don't get me wrong. It's not that we're not grateful for them. But it begins to really deepen our relationship with ourselves, with the people in our world and with the life that we're creating. When we have that time to sit down and really reflect on the things that we're grateful for on a daily basis. Now being the nerd, the science nerd that I am, I. I have found it really fascinating to look at the science behind gratitude. And what actually happens. Neurochemically in our brain when we are practicing and expressing gratitude. In our life. So the first thing that happens is dopamine is released. So the pleasure center in our brain releases dopamine, this, gives us a feeling of pleasure, satisfaction. And motivation. And it feels good and you're more motivated to do it all over again. Now as that dopamine flows through the different pathways. It releases. Serotonin. Which helps us feel happy and helps us feel satisfied, which is a great feeling. Uh, it also releases oxytocin. Now in this chemical is what helps us build trust. It's the bonding chemical. Uh, it helps us feel connected to those around us. And it also helps release. nor epinephrin. Now norepinephrine, do you normally think of as our fight or flight, but in, in small amounts norepinephrine helps. Keep you focused and keep you alert. And I think this also helps cultivate. That ability. To, to see things and be more grateful for the things that are in your world and maybe even see them in a way that's positive in a positive light. So with all of these chemicals. And as researchers have studied gratitude, and those who practice gratitude on a regular basis, things that they have found is it improves your happiness. And improves your health. It improves your relationships. It reduces feelings of. Envy materialism. You're just grateful for the things that you have and you feel fulfilled, right? You feel satisfied that serotonin kicks in and you feel satisfied. You don't necessarily need anymore. It can act as a natural antidepressant, you know, one of the, Quotes I love was from Tim Tebow. He was on Ed Mylett's. Podcast and he talked about. You know, when you feel helpless, get helpful. So when you start helping others, that also helps. Improve. Your attitude and your mental state, just as gratitude also helps improve your moods. And, uh, the way you're feeling about things. It just helps you see things from a different perspective. And I think that's really important. So gratitude. Can help. Physiologically. By boosting your immune response, as well as your, inflammatory responses. It decreases cortisol levels. So it decreases your stress response. Again, it boosts your, oxytocin levels, your natural endorphins, uh, which are your natural opioids and your natural pain relievers. it helps decrease your blood pressure and your heart rate. It helps improve your sleep. It can reduce stress, anxiety, and depression, as we've kind of already talked about, it can even improve your sugar control. So when we have this practice of gratitude, when we're actively practicing gratitude, And then we get this neurochemical response. It creates physiological changes, and again, can boost your mood, your immunity, your sleep, decrease your stress levels. It's incredible. What practicing gratitude can do both mentally and physically in your body. So I think that's really cool. Now, as you start practicing gratitude. What, what can you do? How can you do this? You guys have probably all heard this, you know, you can start journaling, do a gratitude journal. This is part of what I do. Uh, write down three things every day that you're grateful for. And when you express gratitude daily as well. Share your thankfulness. Or with others. Uh, especially if they've done something that you're grateful for. Say it share it. Make sure you're not holding it in right. When you have gratitude for something and you don't express it, it's like having a gift, but not giving it to someone. So when you're grateful for something, share that. That blesses you, but it also blesses them as well. When, when you give someone something, it helps them also release serotonin and oxytocin, and that creates that bond and that happiness between the two of you guys. Other things with the gratitude practice. What I was going to say with sharing that gratitude is. Write down your gratitudes and find a battle, buddy, find a accountability partner. Find someone to share this with and share your gratitudes each day with that other person. I think that one creates a level of accountability, so you'll continue to do it, but it's also very fascinating to hear what each other is thankful for. And it gives you an idea of what's going on in their life as well. Other things that you can do. That are simple, small steps to help create, an attitude of gratitude. Throughout your day is simple acts of kindness, opening the door for someone. you know, paying it forward, maybe that's, buying the person's coffee behind you in line, or, sending a message to someone. If someone pops into your brain, send them a message. Hey, just thinking about you. Wanted to say how grateful I am for you, whatever it is, but sending those messages can just create a great feeling in you and for them. Now, one of the things. I have found with this gratitude practice is if you're going to start now, if you haven't been doing this and you start now. There's going to be the obvious things that you're grateful for. You're grateful for your spouse, your kids, your job. Um, your home. Uh, the cars that you drive, all the major things that you have going on in your life. But then what's going to happen. You're going to run out of those things. And you can't say I'm grateful for my husband every day. I mean, you are. Don't get me wrong. You are grateful for them every day. But as you start going past that surface level of the big things that are obvious, that you're grateful for, and you start thinking about the little things. I think this is where that deep sense of satisfaction with your life really starts coming in. When you're grateful for the cool crisp morning. Or you're grateful for. The peace and quiet at night when your kids and everyone is asleep and the house is silent. If you're grateful for just the warm, cozy blanket that you're snuggling up with on the couch. As you start to see all the different things that you're grateful for in your life. The seemingly little things. It really creates. an attitude of awe for the life that you have. And you're like, how could I not be grateful for this? Now, the other thing I think is really important is also. Thinking about the negative things and how you're grateful for those in your life. They may seem negative. But when you think about them from this lens of gratitude, You realize that. You are grateful for them because it helps you see the world in a different way. For example. Maybe. One of the things that I can be grateful for is having an argument with my husband about something stupid. And really realizing like, Is it really worth it for me to get my energy. Level all up on something negative. No. And in the future, that helps me realize, this isn't a fight worth having, let's just, you know, talk about it and move through it. And I don't have to get all aggravated really. Cause it's me. It's me. That's getting aggravated. He's not. Just me. And that helps me be a better wife. Right. So when I can be grateful for those things that seem. Negative or something that I maybe wouldn't be grateful for. Normally it helps me see life from a different perspective. I'm grateful for the job opportunity that fell through last year because of the ability it gave me. And the freedom. It gave me to be able to spend time with my family during a difficult time. Right. So being able to be grateful for the negatives helps me see life. From a different perspective. And a different context and it helps me move forward in a more abundant way. I think it's all about really building this muscle of gratitude. Right. And it takes time. As you begin to dive into this gratitude practice. And it gets stronger as you go. It's going to fulfill your life in different ways. And I. I have found it to be incredibly empowering to me. And every morning when I sit down and think about the different things that I'm grateful for. You know, I run through a list. Oh, I said that yesterday. I said that a couple of days ago, like, and so now I'm building this. Inventory. Of of things that I'm grateful for. And I realize how truly blessed I am. How full. My life really is. And I don't have this feeling of lack. I have this feeling of abundance of fullness in my life. And that just also fuels. My attitude and my ability to see life in a beautiful way, instead of in a negative way. And what we think about we bring about when we think about all the things that we're grateful for, we're going to bring about more gratitude and more things in our life to be grateful for. I'm going to leave you with this. Quote by William Arthur Ward. Gratitude can transform common days into Thanksgivings, turn routine jobs into joy and change ordinary opportunities into blessings. As you begin to cultivate your gratitude practice, maybe you get back to it because you've fallen off of it for a little bit. Or you just deepen the gratitude practices that you're already doing. Remember this quote, that it can really transform your days. Into bigger days and more beautiful days, it can transform the routine into joy. And it can transform the ordinary into incredible blessings. And so I'm going to leave you with that today, as you travel safe travels this week, if you guys are traveling to see family and friends, Or for those that are traveling to you, wishing them safety as they travel. And I just wish you an incredible blessed week this week, full of gratefulness, full of gratitude. Full of all the beautiful experiences of life with your loved ones. All right. Have a great one until next week. Take care.