Whole-Body Gratitude 2/4: Gratitude Habit Inspo (feat. Jenna Zint)

In part two of this interview, we're hearing different forms of Jenna's gratitude habits, and we're noticing which forms of hearing about her gratitude give us the most benefits. Pull up a chair. I know you're going to get some good inspiration from this one!

SHOW NOTES

Episode 1 in the "Whole-Body Gratitude" series.

CONNECT WITH JENNA

Instagram: @jennazint

Habit Lab podcast

Marriage Lab podcast with Jenna & Aaron Zint

Schedule a coaching session here.

Benefit from her teaching gifts by purchasing one of her e-courses here.

"Grateful" song by Saint Finnikin

"Essentials: The Science of Gratitude and How to Build a Gratitude Practice" on The Huberman Lab podcast.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01: 0:00

We're back again for the month of November talking about whole body gratitude. We'll be get into our conversation with Jenna in just a moment, but today we're gonna focus on her gratitude practices, and I am bringing these to you as inspiration, not as a prescriptive do this, this, and this, and then you will feel grateful. But more importantly, it is a chance for you to get some inspiration hearing what others are doing, and there's an interesting twist at the end, so I want you to pay attention as you're listening to her practices and notice what's going on in your own heart and body. Pull up a chair. Hello to all my faithful listeners. I just wanted to jump in real quick and let you know that in practicing learning how to do a podcast with two people, I have learned a lot, which includes sound. So I know that the sound is a little wonky in places in this interview, and I just wanted to let you guys know up front, hang with me. We are trying really hard to give you the best listening experience possible, and there was just some places that we could not fix. Thanks so much. Welcome back to the mentors table. My name is Joy, and I am your host here. And this week, along with the rest of November, I will actually be not just hosting and teaching you, but interviewing Jenna Zint, who is my current life coach and has helped me through a really full and powerful healing journey over the last year and a half. And I'm looking forward to continuing to allow you guys to hear from her and learn from her wisdom and get a little bit of a view into what she is all about. Before we start, I wanted to take a minute to be silent and to allow our bodies to rest and not just rest but really to focus. So let's focus on where our hearts and minds and bodies are right now. Let's take a deep breath in and let it out. Notice where your feet are on the floor, put them flat on the floor, let them sink heavy into the floor. If you're sitting, notice where your legs are, where your waist is, relax your belly, relax your shoulders, relax your neck, open your hands and surrender to God. Take another deep breath in. As we learn from you today, we love you so much. We thank you for this opportunity to hear and be present. One more breath in. This week we're gonna jump back in and hear some of Jenna's practices. And again, we're not here to be prescriptive in the sense of if you do X, Y, and Z, then you will have a grateful life. Instead, I would love for you to allow her stories to inspire you and give you ideas. So let's jump back in, pull up a chair, and listen to more of my interview with Jenna. Jenna, could you tell us a little bit about what your gratitude habits look like right now?

SPEAKER_00: 4:22

Yeah. So in this current season, um, so I have like a little playlist on my phone when I do my morning habit with the Lord that before I like read, I kind of I'm more relational, so I need to kind of wake up and emotionally connect before if I jump straight into the Bible, I'll read the reads, you know, read the words, read the reads, new words. But I won't maybe um like connect or it won't stick. So I kind of do a little bit like music helps me first. And for a couple of years now, I've uh had my first song has been a gratitude habit. And there's been various ones. Um, there's one by Stephanie Gretzinger that's like, no one has ever loved me like Jesus. And that just kind of made me think of I would like purposely, like almost like think through the ways that the Lord's shown up for me in past seasons. And it was almost like as I was waiting for things like holding the two tensions for him to come through in some of the areas that we need to break through now, as I thought about how he had like the gratitude for who he's been also fed my faith for the areas I was still waiting for breakthrough. So that was one past season. Now I have this song. It's called uh Grateful. Maybe I'll send you the link in case people want it. It's by Saint Finnican. I'm not sure. I think he's from another country, but um, and it's really simple and it's like grateful that I woke up again, grateful that my I can feel my toes on the ground, grateful that I have breath in my lungs. And it's kind of interesting, but I actually have gone through it because I realized in one season where I had a business that closed, um, we were financially in a really tight spot. Um, I think there's like one other thing. It was like one of the hardest, lowest seasons of my life. And when I was trying to dig, I was like, I don't know what I can be grateful for because there's so much hard on my horizon. Like, where is the gratefulness? And it was at that season the Lord just reminded me that there's so many people around me who have chronic pain. And I was like, you're taking it, and that was the first start, but I was like, there's so many things that we take for granted that we forget that we can be grateful because it's just our baseline. So whether that's your health, maybe it's not your health, maybe it's that you have a lot of people that love you, maybe it's your finances. Like almost how the thing we uh take for granted, we forget that it should be their base for gratitude. So for that song right now in the morning, I start and I think about how much that is true. Um, and the beautiful part is of I've done that, it makes me then it bleeds or it sets my mind into looking for gratitude in the small things that I would maybe just take for granted. It makes me notice. It almost feels like I collect gratitude the rest of the day starting there, but it's really simple. It's like a three-minute habit. And then oftentimes if I'm in different seasons where maybe I'm in painful parts of relationships or feel resentful or bitterness, I'll actually think about that person. So maybe I'll dedicate a week to someone that I'm working through something with because I don't want my pain to eclipse how I see them. And it makes it a fuller picture of who they are. So that's one of my backups with like if I'm working through someone with some, I'll actually go through and to give an example with my husband, like when that season, what I would do with gratitude. So whether, you know, like I said, start with some about my body and what's in my life, and then maybe I usually think to one other person. Um, I'll think of something in the last 24 hours that was super small that I feel grateful for. So um the last one I can remember is that he and I I actually try to find really small things because if you look too big, you're like, there's that's kind of not the point. It's like the noticing the coins on the ground kind of mindset shift of gratitude. Um I was like, oh, he was on YouTube with my daughter looking up strategies for the spelling bee at breakfast time. And I'm like, okay, cool. Like if I just were to stop there, like if that was just the list mentality, if that's my thing, I wouldn't get much of an emotional release from that. So I then asked myself, like, okay, why are we grateful? What does that say about his character? This has actually been a game changer. So outside of the gratitude, I'm like, what does that say about his character that I'm benefiting from? And then I'm like, oh, he is a thoughtful dad. Oh, he actually heard her nervousness and he wanted to take care of her by giving her some strategies. Oh, he stopped his own morning routine because he wants to be moved by what moves his daughter's heart. And I do you see how I like this is what I mean by chewing? I'm like, what does it say to be true about him? And then I get a couple things that I'm like, how do I benefit from that strength in him? Like when I make them about people's identities, not just their actions, that's when this like true burst, it's like it explodes, you know, like a gusher. Do you remember the 90s gushers that have a juicy center when you bit them? That's what it feels like. I'm like, oh yeah. So when I go to like, what does it say to be true about him, who he has as a person, and then how do I benefit from that? I actually feel it almost is like writing them a love song. And then oftentimes I'll voice memo or send the person. I don't do it religiously because I have to make sure I'm not doing it for that point, you know? Like it's a lot of times it's just for my benefit, you know, to change my have a fuller picture of who they are. Um, but then what's been cool, Joy, is that I realize I do this about the Lord too. And this is how I experience gratitude leading to worship because I'm like, oh, I'm so glad my kids go to a a school where there are a lot of parents who are on staff. And if I stopped there, it would be very shallow. But I'm like, why is that helpful? How does that benefit them? And I'm maybe I'd say, um, this is actually a real life one the other day. I was like, oh, because the parents care more or they're highly invested and they want the culture to reflect like what they want their kids into be, and then they're texting me about different things, or they they have a maternal instinct rather than a nine to five clock in. And then I go to, and it's a public school, what a blessing. We could have had way more. And like, Lord, you set us it naturally progresses from the to me see the Lord's care for how much this person is meeting a need or used as an instrument or put in my life, and then it ends it to literally like you care so much about the details of my life that I never purposely set out to make my gratitudes end in worship. But how often when you see what it reflects, like that person, that gift, that incident reflects the care of a father who's like so in the details. Like I I get moved to worship accidentally often because I'm like, wow, you really care. Like, what else? And then it sets me like, what else am I gonna experience today? Like your fingerprints on my day that I would have, if I wasn't purposely starting the day with noticing the gratitude I'd blow past and just be in the hustle of busy and miss. Or I think that's it's made me slow down enough to see the fingerprints of a dad who's in all the details and cares about the little things. It's almost like a love story in the day for me as I notice as I shift my perspective.

SPEAKER_01: 10:42

I love that. Okay. Some questions about some like specifics with this. So with your song gratitude's habit. I had a really hard time with that. Do you listen when you are doing nothing else? Do you listen kind of like hit snooze on the alarm and play it when you're kind of in between sleep and awake? Like or do you have that kind of playing while you're doing something else?

SPEAKER_00: 11:13

No, I usually do start my quiet time. I actually sit somewhere, I have two spots, like a a summer spot and then a winter spot, depending on the weather. And I sit and then I like I almost like take a deep breath, get present with myself, just like, you know, close loops, don't wonder about my shoes, you know, just like okay, I'm here now. And then I actually have to think about it. If I try to do it, if I multitask, it's almost like getting less nutrition from it. So it doesn't have to be super long, but I have to be present, or sometimes I do it if I'm not seated while I'm on my walk. I do think it has been helpful that it's how I start every day, um, just with the song, whether it's not because then it's like um when I'm doing my walk before I move on to anything else, I at least start with like what can I be grateful for? Wow, this weather is amazing, or I'm so grateful that I live in a neighborhood that's safe enough that I can be out on this, you know, taking a walk before the sunrise. You know, so it's really simple, but I start there all the time. I can't multitask other than walking, if that makes sense.

SPEAKER_01: 12:09

Yes, I love walking for being able to focus and multitask at the same time. Okay, so I heard you say that you notice something and then you chew on it. And I was thinking about how do you chew on something, but then you gave the great example and you started uh asking yourself questions like, why was this helpful? You know, in ref reference to when Aaron was helping your daughter, or what or how is this benefiting my daughter? All of those questions, as you pondered on them, or meditate, because meditate means to murmur, right? To say it over and over again, it all helped you dig deeper and deeper. And then I think that it was really helpful to hear you say that you take it to another level and then you say something about like how does this reflect the character of God? So we're using those five W's and an H question for all my fellow English nerds out there, and that helps us chew on and reflect on what in this situation we can be thankful for, and it gives you a chance to really allow that to get into your body. And I really, really love that.

SPEAKER_00: 13:26

That's so good. And I think you I think I missed said something. I would say that what's it say about his character or their character is probably what I start first, and then I think, how do I benefit from the character? Like it's almost like when it faces me, what's the strength? Because that is honestly where I started when I was like, I'm just aware of his weaknesses and what they cost me. And the Lord was like, you benefit from his strengths all day, and you take them for granted. So you need to start, yeah, but you're exactly right. And then it leads to like and the Lord's character and how I benefit from his thoughtfulness. So I have to have questions, or I'm like, cool, when does the dose of happy happen? Like, thanks to looking the YouTube video up. What do we do now?

SPEAKER_01: 14:03

You know, exactly. That's how I am for sure. Okay, this is Joy jumping back in. I wanted to jump back in before Jenna gave one more example of a gratitude habit that she has in her life and talk to you about something that I just recently learned more about. I was listening to an Andrew Huberman podcast. I'll link the episode in the show notes, and he was talking about how a gratitude habit can transform your life. Now he talked about it on an even deeper level, saying that we can get neurological benefits, which we've talked about, as well as physical benefits, because it is literally healing to our body. Isn't God so good that He created this habit that we can spend just a few seconds a day on, and yet it'll benefit us in a way that we are able to physically be able to heal from it? I highly recommend listening to this episode that I link in the show notes. But also he talked about the difference between listening and thinking about or writing down a gratitude habit versus hearing somebody else tell a gratitude habit or tell a story about something that they are thankful for. He says that new research has said that we actually get the most benefit when we feel gratitude, either in narrative form because we are listening to somebody else's story, and we feel grateful in our hearts because, oh, I just love this. You know, we are designed to benefit from story, God designed us as storytellers and to um heal from stories. I just think that that's so beautiful on its own. But then also he talked about really the benefits that we get for gratefulness are generally actually more prevalent when we're receiving gratefulness. So instead of going out and asking people, what are you thankful for about me? Which is an awkward conversation all the way around. We can get the same exponential benefits by listening to somebody else's story and feeling the gratitude in our own bodies as we experience what those other people are going through. So we're gonna jump back in with Jenna. She's gonna give one more example, but she gives it more in story form. And I just want you to notice in your mind and in your heart, do I resonate with this one a little bit more because it's in story form? Or do I have more inspiration and want to do that? Or do I actually uh gravitate more towards the list that she gave at the beginning of the things that she did she does? I think it's super fascinating. Let's listen.

SPEAKER_00: 16:46

Can I tell a really funny little secret about or a little story about this kind of gratitude thing? Is I start doing it with my kids just when we're in our neighborhood or our lives, and there's like a little joy moment. I'll tell my kids, I'm like, how lucky are we? And then I'll say whatever it is, like that. I get to be home with you in the afternoons, or how you know, like we have the best life. I get to do a job where I'm working when you're at school, and then I get to be off with you versus like these big mountaintops. Like literally, my own contentment has then shifted to like accidentally. But that's the beautiful part. A well-worn path does that. You don't have to be as intentional, like you said. The learning curve of starting and it getting roots is a way more effort than, and then it just bleeds into it. So then the funny part is I never purposely try to teach my kids a gratitude habit after my own. But because I say this so much, I say, like, how lucky are we? Are we just have the best lives? And I'll like say whatever I'm grateful for. Um, my my kids have started picking up, and my nine-year-old the other day, I was saying something in her bed as we were falling asleep, and I was like, We just have the best lives. And then I think it was like that I get to be your cross country coach, and it's so fun that I get to meet all your friends, and then I see them at pickup every day, like, what a gift God gave us in this life we live. And she turned over to me in all seriousness, and she was like, Do you and she'll do it, she'll say sometimes, like, we have the best lives, and she like all of a sudden it's like something dawned on her. She's like, Do you think everybody else knows that we got that God gave us the best life? Or do you think they're bummed because they see how awesome that we got the best life? And it was this moment of like, oh my gosh, we've done such a good job of focusing on the contentment. And in that moment, I thought, no one tell her that there are people out there who go to Disneyland every year or who go out to eat on a regular basis. I want her to live in this gratitude bubble for what our lives do look like, versus I think that's probably the second the other part of our culture with Instagram and stuff is awareness of what others have that you don't versus like gratitude actually helps you cement a deep-seated contentment for what you have versus noticing what you don't. And just seeing the fruit of that in my kids, I'm like, oh, if you go after this gratitude, it's gonna lead to a beautiful contentment where there could be no factors that change, but you feel my phrase for myself now this season is like, oh, I want to make a practice of the feasting on the goodness that today holds. I want to be someone who's over, like almost like imagining after a huge meal, like so stuffed, but just on the simplicity of the goodness and that I'm noticing the fingerprints of the Lord all over my day and watching that shift to how my kids see our lives, and I'm like, oh my gosh, yes, I know. And then I had to tell her, like, actually, God loves every everyone's God's favorite, and they have the best lives too. But it was just cute. I'm like, yay.

SPEAKER_01: 19:29

I don't know about you, but in my own heart, when I heard her first start to list off her gratitude habits when she was talking about, you know, uh listening to the song and thinking of things that she's grateful for, or she was talking about, you know, using it as a response that when you're feeling um a little bit of annoyance, like with her um husband on YouTube, she can actually like stop and and switch over and start looking for the things to be grateful for. I don't know, I just got a little bit of a feeling just tuning into what was going on inside of me, a little bit of a feeling of overwhelm. I started coming up with excuses like, oh, I'm not really good about music, or I don't get up and start at a certain time. Anyways, all of those things to say that when she shared the story about her and Rosie, there was something when I originally heard it, there was something that rose up inside of me, and I was able to like immediately connect and go, Oh, I want to do that. Like I love that story. And because of the story that she was telling, I was I felt empowered and I was like, okay, that's something that I can totally do, is just start noticing and then naming it to my kids. And then when I listened to the Huberman episode, I was like, oh my goodness. That's why that one in particular resonated more with me and allowed me and stirred up inside of me a feeling of gratitude because it was a narrative or story form. Isn't that so powerful? I love that. I believe that if she had told the other things in a little bit more of a story form, that there would have been a greater impact. And that is just noticing, not to discredit any of her gratitude habits, but that's just noticing the power that story has for us and how it can connect us to gratitude in a deeper way and motivate us to keep on going. And so I just wanted to challenge you guys with that. So, with that in mind, I want to put out a little bit of a homework assignment for this week. I know homework, nobody likes that word, but I would love for us to take advantage of this moment and start sowing what we want to reap. Meaning, let's start giving out what we want to receive. If we feel gratitude that is actually more healing and more helpful on a neurological level when we receive gratitude, then why don't we start giving gratitude more so that we can have other people benefiting from us giving them gratitude? And then I believe that God has promised that that which you sow, you shall also reap, which means that if I'm gonna give that away, He's gonna return it back to me. And I'm gonna see that come back into my life. So let's do that this week. And then again, as we have been talking about the value of remembering in previous episodes, I think that when you receive that gratitude from somebody else, that's when you really want to write it down, make a note of it. We've talked about a pecky board before, just some sort of like uh corkboard that has memories written on it, but memories of when you receive gratitude, that you can get back to that memory quicker and receive the benefits, even just as it says in the Huberman podcast, even if you're just receiving sorry, even if you're just remembering the things that people express gratitude to you for, that will also bring about the same benefits. That is so powerful. I really, really love it. And I am so thankful again that you joined us here at the table. And I look forward to next week when we talk a little bit more about how to form habits that stick in our conversation with Jenna. You're really gonna love it. I'll see you next week. Nerd alert, nerd alert. Guys, I am such a nerd. I geek out on show notes. So if you ever want to know how to contact the show directly, how to find us on socials, links to books or anything that we mention on the show, go to the show notes. And at the very bottom, there is always a link that says support the show. It doesn't matter how little or big or how often you want to give, it's super easy to do. And I like to consider it a way for you to take me out for coffee and say, hey, thanks. And you know what I say? Thank you. You guys are the best.