Gratitude ~ The Key to Joy — with Georgian Benta | BlissTalk Podcast

What if the key to greater happiness isn't changing your life—but changing the way you see it?

In this heartfelt and thought-provoking episode of BlissTalk, we're joined by Georgian Benta, host of the internationally renowned Gratitude Podcast and Blisspot's gratitude expert, to explore how gratitude can transform the way we experience life—even during its most challenging moments.

For nearly a decade, Georgian has interviewed leading voices in psychology, wellbeing, spirituality, and personal development, all with one goal: helping people discover that gratitude is more than a positive habit—it's a powerful way of living. Through his own personal journey and countless conversations with experts, he has learned that lasting happiness doesn't come from changing our circumstances, but from changing our perspective.

Whether you're navigating uncertainty, feeling overwhelmed, or simply looking to experience more joy in everyday life, this conversation offers practical wisdom for building resilience, hope, and inner peace.

In this episode, you'll discover:

• Why gratitude is a skill that anyone can develop
• How changing your perspective can change your entire experience of life
• Practical ways to build gratitude into your everyday routine
• Why gratitude becomes even more important during difficult times
• The connection between gratitude, self-compassion, and emotional resilience
• How nature can help us reconnect with ourselves and the present moment
• Why comparison steals joy—and how appreciation helps us find it again
• How practising gratitude creates a positive ripple effect in our relationships and communities

If you've ever found yourself focusing on what's missing instead of what's already good, this episode will remind you that gratitude isn't about pretending life is perfect—it's about discovering the beauty that's already present.

"You can use gratitude not just to improve your own life, but to improve the lives of the people around you."— Georgian Benta

If you're ready to experience more peace, connection, and confidence in your everyday life, this conversation will leave you inspired to see the world—and yourself—with fresh eyes.

✅ Links & Resources:

Website: https://blisspot.com

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At Blisspot, we believe emotional wellbeing is the foundation for a thriving, meaningful life. If today's episode inspired you, offered tools you can use, or helped you feel seen, please share it with someone who might benefit too.

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Discover courses, blogs, and resources to support your mental, emotional, and physical wellbeing—every day, in your own way.

Because everyone deserves to live a life of balance, connection, and purpose.

Go gently, grow deeply—and let your Bliss illuminate the journey.

Thanks for Tuning In to BlissTalk

At Blisspot, we believe emotional wellbeing is the foundation for a thriving, meaningful life. If today’s episode inspired you, offered tools you can use, or helped you feel seen, please share it with someone who might benefit too.

Subscribe to BlissTalk

 Join us for more honest, expert-led conversations on personal growth, emotional wellbeing, and creating a life that feels as good as it looks — from the inside out.

Explore more at blisspot.com

 Discover courses, blogs, and resources to support your mental, emotional, and physical wellbeing—every day, in your own way.

Because everyone deserves to live a life of balance, connection, and purpose.

Go gently, grow deeply — and let your Bliss illuminate the journey.

Transcript

Speaker 0:00

Welcome to the Bliss Spot Podcast series, where we interview global well-being leaders to share ideas to invite more joy and happiness into your life.

Speaker 2 0:13

Hello, and I'd like to welcome you all here today to join us for the 2022 to World Gratitude Day. I'm absolutely delighted to be joined by Georgian Benta from Romania, who is a world leader in gratitude. He lives, sleeps, and breathes gratitude, which is incredibly inspirational and it's brought so many benefits into his own life. And now he teaches people all over the world how to do the same in their own lives. So I'm very excited to hear what Georgian has to say today. Also, um, Georgian will teach us how to use gratitude to invite more peace, joy, and success into our daily life. And really, that's what it's all about. Like it's so easy to have a good time when you're in a beautiful holiday or watching a gorgeous sunset. But at the end of the day, um it's about enjoying our life every day, just finding the joy in the everyday. And that's what I really, really love about this work. So, Georgian, through storytelling and sharing practical strategies, can help us to find more moments of gratefulness in our day-to-day life, or even better, choose to live our life in gratitude. I think as we're going to uh find out more about it, it is really more about a way of being. It's like an energetic change to your state that then can flow out into all other areas of your life to create more positivity. So Georgian's vision is to inspire 100,000 people to focus on gratitude and what makes them grateful. And I think he's uh a long way towards that goal already with what the work that he's doing. Georgian's gratitude podcast has been featured as one of the top 10 positive thinking podcasts to fuel your motive, uh to fuel your forward motion by Rick Huggins on Epic Life Vibes. And Georgian is here today, as I've mentioned, to share with us how to invite more gratitude into our hearts and joy into our souls. I just love that. This is one of my most favorite topics in the whole world. So, Georgian, I'd love for you to share with us a little bit about your story, how you got into the work and um yeah, where you are today with it.

Speaker 1 2:40

Hello. Um, hello everyone. I'm really happy to be here with you, and um, I'm really grateful that I have this opportunity to speak about gratitude and uh to reach you, the one looking right now. And I want to thank you personally that you're choosing to tune in and to be a part of it, and that you are choosing gratitude, because um, as Deborah just shared, it's a wonderful feeling, it's something that's so important for all of us, especially nowadays with all of the things that are happening in the world. Just being able to choose to look at something like this is something amazing that you're doing for yourself and for the people around you. So I'm really grateful that you're here, and I'm grateful that I am here as well with Deborah, and that we are able to speak about this wonderful topic. Um, I started quite a few years uh ago. Um it was when I felt that I hit rock bottom and nothing made sense, and I was praying for uh a way out for an answer for something that could help me. And for me, the answer was gratitude. It's a longer story, maybe we'll uh get into it uh more in depth. Um, but for me that was the answer, and uh I've uncovered throughout the years speaking with many other people that they had similar experiences, and they found gratitude in situations in which they they felt that like there's no way out and there's nothing that they can do. And this is one of the wonderful things about gratitude is that it empowers us, it empowers us to find our resources, to see our resources, and uh it helps us deal with the challenges that we have much better and much easier.

Speaker 2 4:47

Amazing. Well, um, now you said that you hit rock bottom, and that's what, and you ask for an answer, which I think is really good, like because it's like ask and you shall receive, and gratitude was your answer, or that was your way out of the way that you were feeling. So I know that a lot of people um in the current climate and with all the challenges that we're facing, whether it be financial, um, environmental. In Australia, we've had a lot of floods, you know, in this this year, which has been quite devastating to many. I know in the UK there was the massive heat wave that really severely impacted many people. So there's a lot of instability and shifts happening in the world. So a lot of people probably are hitting rock bottom at this moment. So can you just explain a little bit more about your journey? And you said, you know, what was it that made you feel at that rock bottom stage? Because I think it could be really inspiring to others to share your journey. Um, tell us a little bit more about that and then how maybe the feelings of um hitting rock bottom. And I know it was gratitude, but I know too when you've hit rock bottom in your life, um, because I felt that way myself at uh various stages, you know, there are things that can really help you, like just taking one step, one day at a time, you know, when things seem overwhelming. And gratitude is a part of that. And I think you can always be grateful for something because a lot of people say, well, you know, well, it's easy for you to be grateful because you live , you know, in a developed country and you've got a house. And but I you I don't have that or, you know, I don't know. There's sorts of situations where people really feel they there's nothing to be grateful for. And I know Eckhart Toll said in a podcast that I listened to of his years ago that he works with prisoners and he taught them to be grateful for the beauty of a little plant that might be growing on a wall in a prison cell, something like that. So anyway, I'll just get you to elaborate on those things a little more.

Speaker 1 6:56

Yeah, so the first thing that I I want to address is uh this idea of it's easy for you to be grateful or you should be grateful. Um, there's this thing called um hedonic adaptation that um prevents us from being grateful in many situations. Like for instance, we get a raise. Uh at first we are excited, we have more money to spend each month, but after a while, the thing is that we get used to that level, it's just the baseline for our life, it's it's just the level at which we are, and we as humans tend to focus a lot on ourselves to um look at our life firstly, of course. And um since we we're focused on that, where we don't always realize, we don't always compare our life to the lives of people that are that have it worse than uh than we do. And um it's not easy from my point of view to to feel grateful, even if we have many things, even if we have house, even if we have so many other things that other people could just dream about. Because this hedonic adaptation helps our brain not focus on on the on these things and use the resources to focus on other things that um help with our survival. Um but the thing is that it makes us forget about the fact that we have a house and that it is beautiful, and um many of the things that we have in our life as blessings are just in the background for a lot of people, and this is why the practice of gratitude is important because it helps us uh see those things, and it was similar for me as well. Like when I felt like I hit rock bottom, um the the feeling that I that I was given uh after my asking was a feeling of new appreciation for the things that I had in my life. I felt the same kind of exhilaration, the same kind of appreciation that I had for the city where I live. I I moved, I moved in uh this city when I uh went to college, and I felt the same way, even though I um uh I finished college at that moment, and it was so amazing that I was so happy that I was living in that city. Aside from that, when I got home, because uh when I had that experience, I was outside, I went for a walk, and when I got home, I was so happy that I had a place to live, and it was so it was perfect from many, many points of view, and I just appreciated everything like I did the first time that I moved in there. I had a pet that I was it was in the background before, and that I was appreciating so much when I when I got back, and just all of those little things made me so happy, and for me that was so interesting, like nothing changed on the outside, everything was the same. At that moment, I uh um I got out of a business that I worked a lot for and I made many sacrifices for, and um that didn't change, like the that part of my life was the same, but was it was interesting to see for me that even though nothing changed, I was happy, I was appreciating those simple things much more, and that made me more curious about gratitude and about its power, and um, that's how I actually started to research more on gratitude, and I wanted to speak with other people that had experiences uh related to gratitude, and I was curious whether or not they they had similar experiences and how was their gratitude journey, and that's how I started the podcast, and I spoke with many people from all walks of life from all over the world about gratitude and their own experiences, and um, yeah, that's that's the thing uh about gratitude. It's for me, it's it's a life skill, it's so important because in life we have ups and downs, we have many challenges, and if we're not able to see the good things, if we're not able to see the resources that we have at hand, it's it can get pretty rough. And that's, in my opinion, one of the most important things that gratitude can do for us is help us get perspective, get that inspiration, that empowerment to know that we can do something about the situation in which we are at the moment.

Speaker 2 12:41

So, what I hear you saying, um, if I've got this right, you were having a difficult time and you went on a walk and you kind of had you were asking for help. So you're setting your intent using your free will for what you wanted. But then it was almost like an awakening, almost that you had this experience where all you could see was the good in the world. And then when you went back into your apartment, you could appreciate your pet, your home, and the things that you so nicely put it that were in the background before came to the foreground. And that was a life-changing experience because um, yes, I I totally relate to that. I've had that type of experience as well myself, where, and what from what you're saying, nothing's changed, but you've changed. You've had an internal energy shift, and those filters, the way you were seeing the world, probably through patterns of behavior or conditioning, were gone, and you were just seeing the world as it is with a beautiful place that it was, not through fear or not through lack or thinking that things needed to be different or better. And I was going to ask too, because I'd never heard you, uh, I've never heard it explained about the was it, I should have written it down, the hedonic was it experience the way hedonic adaptation. Hedonic adaptation. I thought that was really super interesting because um for survival, um, it's like we look for the things we don't have. We're focusing on what we need and what we want rather than what we have. Would you liken that too? And this is just me making it up, not based on any scientific research. Uh, it's like the ego that sort of keeps us in that feeling of lack rather than our true self. I call it our true self, our spiritual, it's like a spiritual self or our real self that um feels wise and contented and happy and joyful and peaceful and calm. And we all go in and out of that, you know, through stages of our life, depending on what our pressures are and what our challenges are and situation is. But I guess ideally on a personal journey, you're working more towards that wise, kind, true, authentic self, the way I see it, expanding and then the ego, I guess, becoming more quieter. I see it as like making friends with your ego or that voice that's always focusing on lack or not enough or what's wrong rather than the good in our life, you know, the beautiful things in our life.

Speaker 1 15:18

Exactly, definitely. And it's it's the same with gratitude. Um, when we're focusing and we're stacking the negatives, um we conclude that things are bad and we um we say, okay, life is hard, life is tough, life is, I don't know, many uh negative words uh that we can say about it. Uh, but it's because we are focusing on those things, and if we just continue to stack the negatives and put one negative on top of the other, and we just see those things that are bad, of course, our perspective will become that, and we will we will think that the world, the people are bad, that the world is uh a hostile place, it's a uh tough place to be in, and so on and so forth. But if we stack the positives and we create a different kind of percentage, because I don't remember exactly, I've created an episode about this, but um I think we have we think about um 60 or 70,000 words every day, and I think about 80 percent of them are negative, something like this. Um, and the the power that we have is to change that, and this is where gratitude can help us. We can change this percentage and we can think more positive thoughts, and we can focus more on the things that are working and that are great in our life, because there always are some things. That's that's the the interesting thing. Uh, even if you don't feel right now that you have things that you can focus on that you can be grateful for, um, just the simple fact that you you're breathing right now, just being aware of uh air coming in, going out, just realizing becoming aware of this simple thing can um get you into a state of gratitude, and you can go on with just looking around you and seeing things that you appreciate that once were um just a dream, that once were just something that you wished you would get to experience or to to do or to have, and um yeah, that's that's what I think it's important to start wherever you are, and um you'll for sure find some some things that you can be grateful for, and from then on you can start looking for that constantly. It's similar to uh uh the moment when you when you want to buy a car or you buy a car, you see it everywhere. Uh when you're in the process, you have this the sensation that uh there are so many cars that are similar to what you want or what you bought. Um when we are looking for these things that we can be grateful for, we will start seeing them everywhere we are, everywhere we look. And that that's why I love to um talk with my uh listeners and to to call them gratitude seekers, because if we seek the gratitude, we will find it.

Speaker 2 19:05

I love that because it's where uh focus goes, energy flows. That's one of my favorite sayings. So if we're focusing on the that's what we're gonna see and we're gonna dwell on dwell on, but if we're focusing on the good, and there's beauty all around us all the time in life, like the world is a very beautiful place, not minimizing people's um challenging times or experiences. I think we're going through a massive shift and we're looking for tools that can help to support our energy and support a shift or move through that shift in the best way possible. And I really believe in my heart and from personal experience that gratitude is one of those tools. It's free. Everybody who's alive is breathing, it's available to everybody. Our breath is, I think, often taken for granted because it's actually our life force that it it connects us to the beautiful universe that's all around us. And you know, we have that exchange with trees in terms of energy and breath. Like it's amazing, the breath is amazing. So that's something that anybody and everybody can appreciate on the planet if there's absolutely you know nothing um else that they can focus on. That's certainly uh very good starting point. And just moving on a little bit, like when I was researching for World Gratitude Day, this is the first World Gratitude Day event that um BlissBot has ever done. And so we're really excited and grateful to be doing it. But when I was researching it, I was absolutely flabbergasted that it started in 1965, which is over fifty, so that's over 50 years ago because gratitude is seen to be fairly new agey and a little bit out there. I think more and more people are adopting it because when they try it and it just makes common sense. It's like it's not even rocket science, it just makes sense to focus on the things that make you feel good and um invite more of that energy into your life and like attracts like, and you know, it just makes total common sense. But, you know, there is a lot of scientific research behind gratitude and how it impacts your hormones, how it has a positive impact on depression. Um, obviously, if you're releasing more serotonin into your body because you're focusing on things that make you feel good. So there's a lot of science behind gratitude. And that's BlitSpot loves things to be scientifically backed. And um, you know, I think that we are educating people that it's not just some airy, fairy thing that works for some people and not for others. So maybe if you could explain a little bit more about that, Georgia, like the science. Scientific benefits to gratitude?

Speaker 1 22:05

Well, the beautiful part is that in the last years there has been so much research on gratitude and it's continually growing. I've actually been looking at some stats from scientific papers on gratitude, and uh the um the chart is something like this, you know, like a lot of uh growth in there in the last few years. And um yeah, there are many uh benefits to gratitude from from many points of view, um, especially when it comes to to mental health in general. Um I don't remember right now something specific that that I could share, but I'm sure that in the interview I'll uh I'll remember some of the the things that I that I read about gratitude, um, in terms of the the research that has been done. But in general, it it helps us sleep better, uh, it helps, of course, our mood in general. Uh, these are some of some of the conclusions of um of the research. And it's it's helpful in in so many situations. Like I've seen um research that's very, very specific, even uh, I think it was post-COVID. Um, there has been some some research on the the impact of gratitude post-COVID. So many, so many interesting uh things that are um are being found related to gratitude. But um the the most important part from my point of view, uh as something that's very practical that you can use is that it has been found that gratitude is most um powerful when you go in depth, when you're not just saying um, okay, um, I'm grateful for my house, my dog, and my partner. That doesn't elicit much feeling, that doesn't uh make you really get into that feeling of gratitude, really experience it. And instead of that, for instance, you can you can say, I'm grateful for my dog for the fact that he's always happy to see me, it's always happy to see me, that um uh whenever I'm feeling lonely, he's always there, and I I love the feeling of um his fur when I when I pat him, um and all of the the details, and it's so powerful when we can use as much um visual and audio and uh um all kinds of senses when we when we think about gratitude, when we when we think about the things that we are grateful for. For instance, when we when we think about the summer, um we might be thinking about the summer evening, the the smell that's specific, the freshness of the air, the breeze that we feel on our uh on our skin. Um maybe the sun is still up a bit, and we feel the warmth of the sun on our skin. And if we're talking about uh um something that we're grateful for when we were at the seaside, for instance, the um the sand beneath our feet, uh the sound of the waves, um the person that we that was next to us, you know, when we um build a picture like this with all all of our senses, the gratitude is much fuller, it's much more complete, and we get to relive those beautiful experiences by doing this.

Speaker 2 26:27

So, what you're saying is when you like fully immerse yourself in the experience, you're imagining, yeah, you're really imagining the sun on your face or the water lapping over your feet as you walk along the beach or something like that, it's far more powerful, which makes sense. I actually heard once, I'm not sure if this is true, but I did, I think it was back by research that um if you imagine yourself doing 10 sit-ups, it's as powerful as if you've done the 10 sit-ups themselves. I do practice that sometimes if I don't have enough time for exercise. So, but I know the power of visualization is very, very strong and thoughts have power, they have energy. I know that if I think of a really sad thing, I can cry just because I'm really I and it's not that I'm it's because I I'm really feeling it. My thoughts have made me, you know, I really go there, and next minute tears are rolling down my cheeks. Or if you think of a really happy, joyous occasion, you feel your energy feels light, like it does have an impact, a very physical impact on your body, your thoughts do. So I've heard somebody say once, it's impossible to be, I think it was when I studying kinesiology actually, um, that it's impossible to be unhappy and um grateful at the same time. Like they just don't mix, you can't be unhappy and grateful. So I think that's very powerful in itself, isn't it?

Speaker 1 28:01

Yeah, well, um in my opinion, I have a more controversial opinion on this, in the sense that um, of course, when there are two uh different opposite feelings, it's harder to feel um, I don't know, sad and happy at the same time. And um that doesn't mean that if we are choosing gratefulness, we are not uh feeling happy uh instead of sad, you know, like they are opposites. So um Tony Robbins, for instance, uh he also said this that uh I think we can be uh angry and grateful at the same time, or something like something similar to this. And uh yeah, that makes sense, but when you're grateful, you're grateful. When you're uh angry, you're angry, you know, like it they are two separate things from from my point of view. Uh it's a bit harder to to feel two things at the same at the exact same time. Okay, you can go from feeling angry to feeling grateful, but it's it's harder to to do so at the same time. Um, but yeah, the gratitude is is definitely helpful for um the moments when when we feel unhappy and when we feel sad. But that's not to say that it's not important for us to accept those feelings as well. Like I that's yeah, so uh the fact that I know a lot about gratitude. Um, I have many, I've built many good habits related to gratitude, that doesn't mean that I don't feel sad sometimes. And I think this is a very important distinction, especially for for our listeners. Um, you don't have to be perfect, you don't have to uh be grateful all the time. It's we have a wide range of feelings that we we get to uh experience as humans. And what I've seen is that the more we're able to feel those feelings that are so-called negative, the more we'll we're able to feel those positive feelings as well. If we numb down and uh we we don't feel the sadness or we don't feel those uh negative feelings, it's harder for us to go more in depth with gratitude as well, and with the positive feelings, with the happiness and everything else. That has been at least my experience.

Speaker 2 30:45

I could not agree more, and I think that's the basis of much psychology and counseling too, teaching people to feel all of their feelings because we all want to feel, we all love feeling happy and joyful, and that's easy and that flows, and uh, but it's those difficult feelings like anger, you know, guilt, sadness, that often we want to repress or suppress, push them down, we don't want to feel them. And then that's when people end up doing things like drinking, smoking, watching TV, excessive spending, anything to avoid feeling. Whereas it's been my experience too, and with many of the clients that I've worked with, that when people can feel all of their feelings and let them go and let them pass through their energetic system, because the definition of emotion is energy in motion. So emotions are designed to flow. And I agree, like the more we can sit with our anger and observe it and validate it, our sadness, our hurt. Hurt's a very hard one for many people to feel. And people, a lot of people feel a lot of very deep hurt, and it does take courage to sit with those emotions and accept them and validate them, acknowledge them. But then the reward is they do flow through your your energetic system if you accept them with kindness and compassion. And think you shouldn't, you're wrong, you shouldn't be feeling like that because that kind of splits you in two again. But if you just feel it, let it flow. And then, as you said, that allows those energetic states that we love to feel the peace, the calm, the gratitude to return to our body. And um, you know, that's our I think that's our true way of being at our core, but it's normal as humans to feel that wide range of emotion. So I think that's a very important point because otherwise, if we were stuck in this weird state of just being happy and positive all the time about everything all the time, it can come across as being inauthentic. In fact, it probably normally it's not normal for us to feel happy and positive every single minute of the day, is it? That that would be uh fascinating, exactly.

Speaker 1 33:05

And yeah, to be honest, uh, I I do believe that life isn't easy. We have so many challenges at every stage of our life. Uh, if we are honest with ourselves, we we can see that. Um, and the fact that we are able to to uh raise above that is what makes us amazing as as humans, in my opinion, from my point of view. Um, because we are we have those those uh necessities uh as mammals first, and we need to take care of ourselves from from those points of view first, and many times those things don't match with the fact that we have um a lot of things to do at work, or we have a tight schedule, or we have to take care of all kinds of things, and uh there are all kinds of things that that stress us out or make us feel anxious, or um just being human at times is is pretty hard, and we are vulnerable as we've seen um in in our experience when we were sick one way or another. Um we first need to take care of ourselves, go through that, and afterwards hopefully um get back to uh to feeling good, to feeling uh to seeing life in an in a in a different way. At least this is what happens to me when uh when I get sick and for instance I I lose my um my taste. Uh I'm so excited when I get to to feel the um the taste of food once again and uh uh yeah just enjoy all of the the small things like this. I think this this is just part of life, and um it's it's really not easy in many cases to feel grateful, and I can can understand that there are many things that are challenging for us, but that's why gratitude is is powerful in in my experience. It helps us become bigger than our challenges, it helps us see our resources, it helps us see our worth, and that helps us um get better and rise above those those situations because otherwise we tend to just focus on solving those problems, or even even worse, just focus on the problems themselves, like okay, I have this issue, this problem, and I'm just focusing on it, and I I don't believe I can change it in any way, and it's just me thinking about or um focusing on the problem itself. And whenever we're just focusing on on the problem, we're not using the other part of our brain that can help us see the solution and the resources that we have to uh to overcome it.

Speaker 2 36:40

So, would you say that um gratitude can help us grow as as people and I think maybe help us with our resilience? Because um from like I always in the work that I do, which is more around emotional mastery for people, I say don't try to make decisions when you're in survival or when you're upset, or if things, when you're in the middle of feeling instabil in a moment of instability, in because when you're angry or um upset or hurt, you can feel quite turbulent inside. And then if you make a decision from that state, it can often bring in more turbulence or more instability because you haven't, it's sort of building on that kind of energy. Whereas if we have the ability to focus on something to change up that state ourselves when we're ready, or just it might even be just a matter of waiting, validating, acknowledging the feelings and letting them pass. And then we actually do turn return to our natural state of peace and calm and contentment, like our true wise self. But with one thing I love about gratitude, because I do practice it myself, is that you are changing that turbulent, instable state to something more peaceful and calm. And you're changing your perspective. It's like your perspective is growing and it's bigger and it's more encompassing, and you can just make a better decision about what to do next um when you've practiced gratitude because your energetic state is different.

Speaker 1 38:21

Exactly. And uh I don't remember the name of the book right now, but um there's a there's this book on positive psychology and um the brain um that talks about uh two stages, two um states actually of the brain. Uh one is reactive and one is responsive. And whenever uh what you just mentioned, whenever we're in that state of reactiveness, of uh fight or flight, it's yeah, it's not a good good idea to make any decisions based on that. But when we are able and gratitude is uh is one of the things that um the author is mentioning that can help us get into that responsive state. When we we're able to get into that responsive state, we're using our more evolved brain as well, and it's not just fight or flight, we're using all of our brain, or at least as much as possible, to find all of the resources and to make a decision based on everything that uh we should take into consideration. Because whenever we are in the reactive state of the brain, we just react, we just um think about the next step and what we can do to ensure our survival, and that's it. And it's usually not the best way to go about it, and um it's not the best decision because, like you said, in many situations it just leads to a vicious circle. But when we're able to get ourselves into a more peaceful, more responsive state, uh, we can create a virtuous circle and we can see all of the resources. And instead of going down, we can go up and we can um we can create this circle of uh positivity and just build on it, and it can lead us in a totally different direction than just reacting in the moment.

Speaker 2 40:43

It's like sliding doors, isn't it? You can react down this path, which might lead to more negativity, chaos, and stress, or you can respond where we're using our reasoning centres, we're out of fight or flight, we're in our calm, wise, peaceful self, and we can make that decision that's going to take us down a different pathway. So, yes, I think that's a really important point. And something else where um that I think um is really, really important for these times. So I believe Bliss Spot has been uh developed, actually. Um I didn't realise it at the time because we started before the pandemic, but and there was need for our work then because stress was the world's leading disability in 2019 before the pandemic even started. But um, you know, a few years later on, we've certainly seen many people being pushed to their limits for very good reason. And overall, my son, who's 20, was talking about it last night at dinner. He was saying, Mom, you know, the state of the world, it's not good at the moment, suicide rates have never been higher, depressions, you know, so high, and people are really suffering. And I think young people, like we're all concerned, everybody's concerned and aware of these statistics. So, what it's what my passion and purpose is is sharing ideas that help to make people's lives easier at any time, but you know, particularly during these turbulent times. So maybe if you can discuss a little bit more about gratitude and the role it has to play, because I think it has a very big, powerful, important role in changing up people's energetic state. And so sometimes we can get sort of a bit trapped into thinking, well, you know, it's just me. I'm only one person. And if I change my energetic state, what does it really matter? But in actual fact, that's incredibly powerful because you have a flow on impact on all those people around you by, and really at the end of the day, yourself is the one true thing you can make change to if you want to, and you feel inspired to do so. So uh yeah, maybe if you can just expand a little bit more on that, because I think it's got a big role to play, you know, in these next few years in really helping to turn us around.

Speaker 1 43:08

Yeah, definitely. So um I don't remember if it was research uh on this, but uh anyway, um, I think so. Um gratitude does make you more generous. You want to to do good deeds, you want to help other people when you're grateful. And that's one thing to think about the fact that uh when you're feeling grateful, you're not just doing this for yourself, but you're actually helping the people around you as well. You're going to be a much uh more pleasant person to be around, and other people will pick up on that because you're not just looking at the doom and gloom that's happening in the world, but you're someone that's hopeful, that's seeing the uh the good as well. Because that's the reality. There's always something that's that's good, that's working in your life, in our life, in in the world. And even though it's a really challenging period, I'm seeing this with myself, with the people around me. It's even more important right now for yourself and for the people around you to take care of yourself. And one of the things that you can do is to take care of your emotional well-being, of the things that you can control. And this is one of the beautiful things about gratitude that is that it helps you focus on the things that you can control. And your perspective, your focus is something that you can control. And for instance, one of the things that I would encourage people to do is to watch less TV or news or things of this nature that just bring us down and uh make us think about the bad things that are happening or that are about to happen. And um I don't know, uh spend more time with other people, like on Blisspot. Even if you don't have like very positive people in your community or in your family or group of friends, they might be uh in not the best state right now. It's important to uh to do what you're doing actually right now. Uh watching this, uplifting yourself and becoming a beacon of light uh for other people as well. And it's it's up to each and every one of us to to do this. And whenever we we see the good and the resources, we can build on what we already um appreciate. It's much harder to to build something and to find uh stability when we are just focusing on those bad things that are happening, and um yeah, that just makes us feel disempowered and doesn't really help us move forward in in a healthy way. And uh, the resource, of course, is um the podcast. If you like listening to podcasts, there are so many stories from from people from all walks of life that are speaking about their own experience with with gratitude, having gone through divorces or I don't know, um, business failure, or many, many things that you couldn't even imagine. Uh, and they were able to find the resources within our within themselves to uh to get out of that bad situation and to experience uh a life filled with with gratitude and with joy. And um, yeah, I think that's that's something that we can do to focus more and to spend more time with people that inspire us, with things that uplift us instead of bringing us down and disempowering us.

Speaker 2 47:36

That is such a powerful message because um I personally do not listen to the news. I I haven't for years and years and years. I think that you know it feeds on negativity and then other people listen to it to make them feel better about their own lives, and that's not good with uh news and negativity. It doesn't make you feel good when you've watched a whole lot of uh negative events all in a row. And I love that advice of finding your tribe, you know, finding people that uplift you and inspire you and really truly want the best for you at the call. And uh BlissBot actually has a community where we've got a whole lot of beautiful gratitude posts on there at the moment leading up to Georgian's events. So please go onto the BlissBot community and get amongst that. You'll find a beautiful tribe of people. That's just a new feature on BlissBot. So we're just growing it, but we invite as many people as um who would like to join. Uh, we love having new members there. And also um Bliss um Georgian does have an incredible body of work on BlissBot. I'll put all the links for these in the chat so that you can um pick them up and explore and continue your gratitude journey further. And we also have a beautiful blog by Georgian. There's some lovely work on there. So we also have a gratitude journal as well that people can write in every day. It's on your own private well-being dashboard, totally secure, that you can just go in and write what you're grateful for because there's great power in writing things down too and seeing them. So uh that that's just a really beautiful um range of suggestions, Georgian, because you're right, we all know when we're having challenging times, you know, you only want to let those people in that are really going to uplift you and see the best in you and know that you're the real you, even though you might be struggling or finding things that are overwhelming and even help you hold that space till you feel like it again yourself. And um, yeah, I think there's a lot to be said in that, in choosing. But that that's really heartening because you know there is a massive movement of peace, positivity, love, gratitude, taking the world forward in a new, exciting, harmonious ways that are based on our real self, not on ego-driven principles. So even though this is a very, very hard time for us at the moment, I honestly believe over the next five to ten years the world is going to evolve in beautiful, life-enhancing ways. And as you say, Georgie, hope. Hope is everything. You know, where there's hope, there's life, and hope for a better future and hopeful one with a beautiful environment where people are kind to each other. And um, I'm a big um advocate of kindness. I think it's just the most beautiful, one of the most beautiful qualities on the planet. When people are having a hard time, usually they're beating up on themselves quite often. We know what we do wrong, we know when we slip up, we know when we make a bad mistake and we cross over those boundaries. So the last thing you need is everybody else telling you what you've done wrong. If you can just be kind. I think you know, when people are in challenging situations and they ask how they can help or what they can do, I think it's often just being kind. Kindness is a big healer, binds us together. So any last words, Georgine, that you'd like to share with the audience today on this auspicious um Gratitude Day 2022? I'm so glad we've actually commemorated um the day with an event because I think it can really take the world forward in new and better ways.

Speaker 1 51:32

Yeah, so I'm really excited to be a part of it, and I'm really happy that uh you've invited me. I'm really happy that you, the uh the viewer, are here with us and that you stayed until the end of uh this interview. It means a lot to me that that you chose to do this, and um I really appreciate you, and I would love for you to appreciate yourself for doing this and for uh all of the amazing things that you are doing in your life. Um, and yeah, this is this is the idea that I would love for you to to think about the the things that you can appreciate about you. We tend to do so many things and to um to focus on all of the the problems and all of the things that the chores, all of the things that need to be done, but we um we forget that we need to be appreciated as well, to feel appreciated as well. The first person that can do that is ourselves, and we can appreciate ourselves for what we are doing, for what we are, and I would invite you to to think about that and to um think about the the things that you can appreciate about yourself.

Speaker 2 53:03

I love that, that's so beautiful, and it's so simple, but something we all forget to do, you know. I certainly forget to do that, and that's a beautiful. I've got three children, that's a beautiful quality to pass on to children, isn't it? To teach them to be grateful for themselves. And I love that and their beautiful qualities. And there's a very uh big element of kindness about that too, and developing a kind and gentle voice towards yourself and that supporting, loving energy. Beautiful. I love it. Okay, well, I don't think we can finish on anything better than that. That's an absolute golden nugget. Thank you, Georgian. Um, we'll definitely be sharing your work, um, getting it out there to as many people as possible. We absolutely love it. We're a big fan of yours. Very grateful and honored to have you as part of the BlissBot community. And um, yeah, we'll be in touch again. But thank you so much for being with us today. My pleasure. Truly grateful. Thank you. Thank you.

Speaker 54:06

Thank you for joining us for the Bliss Spot Expert Podcast Series. We hope you enjoyed the life enhancing tips to support your well being. To discover more podcasts, courses, and meditations, please go to learn.blissbot.com.