GRATITUDE Series: Episode 4

Welcome back to the weekly gratitude series! In this series I will share 10-15 things to be GRATEFUL for that will open your eyes, make you smile, help you remember the good or just shift your spirits. New episodes drop every weekend. These are short, light and happy listens. Thanks for being here--you rock.

Transcript

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Welcome to the Knight Fit Podcast. I'm your host, Emily Knight. I'm a running and strength coach whose primary mission is to help runners reach their goals and maintain their strength without sacrificing their true health. On this podcast, we talk about all things health and fitness so that you can stay up to date on some of today's latest research. I host inspiring guests, drop solo episodes where I explore pertinent topics and get to the heart of many of our questions around what it means to chase our fitness goals and prioritize our wellness. So sit back and get ready for an awesome conversation. Hey everybody, and welcome back to the Night Fit Podcast. Hope you're having a great day so far. Great Saturday. I'm recording on a Saturday. It is 10:30 a.m. I'm drinking a coffee that I went and got with Lainey in the car. Um I had a long run this morning. It was great. We did 90 minutes, which was like 9.3 something miles, I believe it was. Um, it was awesome. I had a gel and some fruit snacks, and Lainey slept until about, oh gosh, 7 something, 7.30 maybe this morning. My husband was able to feed her this morning while I got my run-in, which I always appreciate. And yeah, now I'm on mom duty. We got some stuff later today. But all of that said, welcome back to the gratitude series. I love this series. I it's become something I look forward to every weekend. And it kind of just helps me remember things to be grateful for. But obviously, the intent of this series is to help the listeners, you guys, remember things that are good in this life. And I don't know about you guys, but I have a lot of stuff going on in the background, especially with my family, with my dad being sick with ALS, with layered things happening with that. And sometimes it can just feel so heavy. Life can feel really heavy, and we forget that gratitude shifts our brain chemistry. When we actively think of things we're grateful for, we cannot at the same time process anxiety or be anxious. It's something that scientists, I'm not a brain neuroscientist, but it's something they have found about the brain, is when we're actively thinking of gratitude or things we're grateful for, we can't be anxious. And I talked about that in the last episode. Um, but yeah, welcome back to the series. In this series, we just go through a list of things that I think everybody can be grateful for. They're broad, um, they're just fun elements of life in hopes of just brightening your day, brightening your weekend, and bringing you some joy. So welcome back to the series. So I'm just gonna go through the list and dive right in. So the first one is forgiveness. And in tangent with that, um, in line with that is God's mercy. But also, if you're not religious or spiritual, just forgiveness in general. I think the power of forgiveness is that it lifts the burden from ourselves. So it takes away the pain that we're carrying when we we are holding on to a grudge or anger or resentment towards somebody. When we choose to forgive, we unburden ourselves and we give ourselves that power back. But with that, too, it's also just it's a beautiful thing. We've all been forgiven as well. We've all been in a place where we made a mistake and we've been forgiven. But I just think forgiveness is beautiful and that also God continually forgives us as sinners of this world, as people who continually sin every single day. The fact that we are just forgiven by God and He just gives us so much mercy constantly is just a reminder that we ourselves should do the same for others and have mercy and forgiveness. But I think forgiveness is awesome. And it to be human is to be at error and to constantly make mistakes. And so, yeah, forgiveness is the first one. If there's somebody you haven't forgiven, this is a reminder to do some thinking today. Um, because odds are you've recently been forgiven, whether you know it or not. The next one is flowers. I so I'm actually not a huge garden person. I did in one of these episodes before I talked about how I actually have a brown thumb. Not great about plants, but flowers are beautiful. And as springtime approaches and I'm outside running, walking, just with Lainey, whatever it is, and I see flowers springing up or people planting flowers again, it brings me a lot of joy. I don't know about you guys, but just seeing that we're able to have something, especially when um it's always special to me when plants seem to defy the odds. Like I think about Ella Langley recently dropped a song called Dandelion, but dandelions are a great example of this. They flourish through the darkness and the they come up in the cracks in the cement, right? And it's such a strong metaphor for life, is that all this rain, especially it's a rainy month right now, brings such beauty. It brings the flowers, and especially flowers, like I mentioned, that flourish against all odds. So I just think flowers are beautiful, and God has such a fun way of creating art in life, right? Creating art in nature. And I don't know about you guys, but what's your favorite flower? I don't know if I have a favorite flower. I think maybe like a lily or something like that. I don't know. I'm not really a rose person, to be honest, but or a sunflower person. I think sunflowers are kind of freaky looking. They got that big middle center piece, something about them, like in from Shrek, and I like the movie Shrek, but they're just the middle piece of the sunflower is too big. I've never thought they were pretty. And some people are like, oh, they're so pretty. I'm like, it's kind of ugly. Like the middle is just too big, right? Like the middle should be smaller. Anyway, okay. Um, number three is bagels. I love a bagel. I am a poppy seed bagel girl through and through. Poppy seed with cream cheese, maybe a little bit of onion turkey, I don't know, sun-dried tomato, I don't know. But honestly, just a poppy seed toasted always, always gotta be toasted with cream cheese. It hits different. And New York does have great bagels, but um, you know, we don't have a great bagel place near where we live, but my husband and I, we love bagels. We will drive for them, we will go find them. If a place pops up with great bagels, we will go try them. Bagels are just a gift. Something about them, you know, it's different than an English muffin or a regular piece of toast or any other form of bread. It's just it hits. And my husband actually, he's recently been making homemade bagels, and I swear he has it down to a science. They're magnificent. They are so good. Um, I'm obsessed. Okay, so bagels is number three. Next one is cars, roads, and traveling fast. I think we take for granted the beauty that is the automobile, and that sounds so simple because we're so used to it. But sometimes when I'm driving around like I was this morning to get my coffee, I just remember that there was a time when it was literally horse carriages, everything was slow, you couldn't get anywhere fast. And now we can get from point A to point B like that so quickly. Um, we can visit people we love much faster. We can get to the store, we can get around, we can see we can see people, we can see others, um, we can get to church, all those, all those important things. And we just take it for granted. Like cars are crazy, roads are crazy. Sometimes when we're staring at the road, I'm like, this is weird. I'm driving this little vehicle device on this paved path that we created as human beings, and we have these paved paths all over the place because everybody has an automobile. I don't know. When you think more critically about what it is you're doing while you're driving, it's really strange. We have all these little devices that get us around really quickly. I don't know. Cars are just cool, and I'm not a car person at all. At all. My husband loves cars. He yeah, he loves cars. He knows a lot about them, he knows how to fix them. I don't know anything about cars. I'm not I'm not into that, but I still think they're such a useful device that we take for granted all the time. The next one is therapy. I recently restarted therapy just with everything going on in my family, with the illness and all that stuff, and it's been life-changing. I think if you are someone who has always considered therapy, this is your sign to try it. Um, it's such a powerful and beneficial thing, and it just does so much good, especially in whatever it is that you might be struggling with, or even if you don't feel like there's one thing in particular you're struggling with, having a third-party outsider from She's the Man, third third party outsider, I'd say la la la la la. I'm a third-party outsider with absolutely no interest in the matter. That's from She's the Man, okay. I'm just talking. But having a third-party outsider who, and if you also, if you get that reference, please drop a comment because she's the man is a great movie. Um, somebody you can talk to about your problems who isn't, doesn't know you that well, right? Like they don't, they're not your family member, they're not your friend, they just want to give you unbiased advice or just be an unbiased listener. Great. And also if you're going through trauma, like I have some trauma right now, just with everything going on, they can give you tools and strategies to process it, right? And I've had a lot of different trauma in my life. We all have. And this is it's just been wonderful. So I'm really grateful for therapy right now. Next one is fireflies. Childhood memory for me is catching them. And it's getting to that time of year when summer, right? We're in the spring, but fireflies, I can't wait for them to come back out and to go get a little container, go collect them, bring Laney. Um, I just think they're special. And it's kind of a fun thing that God put on this earth. Are these little creatures that have little lights and you can see them light up in the bushes? They're special and we take them for granted. I don't know if you live somewhere that has them, but if you do or don't, especially if you live in an urban environment, you probably don't, but um, I challenge you or encourage you to go out somewhere where you can see them because they're really pretty and I'm excited for that season to approach. I I actually don't know when it starts technically. Probably not yet, I would guess, but maybe May, June, that's my guess. May maybe. I don't know. But fireflies are awesome. The next one is blue raspberry flavor because when you have like a pack of Jolly Ranchers or a sucker or anything, I feel like everybody always fights over blue raspberry. If you're one of those weird people that likes like grape or the ones that just suck, go you because we all need a friend who likes the bad flavor because then you just take all the bad flavor, like Starburst or something, there's always a bad flavor. Blue raspberry, hands down, is always the best. Everybody fights over blue raspberry. Like the dum-dum suckers, everybody wants the blue raspberry flavor. The Jolly Rancher, I personally think blue raspberry is the best. Blue raspberry flavor drinks, blue raspberry blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Always the best flavor. It's just the best. It's always the best one. Okay? Fight me on that because I actually want to know am I wrong? Drop it in the comments, drop it in the show notes. What is the best flavor, generic flavor for anything? Snow cones, candy, blah, blah, blah, blah, sour strings, those things. I think blue raspberry far and away always takes a cake, and I'm grateful for it. Even though if you ever had a raspberry, okay, blue raspberry flavor, like what is a blue raspberry? Raspberries are red. Where did this flavor come from? Like, what is a blue raspberry? Is it blueberry and raspberry hybrid, you know, mating together and forming a new flavor? I don't know. Um, but I think it's a fun flavor and I think it's the best one. The next one is bonfires. Okay, a bonfire, and we're getting to that time of year again. Springtime, it's cool enough where it's like everyone wants to have a bonfire. The fall is also a great time of year, obviously. And the summer and the evenings. Bonfires, something about a community sitting around this element that is hot, especially when it's cold, and just talking. And it's funny because sitting in a living room and sitting around a bonfire are just not the same thing. For some reason, that conversation just feels more intense and intimate around the element of fire than it would in a living room, right? And maybe if you have a fireplace, somehow having that fire going changes the conversation, right? I'm I can't be alone in that. I feel like something about it just makes it more intimate and special. And so, yeah, I think bonfires, I'm excited for those. I love bonfire season. It is harder with a baby. I've been going through my brain of like, okay, we got to put her down, and then maybe we'd have a bonfire with some friends, and then, you know, that could work. Can't really leave the house, so we'd have to host all the time. But anyway, life just changes when you have a baby. But bonfires are awesome. Next one is sound machines. If you are one of those crazy people that sleeps with silence, I don't understand you at all. I have a sound machine going always. And right now I'm on a white noise kick. I was on a rain kick for a long time where I had rain sounds playing. Right now I'm on a white noise kick. I've had this sound machine that I've used for quite some time and it works very well. When I was growing up, it was a fan. I had a fan blowing all the time. Actually, right now I have a combination of white noise and a fan going. I do not sleep in silence, and I'm grateful for sound machines. I think they're awesome. I think whoever invented them, it's awesome. It's great for the nursery as well. Lainey sleeps with some sound, just a light, soothing sound to kind of help initiate the sleep feelings with her and also assimilate the sound of the sound machine with sleeping, you know what I'm saying? So yeah, I'm grateful for sound machines, I think, and just that we can have that. I don't know. I think it's great. And if you are one of the crazy people that sleeps in silence, please drop it in the show notes because I don't know. I when I sleep in silence, I feel like I hear everything, and then I think someone's in the house, and then I panic, and then I'm like, what was that? What was that? What was that? My husband actually can sleep in silence, and I think it's strange. He is a trooper though, because he sleeps with whatever sound I have going that night. So yeah. Um, overcast days I have next, which is like today. Today is very overcast. And why am I grateful for them? Because that makes you appreciate the sunny days more. Because if it were sunny all the time, I don't know about you guys, but I also get like FOMO when it's sunny out, and I'm like, oh, I have to go outside. Because, well, one, I live in Minnesota, so when it's nice out, you want to be outside. But two, when it's sunny all the time, you kind of feel this urge, like, I have to be outside, I have to be outside. So the overcast days give us this break of like, oh, I can snuggle inside and don't have to go sit on the, you know, sit on the front stoop or go take a walk in the sunshine because it's like it's gross out, and I'm grateful for that. But also I enjoy being outside when it's overcast once in a while. A little bit of rain, maybe, a little bit of cool breeze, wind going. Overcast days are underrated and they're special. So that is the next one. The next one is cathartic slash sad music. So I am a person, and not everyone is this way, and I'm curious who's like me. I love sad music. I am someone who loves sad songs, sad music. And I don't, I was listening to a podcast recently. I think it's on Huberman, and it was talking about how different people genetically predisposed to feel negative feelings really strongly, positive feelings really strongly, both really strongly, one, maybe just one of them really strongly, etc. I feel I feel like I feel negative feelings very strongly. And so I like sad music because it just helps me process things that are hard going on in my life. And I'm guessing that's why I like it so much, because I do think I feel I have a high negative affect, is what it's called. I feel negativity very strongly and just hard things, and then I process them through music and then I continue on with my day. And I I just love sad music. I love it when I'm running, I love it when I'm just thinking too deeply about stuff in life. Um, and I try to put all my harder thoughts and processing, this is a therapy tool, into certain time allotments in the day because it helps me also focus on the positives when I'm not processing. Um, and I feel like sad music is just, I love it. And I have lots of sad playlists. You can actually look me up on Spotify. Um, I have one called like sad run or something like that. I need to update it, it's been a long time, but yeah, I think sad music is a powerful tool for processing hard emotions, especially if you are someone who feels hard things at a high level. So I love sad music. Some of my favorite cathartic artists, I think Julia Michaels is underrated, Chelsea Cutler, um, JP Sachs, um, Noah K Kahan, Kahan, maybe. I don't know. Um, who else makes good sad music? I don't know. There's a lot out there. Gracie Abrams have some. There's a lot. I'd have to think through it. And if you guys have some really good sad music type artists, please drop them in the show notes. And the last one for you guys today is colors. Colors, my favorite color is purple. And I often wonder, and I think we all wonder this, do we all see colors the same or do we not see them the same? Like, what is purple to me? What is it to you? Right? Purple is my favorite color. Lavender, my nails are purple right now. Purple is the best to me, but what does purple look like to you? I will never know. But then we think about eye transplants, and that's kind of how I reason it in my mind is when people get eye transplants, like if something happened to their eyes and someone donated their eyes, they still see colors the same. But is that a brain thing and not an eyeball thing? Like, does that come from our brain and we'll never know? I don't know. There's no way to ever know, right? Right? But colors are awesome. So I just want to round it out with that. And um, yeah, there's so much to be grateful for. See, just going through this list, doesn't it just make you think, wow, life is pretty dang cool. All these things we get to experience, life is good, you guys. Despite the hardships, despite the tough stuff, life is good. Life is so good. And um appreciate all of you. I hope you enjoyed this episode. And like I said, this happens every weekend. So make sure you follow the pod to catch them. Have a great rest of your day, you guys.