004: The Power of Gratitude & How Thankfulness Makes You a Better Leader

In this episode of The MindHER Podcast, Mandi unpacks one of the most transformative tools in leadership and life—gratitude.

From journaling three small things after her divorce to hearing her own inner voice again on a yoga mat in Bali, Mandi shares how gratitude has shaped every part of her journey. You’ll hear how it calms the chaos within, strengthens relationships through recognition, quiets comparison with contentment, and opens your eyes to what’s still unfolding.

She also walks you through simple ways to practice gratitude in real time—before replying to an email, while leading a team, or when your faith is tested—and how to give thanks in advance for what’s already making its way to you.

If you’ve ever needed a reminder that peace, clarity, and abundance grow from appreciation, this episode will help you find your footing again—right where you are.

If you haven't already, join the 30 Days of Thanks now to get started on your gratitude journey!

Reflection Questions

• Where in your life or leadership do you feel tension—and what gratitude might be hidden inside it?
• Who needs to hear your appreciation this week?
• When comparison shows up, how can you reframe it through gratitude?
• What three things are you thankful for in advance, trusting they’re already in motion?
• How can gratitude shift the way you lead today?

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Transcript

Mandi Casey: 0:00

You are listening to The Mind Podcast where mindset, leadership and personal growth come together to help you create a life and business you truly love. I'm your host, Mandy Casey, and today we're diving into one of the most powerful and proven tools I've ever used, and that's gratitude. If you've been following me for any amount of time, you probably know that we're right in the middle of 30 days of thanks, and I couldn't think of a better time to talk about how gratitude shapes the way we think, feel, and lead. And if you're not participating yet, it's not too late to join. I'll drop a link to the gratitude challenge in the show notes. For me, practicing gratitude started long before I ever created my first gratitude challenge in 2020. It really began years earlier, probably right after my divorce, during one of the loneliest seasons of my life, someone actually suggested I tried journaling, but I didn't know where to start. So I took it upon myself to write down three things. I was grateful for every day. That was literally all I had in me. Three things, and there were days I felt. Completely untethered. The only thing I could think of to be grateful for was that I woke up or I walked to the mailbox, or that I had a job that forced me to get out of bed. It wasn't glamorous for sure, but it was real, and it's really where my life started to turn around. Gratitude doesn't require a perfect life. It creates the capacity. For one years later, when I bought my coworking space for women just eight weeks before the pandemic shut everything down, gratitude was once again the thing that grounded me. It became the anchor that kept me from spinning and fear when the world felt uncertain. And here's what I've learned since then, both through my own experience and through years of research. Gratitude doesn't just make you feel better. It actually changes your brain, your body, and your ability to lead with clarity and composure. So today we are gonna talk about four ways gratitude makes an impact in your life and how if you've already got a gratitude practice, you can take it one step deeper. And if you don't practice G Gratitude regularly, I hope this podcast will inspire you to start. The first thing we're gonna dive into is how gratitude shifts your inner world. Let's start in the place where gratitude always begins, and that's on the inside. How it calms your body, clears your mind, and quietly changes the way that you show up for yourself and everyone around you. When life and business feels heavy, our bodies shift into survival mode. We've talked about this before, the heart races, cortisol spikes, and the part of our brain responsible for problem solving shuts down. We can quickly move from clarity to chaos without even realizing it. Gratitude is one of the simplest and most powerful tools for interrupting that process. In fact, research shows that gratitude activates the parasympathetic nervous system, the part of your body responsible for rest, recovery, and emotional balance. Let me take you to Bali for a moment and show you how this played out in real life for me. In 2017, when I was really at my lowest point, I booked a flight to meet 14 strangers on a retreat in Bali with a woman that I found on Instagram. Yes, Instagram. I actually Venmo her the money for the retreat. And let me tell you, my boss thought I was absolutely insane. No, it didn't make sense on paper. I know that. But I kept feeling this tug like life was leaving me breadcrumbs and I decided to follow them. It really did feel like breadcrumbs. I'd never heard of Bali before, and then three times in one week it showed up once on a television show, once at dinner with a vendor who I'd met for the first time. And then lastly, the retreat post popped up in my Instagram feed. I was paying attention, so I said yes. What I noticed on that trip was how different I sounded to myself and to others. You see, as I got to know some of the strangers on that trip, I shared bits and pieces of my story, including what led to the end of my marriage. One of the guys on the trip, he stopped me mid-conversation. He was so frustrated on my behalf, and yet he commended me on the way that I could talk about it so casually and kindly. That's when I realized I wasn't carrying resentment anymore. I had stopped needing to defend or explain what happened. I was more purposeful with what I said, what I noticed and what I chose to hold onto. It wasn't loud or dramatic. It was subtle and steady like turning a radio dial until the static becomes a clear signal. On the last day of the retreat, I can't believe I'm about to tell you all this. I was lying on my mat with my eyes closed in Shavasana when the tears came. Not the messy kind, but the full on release kind for the first time in a long time. I felt peace and I remember thinking to myself, this is it. This is who I'm meant to be. And then I heard it clear as day a voice so loud that I sat straight up in Shavasana and looked around the shaah in Bali, and I heard. This is who you are, who you've always been. You just had to remember it. That's what gratitude did for me. It stripped away the noise, the fear, the negative self-talk, and it brought me back home to myself. Now listen, I'm not saying you'll hear the voice of God on a yoga mat in Bali if you practice gratitude, but what I am saying is that practicing gratitude shifts something within you. Your body relaxes, your brain chemistry changes, and from that clear head, you see your life more clearly. Here's an example that I love to use with leaders to demonstrate this. I want you to think right now about something you're worrying about. Maybe it's an email or something going on at work or something with your family. Just begin to notice as you think about the thing you're frustrated with or you're worried about, what happens to your body physically as you picture the email or as you picture a response. Notice those physical sensations. What I often hear leaders say is that their jaw tightens, maybe they feel tension in their neck, their hands begin to clench or sweat. Now, I want you to switch your focus to something you're grateful for. Maybe a person, a place, or a moment, and sit in that appreciation for a beat. Close your eyes. Just recall that person, place or moment, and then tune back into yourself physically right now. What's happening? I often hear leaders tell me they feel lighter. Maybe their breathing is steadier, or that they feel relaxed. Do you feel the difference? Same body, same nervous system, very different signal. That's not imaginary. Gratitude helps your system slide out of fight or flight mode and back toward peace. And this matters because how you feel on the inside changes what you do on the outside. Picture this, an email lands in your inbox and your stomach drops, or maybe a text comes through in your phone if you respond from that spike with the tight jaw, the shallow breath, you'll definitely write a certain kind of reply. But if you pause just long enough to find gratitude in this situation, your entire being starts to shift. You can respond differently. Maybe your tone softens, your options widen. That's the leadership move. Choosing gratitude before you choose your words. So here are a few really simple cues that you can use in the middle of a busy day, and I want you to try one of these this week before you apply to an email or make a big decision. Name one thing you're grateful for. Really switch that headspace into one of gratitude. When you notice your body tensing up, pause and thank your body for trying to protect you for giving you signals. Keep a gratitude anchor nearby, like a sticky note that reminds you to seek gratitude first. Each of these takes 10 seconds to shift that perspective, and you're on a whole new channel. You can't lead with clarity if your inner world is in chaos and gratitude is how you come back to that steady ground so you can lead from a place of calm, not that cortisol spike. And once you're in a world starts to study, something beautiful happens outside of you, you start to see people differently. So let's talk next about how gratitude shifts relationships and the way that we lead. Gratitude doesn't just shift how you feel, it changes how you see people. You start noticing what's working instead of what's wrong. You soften your edges just enough to stay open and that can change everything. We all have that one person in our life. I like to call her Pam, who drains us just a little bit. They mean well, but they always seem to find something wrong with. Everything, whether it's their work or their kid or their car or their husband, right? They're always complaining, and the truth is negativity spreads quickly. But the good news is, so does gratitude. When you intentionally look for what's right. It changes the way that you lead. You love and you listen to everyone around you, and there's research to back this up. Studies on team performance show that thriving relationships, whether at home, at work, or in business, tend to have a three to one ratio of positive interactions to negative ones. Every time we offer appreciation, encouragement, or praise, we are building equity in that relationship. That's why I've always loved celebrating wins as part of our culture at the collective, our coworking space. As entrepreneurs and especially solopreneurs, you don't always have that boss or teammate saying, Hey, you're doing a really great job today. So we do that for each other every day. We celebrate the wins, small or big. We cheer for the woman who finally sent the email that she's been avoiding. We high five, the ones who raise their rates after lots of discussion. We honor those who choose to rest instead of burnout. Those small moments of courage lead to the next one and the next one, and that's how we create ripple effects that impact our families, our communities, and each other. And when you think about it, that's truly the essence of leadership, helping people feel seen, heard, and valued for who they are, not just what they produce. I will tell you something else I love to do, especially in hard seasons. I come back to my kudos folder. Actually, I have two kudos folder. One is digital, one is physical. When I get a text, a DM, or an email that means something to me, I screenshot it and save it at home. I keep handwritten notes. Thank you cards and letters I've gotten in the mail that have given me hope over the years. On long days when self-doubt creeps in, I open that folder and let their words remind me of who I am. Other people's gratitude shifts something in me and it brings me back to my purpose. It reminds me why expressing gratitude to others matters so much because you never know who's holding on by just a thread and needs to be reminded that their presence in this world matters. That's what gratitude looks like in leadership. It's not about flattery. It's about intention. It's about noticing what's good and naming it. Research supports what we already know, that leaders who express gratitude, build trust, boost motivation, and create environments where people wanna contribute more. You can easily practice it this week. Think of three people, maybe a client, a colleague, or a friend, and name something specific you appreciate about each of them, and then tell them out loud. It's not a way to check a box, but instead creating a habit in how you lead. When you express gratitude, you're not just changing their day, you are changing the energy of the space for everyone around you. And of course, even with a grateful lens, there's that sneaky habit that can steal our joy, and that's comparison. Gratitude is an answer for that. So let's move on to the third way that gratitude impacts your life, and that's cultivating abundance. If comparison is the thief of joy, then I say gratitude is the thing that stops the thief at the door. And I'll be honest, this is a lesson that I still have to practice over and over again. Not so long ago, I caught myself falling into that comparison loop. I saw a person's podcast drop, and then that same day I got her email and then I scrolled past her post on Instagram, and immediately my thoughts started spiraling. She's further along than me. She's doing it better than me. Why am I not there yet? We've been in the same training program and I couldn't understand how she was getting those results, and I wasn't, it wasn't that I didn't respect her, I do, but my brain was turning her success into evidence that I was somehow behind. That's what comparison does. It feeds scarcity. So one day in the middle of the night, probably about 2:00 AM I shifted it. I turned off notifications. I unfollowed her on social media, and I unsubscribed to her emails. I gave myself permission to protect my peace while simultaneously choosing to be grateful for the season. I found myself in that next morning my gratitude journal was filled to the brim. I was grateful for the awareness that I noticed the trigger instead of ignoring it. I was grateful for the ability to set boundaries. I was grateful for the technology that allowed me to unsubscribe and unfollow. I was also grateful to that same woman for showing me what's possible. Instead of asking why her and not me, I started asking what's possible for me too. That single shift from judgment to gratitude is honestly a game changer. Competitors aren't proof that you're behind. They're proof that what you want exists and gratitude helps you to see that. It quiets the noise long enough to remind you that your timing isn't off. It's just yours. When I feel scarcity starting to creep back in, I love to go to the gratitude burst. It's a practice I learned from Elizabeth Gilbert years ago. You draw this giant sunshine on a blank page, and in the middle of the sun you put the date on each of the rays. As they extend out, I want you to label them with a category like home or family or health. And then within that ray you start free form writing everything you're grateful for about that category. I love to choose home, family, health, community or work unless I'm doing a sunburst regarding something specific in my life, and then I get specific to that scenario instead of generic. I always start the page really tired or frustrated, and by the end I can see how full my life already is. Research even shows this gratitude activates the parts of your brain that perceive abundance and possibility. So the next time comparison creeps in, pause and ask yourself, what can I be grateful for in this moment? Maybe it's the awareness or the lesson or the space you're in to grow. Gratitude doesn't mean you settle. It means you see clearly enough to keep going. And when gratitude quiets comparison, it frees up energy for what actually matters, the future you're building. And the fourth way that gratitude really impacts your life is by shaping your future. It isn't just about looking backwards, but it's also about looking forward. When I was in Bali the second time while I did my travels abroad, I had a dream one night of a bright open space filled with women gathering and laughing. In the back there was this office, and I thought it was a yoga studio at the time where maybe I'd coach outta the back office. The dream was so vivid it felt like I was there. When I woke up, I wrote my gratitude journal and I prayed. Thank you for the community that you're sending me. A few years later, I was sitting across from the former owner of the coworking space, and she was telling me she was ready to sell. In that moment, instantaneously that vision came back to mind. My dream didn't look exactly like I'd imagined. It wasn't a yoga studio, but it was the same heart. Gratitude had prepared me to recognize my dream when it arrived. Even through the bumps of buying the business, I kept coming back to the gratitude practice. Thank you for clarity. Thank you for provision. Thank you for what's already on its way to me, and that's what I love to teach leaders now, is to practice gratitude in advance and use it in their business At the end of the day or the start of your morning, whenever you choose to practice gratitude, I want you to include three things you're thankful for, as well as some things that haven't arrived yet, like clarity for the next step, or aligned clients or new friends, or peace about a decision ahead. You're not trying to control the outcome. Instead, you're aligning your thoughts with what you believe is possible. Gratitude becomes faith in motion. One of my clients learned this firsthand. She spent months giving thanks for the work that was coming and her purpose that was still unfolding while we worked together. Years later, she called me up and she was like, Mandy, I'm living The very thing I prayed for. My boss supports me. I work for a company that stands for something. It's like everything I knew would come to fruition has. And the research echoes what we see. People who practice gratitude regularly are more optimistic about the future and more likely to take steps to make that future real. Listen, faith and doubt, they're both beliefs. Faith is believing in an outcome that you do desire, doubt. Is believing in an outcome that you don't desire. So when I practice gratitude in advance, I'm choosing faith. I'm rehearsing the thought this is possible for me, and when I believe it's possible, I start to notice doors opening, the connections forming, and the answers showing up. Practicing gratitude in advance is equal parts belief and surrender. It's saying thank you for what's already unfolding, even if I can't see it yet. Next time you write in your gratitude journal, write down three things you're grateful for right now, as well as three things you're grateful for in the future. Let that list remind you that provision is already in motion and your only job is to stay aware enough to notice it. Because gratitude isn't just how we honor what has been. It's how we partner with what's coming next. Listen, I could honestly talk about the power of gratitude for hours, but I promise I won't because nobody's got time for that. So to wrap up this episode, gratitude changes everything. Your physiology, your perspective, your relationships, and your results. It's not about ignoring hard things. It's about having the steadiness to meet them well. So here's a gratitude challenge for you this week. First, before you respond to a conversation, a text, or an email, pause and choose gratitude in that moment. I'm grateful we caught this. Now I'm grateful for a clear next step. Whatever it is, choose gratitude and then reply from that steadier head space. Next, raise the energy in the room around you. Tell three people, maybe a client, a colleague or a friend, one specific thing you appreciate about them. And lastly, anger, your mindset and abundance. Do a quick gratitude burst or write three future thank yous that you'll repeat daily until they come to fruition. And if you're part of the 30 days of thanks, keep going. We are almost halfway there. And you are doing a beautiful job and if you haven't joined yet, I promise it's not too late the link to join is in the show notes. Science can explain how gratitude works, and I have no doubt your experience will prove that it does. When you look for reasons to be grateful, you'll always find more of them in your work, your relationships, and in yourself. So until next time, I'm sending you so much love and gratitude. Thanks for listening.