Sarita (00:07.754)
Hello love and thank you so much for being with me here today in the favorite part of my week, which is actually being with me here in this podcast. It is literally the highlight of my week to create and share with you the tips, tools, and resources that I have to help you and assist you along your healing journey.
Sarita (00:32.689)
And today one of the tools I'm going to be sharing with you is a practice that I have personally been doing for the last five years and has helped me change not only my mindset, my nervous system, my heart, but most importantly, my vibrational energy.
Sarita (00:56.531)
So this particular practice I'm referring to is the gratitude practice. Regardless of your spiritual or religious beliefs, the act of giving gratitude is only going to make you feel better.
Sarita (01:18.483)
Simply put, gratitude is showing appreciation for something or someone. And when we take the time to show appreciation and acknowledgement, it actually signals to the energetics that be or that person that we are giving gratitude to that and we want to receive more of that
Sarita (01:49.555)
So my actual personal gratitude practice has changed over the years and how I do it on a daily basis, but I still do it every single day. I didn't personally grow up with a daily gratitude practice. However, there were multiple exposures that I had to gratitude outside of just Thanksgiving.
Sarita (02:19.099)
I grew up in a religion called Christian Science and one of these podcast episodes, I will dive a lot deeper into that experience growing up as a Christian scientist. But for now, I wanted to share that one of the experiences that helped shaped my view was something that Christian scientists do every single Wednesday.
Sarita (02:49.201)
On Wednesday in the Christian Science Church, they hold an evening service where the second half of the service is actually dedicated to people who want to share testimonies of healing.
Sarita (03:06.353)
Unfortunately, my family didn't go to these Wednesday services too often, but as I got older, I had some friends who would take me here and there. And then when I got to college, I would actually go on a consistent basis because I loved to hear people's gratitude on their healing journeys and the healing that they had experienced through the religious practices.
Sarita (03:35.227)
Listening to the testimonies always made me feel so deeply satisfied inside because that was something that that person was experiencing even as small or profound as it could be. It just gave me this really warm, satisfied feeling.
Sarita (03:57.011)
But unfortunately, when it came to me giving gratitude, I always seemed to stumble over my words.
I remember so clearly as a younger thing when I would go to Thanksgiving at some of my friends homes and we were required to go around the table and mention what are the things that we're grateful for. I remember my heart pounding and my brain just going racing trying to think what the heck can I share? What the heck am I actually grateful for? And I ended up saying things like, I'm grateful for the food, this company. And I was just always very...
unclear of my gratitude. Now as a more evolved person, I realized that it was a byproduct of not taking the time to really sit with gratitude and reflect what it was that I was actually appreciative of in that present moment in my life. And including my inability to vocalize gratitude to the people around me and myself.
Sarita (05:06.867)
So as I got older into my 30s and I jumped into the online entrepreneurial spaces, I noticed that a lot of the entrepreneurs that I was following were talking about having a gratitude practice and they would be writing down in their gratitude journal on the daily.
Sarita (05:27.847)
And I remember thinking that it was such a great idea that I took the journal that a friend had given to me and I pulled it out and I remember writing my very first entry. And I have this memory of me sitting on the edge of the bed, or I should say on the floor and using the bed as my table and staring out the window thinking, "geez, what is it that I'm grateful for?"
Sarita (05:55.281)
And so kind of like robotically, I started to write things down like, I'm grateful for my family. I'm grateful for my boyfriend. I'm grateful for the job that I have. I'm grateful for my dog. And the list went on of the material things that I was grateful
So the first time that I did that, it felt really awkward because I hadn't taken any previous time to actually think about what it was that I was grateful for in my life. And it seemed like I hadn't developed the full muscle to build up and get accustomed to writing down my gratitude
Sarita (06:38.835)
But I decided to stick with it and I made sure to write in my gratitude journal every morning or in the evening reflecting on that day's gratitude.
Sarita (07:10.995)
Then life started to get a little complicated and I was taking on my responsibilities and emotions were coming up and this particular practice ended up going by the wayside. However, because I had started building up the muscle of gratitude and expressing my gratitude, I would acknowledge before I went to bed at night or when I woke up in the morning, some of the things that I was grateful for in reflection of that previous day or that night.
Sarita (07:54.867)
So then life started to get a little bit more complicated and I was taking on more responsibilities and more emotions were showing up. And so that particular practice ended up going by the wayside because I had gotten a little bit more busy, but I had started building up the muscle of expressing gratitude. And so then I would acknowledge my gratitude before I went to bed at night or when I first woke up in the morning.
Sarita (08:27.783)
And then somewhere along the line, I started to jot down my gratitude in my notes and my iPhone when I was going throughout the day and I had a moment to reflect.
Sarita (08:45.831)
And I really love that particular practice because that practicing that way of gratitude actually developed a conditioning for me that when I notice something to be grateful for in that moment, I acknowledge it right then and there.
Sarita (09:05.191)
I felt like it was a really good time to do it in that moment, to document it. So then later when I was actually doing my gratitude practice, I would have some sort of reference to reflect on.
Sarita (09:24.275)
So after about four years of playing around with the gratitude practice and having a specific designated time for doing it, the reflecting sessions, I started to desire
Sarita (09:56.147)
So after about four years of playing around with the gratitude practice and having a designated time to doing the practice, and then also doing it in the moment and having reflective sessions, I started to create this more deep desire and looking forward to things to actually be grateful for.
Sarita (10:24.935)
The first time I struggled to write down things that I appreciated. Now I had turned into a version of me that expected good things to happen and that I was already grateful for the things that were coming my way in
Sarita (10:50.279)
And so an interesting thing that I noticed was that the list of gratitude of things that I had listed before went from material things in my life to actually being grateful for some of the challenges that I had made and discoveries and opportunities to discover myself on a deeper level.
Sarita (11:15.857)
my gratitude muscle had become so strong that if you
Sarita (11:38.877)
So now my gratitude practice and muscle has become so strong that if you were to sit by me in the car or walk alongside me when I was taking a walk, you would hear me actually talking to myself and reflecting on gratitude every single moment.
Sarita (12:15.655)
And so my gratitude practice and muscle has become so strong now that if you were to sit next to me in the car or walk alongside me when I was taking a walk, you would hear me talking to myself and reflecting on how grateful I am.
Sarita (12:38.897)
At every moment and at every turn, I try to give as much gratitude as possible for being provided the experiences this life gives me no matter what.
Sarita (12:56.147)
So the beauty about these practices as...
Sarita (13:19.155)
So the beauty about practices such as these is that they can mold and they can change as you mold and change.
Sarita (13:31.933)
What once used to be a challenge will no longer be hard when you keep at
Sarita (13:42.097)
And a gratitude practice can look different for different people. Perhaps you like to write down your life in the morning.
Sarita (14:16.507)
And the beauty about practices such as these is they can mold and change as you mold and change.
Sarita (14:26.695)
What once used to be a challenge will no longer be hard when you keep at
Sarita (14:37.265)
and gratitude practices can look different for different people. Perhaps you're the type of person who likes to write down your gratitude part in the morning, or maybe you like to reflect at night.
Sarita (14:52.763)
Or perhaps you're more of a verbal person and like to take the time to give gratitude when you're brushing your teeth or you're taking a shower.
Sarita (15:08.583)
no matter what, there is always, always, always time to incorporate a gratitude practice in your busy schedule.
Sarita (15:21.127)
And again, I want to remind you that no matter what spiritual teachings you come across, gratitude will always be a center focus of it simply because feeling grateful just makes you feel better.
Like really giving gratitude, nothing negative can come from expressing gratitude. And what's really cool is on the emotional scale, if you look at the emotional scale triangle, you can Google that, gratitude is the highest vibrational frequency out
Sarita (16:02.257)
Remember how I said just listening to others give gratitude? I felt and it made me feel so warm and fuzzy inside and that was because I was feeling their energy. When they became in an energetic state of gratitude, it is practically impossible not to join in on that state.
Sarita (16:29.573)
And in all actuality, gratitude helps you find peace from within.
Sarita (16:38.951)
Remember how before I understood how gratitude I
Sarita (16:53.779)
Remember before how, before I understood how gratitude worked, I would have a racing thoughts and.
Sarita (17:20.039)
Remember before how I did not understand how gratitude worked and I would have racing thoughts and trying to think about what it was that I was grateful for? Having gratitude and having a gratitude practice has actually helped me calm way down, find peace from within, and help me vocalize myself better out loud to other people and myself for their presence.
Sarita (17:55.781)
If you don't do a gratitude practice at this time, I'm hopeful this episode will enlighten you to start to create one.
Sarita (18:07.727)
If you already have a gratitude practice, I'm so happy for you and I cannot wait for you to share with me. You can share with me via DM on IG what you do to incorporate gratitude on a daily basis.
Sarita (18:25.811)
Thank you so much for being here in this very short episode. I am gonna be closing this one with a very mini gratitude meditation that will help you reclaim that inner peace.
Sarita (18:48.709)
Enjoy and I will see you in the next episode and as always keep being the amazing you that you are. See you next
