High Performance Mindset | Learn from World-Class Leaders, Consultants, Athletes & Coaches about Mindset - 149: Choose Gratitude Over Stress

Episode Date: December 24, 2017

“Gratitude turns what we have into enough.” Melody Beattie High performers intentionally practice gratitude daily. They know gratitude is the perfect antidote to negative emotions because it’s impossible to feel gratitude and fear, anxiety, worry, envy or anger at the same time. They use tools to increase their gratitude to thrive during the holiday season. Power Phrase This Week: I choose to intentionally practice gratitude daily. I focus on what I am grateful to stay in the present moment. Dr. Cindra Kamphoff is a Certified Mental Performance Consultant, Speaker and Author. She provide mental training for the Minnesota Vikings along with many other college and high school sport teams. Cindra speaks to businesses and organizations on how to gain the high performance edge while providing practical strategies that work. Her clients range from Verizon Wireless to Mayo Clinic Health System. Cindra's first book: Beyond Grit: Ten Powerful Practices to Gain the High Performance Edge was published in August. Her Ph.D. is in sport and performance psychology and she is a Professor in Performance Psychology at Minnesota State University. To book Cindra for your next speaking event, visit: cindrakamphoff.com For more information about Cindra's book, visit: beyondgrit.com 

Welcome to High Performance Mindset with Dr. Sindra Kampoff. Do you want to reach your full potential, live a life of passion, go after your dreams? Each week we bring you strategies and interviews to help you ignite your mindset. Let's bring on Sindra. Alright folks, here we go. It's time for High Performance Mindset today with Dr. Sindra Kampoff. Sindra is here. Good morning to you. Good morning. It's great to be here. Good to have you in. Couple of things. One, nice win by the Minnesota Vikings yesterday. That was pretty fun. Came out really firing on all cylinders this time around and took care of the Cincinnati Bengals.

Got to see Teddy Bridgewater step back in the game. And just even being at home, I was practically in tears just listening to the crowd when he walked out on the field. Then he threw a pick and it got real quiet real fast. But hey, after 700 plus days of sitting on the sidelines in recovery, that's pretty neat to see him come back out onto the field. That was definitely the loudest I heard the crowd. It was just phenomenal.

Unbelievable. Nobody left because they wanted to see Teddy. Right. And on another note, if you're going to lose somewhere along the way in the playoffs, you like to eventually and ultimately lose to the team that wins it all in yesterday, excuse me, Saturday, Texas A&M Commerce. That just a low seed in the playoffs, just mowed through team after team on the road,

got to host a game in the semifinals back home, and then went on to win the D2 National Championship against West Florida yesterday in Kansas City, Kansas. So the Mavericks were eventually bounced by the team that won it all. So there's that. That makes you feel better. To hang your hat on. Yeah, it helps ease the pain a little bit. A little bit. Anyway, moving on to today's topic. It's very perfect for this time of year. It's very timely.

And so we're going to talk about it. It's called Choose Gratitude Over Stress. There we go. And everybody now has gone, oh, okay, what's this all about? Let's start with a quote. So I like this quote a lot. So I think it really fits with what we're talking about today. It's a quote by Melody Betty. She said, gratitude turns what we have into enough. I like that. That's awesome. All right. So give us a good example here. Well, I think at this time of the year, holidays tend to be really busy for people. There's parties to plan, maybe parties to go to, dinners to make, gifts to purchase, money to spend, and maybe even, you know, there's a little bit more stress at work. And on the people that you appreciate, that you love, maybe the opportunities you've been given in your life. And what's really powerful about this is according to kind of this new emerging research is that,

you know, making gratitude a regular habit can reduce blood pressure, experience less stress and anxiety and depression. So there's a lot of powerful ways and powerful reasons why we should practice gratitude more often. All right. So what do you mean by choose gratitude? You know, I really see it as a choice. And what we're talking about today is it's making it an intentional practice. So gratitude is a perfect antidote to negative emotions like stress or just other negative emotions like anxiety, fear, worry,

envy, maybe anger. And so gratitude is really about noticing the gifts around you, the small things, the big things, and it helps you stay in the present. And the present is really where we're at our best, not in the past or the future when our mind isn't in there. And gratitude is something, again, we can intentionally practice. We've talked a little bit here already about maybe some of the physical things that are good about being grateful. So what are the benefits that you see of gratitude? You know, I think that the coolest new research, this is by Dr. Rick Hansen. His research shows that gratitude actually changes your brain and it can strengthen the existing synapses and the kind of the frontal cortex in your brain. So just by, you know, practicing gratitude, you can think about it as strengthening your brain.

But there's lots of other powerful benefits. It helps you exemplify the good, like the good things in your life, the good people, the good within you. It increases your happiness and optimism. And, you know, I think even in sport, it can help you to stay more in the present and sometimes reconnect with why you like it. So how do we improve that? How do we sit and go, okay, I need to be better at that? How do we actually do it? So I'm going to share with you kind of three ways that you can do it during this holiday season.

So the first way is just to reflect on the people that you are grateful for. So, you know, there's a lot of people in our lives that we can be grateful for. Our family, our friends, people from the past, maybe our mentors. And even during the holiday season, even the difficult relatives that you connect with and you meet or you see again, there's great qualities about them. And you could also just be grateful for the people who are helping you check out at the grocery store, when you go shopping for your Christmas presents. But just during this holiday season, reflecting on the people that you're grateful for can improve your gratitude. People.

Okay. So what's another way we can practice? The other way you can practice it is just by savoring the experiences during this holiday season. And what I encourage people to do is just kind of take it in, 10, 20, 30 seconds, to kind of what's going on around you. I'm trying to do this more with my kids. And, you know, when I see my kids just being silly or just, you know,

sometimes my husband and I will just smile and smirk at each other. And, you know, just like letting that gratitude fill your body. And it could be the big moments, you know, the small moments. But there's so many things to be grateful for, you know, like your health or the food that you get to eat during this holiday season or the friends or family around you. So how about a third way? You said there were three ways. Yeah, towards the end of this year, you could even take the long view and think about, you know, the past year and what's gone great about it. Reflect on things you can be grateful for in the past year and even the difficulties you've experienced. You know, was there a situation, you know, that you can learn from, maybe a problem that's actually

a gift? You know, was there a difficult situation that you handled well? So even like looking back at the last year and seeing how you've grown and the things you can be grateful for, even if it didn't go perfectly. Seems like there's really easy ways to be grateful and then some more that might be a little more cerebral that you can put your put some work into. So a final message today about about gratitude and why it is important. You know, I think it's important because gratitude gives us so much positive energy.

And when we have more positive energy, you know, that that positive energy is contagious. And it's a really important time because it is a time where we can experience a lot of stress. So, you know, what I encourage people to do is just when you feel the stress or anxiety, just like gently guide your focus back to what you're grateful for, the small things, the big things. And the great news is the more that we practice gratitude, the more we're likely to experience in a deeper way. Awesome. Some good stuff as we head into the holidays. How do you take this whole topic of choosing gratitude over stress, which there seems to be plenty of this time of year, and summarize that? So I would say high performers, those people who are working to reach their greater potential, they intentionally practice gratitude daily.

And they know that gratitude is a perfect antidote to negative emotions like stress or fear or worry or anger. And they use these tools to increase their gratitude so they can thrive during the holiday season. All right. And if you follow Sindra on social media, you'll know that the affirmation for every week, the power phrase that goes up after our conversations here in the morning is there. You can always go and like that and share it with people and pass along that message. What's that affirmation for this week? I choose to intentionally practice gratitude daily. I focus on what I'm grateful for to enjoy this season and stay in the present moment.

All right. And if we want to follow along with you and listen to, I've been listening to some of the podcasts. Getting back into that, I kind of let them build up and then when I get out on the road running again, I'll listen to a couple of them while I'm running.

Nice. Some good stuff there that people can listen to whether you're listening to them while you're maybe at work, after you're done listening to the country Club in the morning, of course. Of course. But there's plenty of great opportunities to get some good, useful stuff from Sindra on a daily basis, if not once a week with us here on the Country Club.

How do we get in touch and follow along with you? You can find more information about the podcast by searching High Performance Mindset on iTunes. And then you can find more information about the videos and the book that I wrote at drcindra.com. All right. There's a lot of stuff going on there. We are grateful for you every Monday. I know that for sure because it kind of helps us pick up on something positive to head into the work and school week with. It's a reset.

Yes. Nice. And so we are grateful for that. However, this will be it for a little bit here. I know. Christmas next Monday. Yeah, Christmas on Monday. New Year's the following Monday.

So, Sindra won't actually be back in studio with us until January 8th. So, enjoy your time off. I will. And hopefully, we'll be in touch soon. I'm sure we'll be chatting about Vikings football wins and where we're going to land in the playoffs along the way. I'm sure. I'm grateful for you having me every Monday and just the opportunity to share a positive message.

So thank you very much. You are welcome. Another High Performance Mindset coming up on January 8th here on The Country Club. We'll see you in 2018. You bet. Thanks, Sindra. Dr. Sindra Kampoff with us today. High Performance Mindset on Minnesota 93.

Thank you for listening to High Performance Mindset. If you like today's podcast, make a comment, share it with a friend, and join the conversation on Twitter at Mentally Underscore Strong. For more inspiration and to receive Sindra's free weekly videos, check out DrSindra.com.