High Performance Mindset | Learn from World-Class Leaders, Consultants, Athletes & Coaches about Mindset - 527: Gratitude is a Choice

Episode Date: December 22, 2022

Gratitude is connected to better health, more optimism, and an increased in resiliency. This week you could start using a scientifically proven tool to increase your gratitude. Three tools we discussed are starting your day with gratitude, using gratitude language, or trying the Grateful Flow exercise.    This Week's Power Phrase: “I choose to intentionally practice gratitude daily. I focus on what I am grateful for to stay fueled and excited for my life.”    This Week's Quote of the Week: “Acknowledging the good that you already have in your life is the foundation for all abundance.” Eckhart Tolle   

Hi friends, my name is Dr. Sindra Kampoff, a national leader in the field of sport and performance psychology. Every week I'm on the local radio sharing my top tips on exactly how to develop the mindset of the world's best, so you can accomplish all your dreams. Get ready for a jammed packed episode focused on practical tips to help you get after your goals and step out of your comfort zone. Let's go. Time to check in with Zendra Kampoff today. And today we're talking all about gratitude,

Zendra. Can you tell us a little bit where we're going with the quote, gratitude is a choice? I love this quote by Eckhart Tolle. He said, acknowledging the good that you already have in your life is the foundation for all abundance. And what inspired this particular topic? Well, I think this time of the year can be really overwhelming. You know, family get-togethers, maybe traveling, shopping. And the more and more I read about the power of gratitude, you know, it's one of the most powerful emotions that we can really choose because the reasons are it's connected to better health,

like physical health, stronger mental health, and we're more resilient when we're grateful. So what exactly do you mean by gratitude then? Well, how it's really defined and how I would describe it is kind of the sense of wonder or thankfulness and appreciation for your life. And I think you can show gratitude by counting your blessings and noticing how fortunate you are. You can express it by thanking people in your life, but also by just really cherishing moments in your life, big or small. And at the heart of gratitude is really our ability to appreciate our life in the present moment. So can you tell us more about why gratitude is so important? Yeah, you know, I would say it is more than just saying thank you. And it

really lays kind of the foundation for us just to feel fulfilled in our lives. And we can intentionally practice gratitude every day. The reason I think we want to continue to do this is just to balance out our own negativity bias that we can have as humans. And it's a great antidote for when we're feeling worried or stressed. And we also know from the research that when we're grateful, we're more likely to be less judgmental of ourselves. We're kind of more free of regrets. And we're less likely to be hard on ourselves, which are all of like really great attributes from a mental health and psychological perspective. For sure. What are a few ways that we can practice gratitude as we head forward this week and beyond?

Sure. Well, I'm going to share with you kind of three scientifically proven tools to help us feel more gratitude. And the first one is just to start your day with gratitude, something I call a grit morning routine. The first step of that is gratitude. And you can find more information about this at beyondgrit.com slash morning. But what it includes is just for one minute, think about the things you're grateful for. And you could also do this maybe at the end of your day. But this is a great way to kind of prime your focus just to choose more gratitude. And it could be even things that you're, you know, difficult things you could be grateful for. A second tool you could use is just using more grateful language or gratitude language. Things like blessed or fortunate or privileged or abundant or lucky can help you feel more gratitude over like regret or unfortunate or hopeless, words like that. And then the last one I want to talk

about is called a grateful flow. And this is a tool I was just reading in a book by Phil Schultz. And he talked about, you know, just for 30 seconds, name at least five things you're grateful for. And he said, kind of when you're doing that, connect with your heart. And he said, even after you stop thinking about the things you're grateful for, you can feel the gratitude in your body. And so all these things are really, you know, choosing gratitude and intentionally practicing gratitude every day and doing it in a way so that you do feel better and feel more of the benefits of just a grateful focus. Cinder, with this time being around the holidays, do you have any ideas you could share on how we can increase our gratitude? Yes. I think, you know, when your family's all together or maybe your friends are all together, just go around the table and, you know, ask, have everyone share one thing they're grateful for or what they're happy about right now or what's going right in their life.

And you can kind of even feel the energy change just by, you know, five or six minutes of talking about great things in people's lives. And that's really about intentionally practicing gratitude. And how would you summarize today for us? I would say that gratitude is connected to better physical health and more optimism and resilience. And so I'm going to encourage people over the holidays is to intentionally practice gratitude. You can do it with one of the three tools I talked about. And just, you know, continuing to prime that focus with gratitude is key. So what is this week's power phrase, Sindra?

I choose to intentionally practice gratitude every day. I focus on what I'm grateful for, to stay fueled and excited for my life. Sindra, how do we get in touch with you or follow along if there is any questions that we have about the work that you do? Sure, you can head over to Dr. Sindra, so D-R-C-I-N-D-R-A. And you can find my book Beyond Grit, which I talk about some of these tools in that book. Way to go for finishing another episode of the high performance mindset. I'm giving you a virtual fist pump. Holy cow, did that go by way too fast for anyone else? If you want more, remember to subscribe. And you can head over to Dr. Sindra for show notes

and to join my exclusive community for high performers, where you get access to videos about mindset each week. So again, you can head over to Dr. Sindra. That's D-R-C-I-N-D-R-A.com. See you next week.