The Chris Voss Show - The Chris Voss Show Podcast – Gopi’s Gratitude Journal by Gopi Nair

Episode Date: June 10, 2025

Gopi's Gratitude Journal by Gopi Nair Gratitudepractitioner.com Amazon.com Seven Virtues of Gratitude! A world that is mired in utter negativity, the only hope is Gratitude. Gratitude can erase negativity from every human mind, like the light removing darkness! Gopi believes that Gratitude is a panacea for all human suffering, caused by health, financial and social problems. Almost all of us tend to live in the past courting the bygone pain, frustration, and betrayal. When not dwelling on the past, we tend to be afraid of the future, imagine the "what if, what if, and what if!" Once you start practicing Gratitude, your mind is focused in the present ans is assured of the ultimate joy in life. Living in the present is the Alpha and Omega of the inner joy!About the author Gopi Nair is a Gratitude Practitioner. Gopi's mission in life is to inspire the world, one person at a time. A world that is mired in utter negativity, the only hope is Gratitude. Gratitude can erase negativity from every human mind, like the light removing darkness! Gopi believes that Gratitude is a panacea for all human suffering, caused by health, financial and social problems. Almost all of us tend to live in the past courting the bygone pain, frustration, and betrayal. When not dwelling on the past, we tend to be afraid of the future, imagine the "what if, what if, and what if!" Once you start practicing Gratitude, your mind is focused in the present ans is assured of the ultimate joy in life. Living in the present is the Alpha and Omega of the inner joy!

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Some guests to the show may be advertising on the podcast, but it is not an endorsement or review of any kind. Today's featured author comes to us from bookstolifemarketing.co.uk. With expert publishing to strategic marketing, they help authors reach their audience and maximize their book success. Today we have an amazing young man on the show. He is the author of the latest book to come out called Goopy's gratitude journal by goopy there. Uh, we're going to be talking to him about his insights, his experience and all this stuff about his book.

He's a gratitude practitioner. His mission in life is to inspire the world. One person at a time, well, that is mired in utter negativity and the other hope is gratitude. Gratitude can erase negativity from every human mind, like the light removing darkness. He believes that granted gratitude is a panacea for all human suffering caused by health, financial and social. Problems.

All of us tend to live in the past, courting the bygone pain, frustration, betrayal, when not dwelling on the past, we tend to be afraid of the future. Imagine the what if and what if, uh, once you start practicing gratitude, your mind is focused on the president or the present and is, uh, assured of the intimate joy in life. Welcome to show. How are you Mr. Nair?

I'm doing fine. How are you doing? Grace? I am doing good. I am doing good. Give us your dot coms Where can people find you on the interwebs? gratitudepractitioner.com And give us a 30,000 over you what's in your book? We are talking about gratitude the practice of gratitude as a way of living. It is not a one time event or one week, it is a way of living. You look at life through the prism of gratitude.

In 2016, when I was looking for a gratitude journal in Barneson Noble, I couldn't find a good one. So I decided to write one. And that's how Gobi's gratitude journal was born. Oh, wow. Wow. Tell us the details inside of it. Is it like a journal for the year, day by day? What do we see inside of it? It is day by day. Every day you can write a few minutes in your gratitude journal. Now, why gratitude? Why should we practice gratitude? People always say, oh, I am grateful to my parents, I am grateful to my teachers, mentors

and close friends. What is so big deal about gratitude? Yeah, what is so big deal about gratitude? Yeah, what is the big deal? The big deal is gratitude, when I say is a panacea for all our ills, like whether it is financial, personal, health, because it removes negativity from the source of human mind. it removes negativity from the source of human mind Negativity is a cancer of the mind and you cannot even remove cancer of the body Unless you cure the cancer of the mind. That is what exactly gratitude does Hmm. Well, it's gratitude sounds like some good stuff to me then sounds like something we maybe all could use there

So with that, what prompted you to want to write this book? You know, long time ago, I'm 81 years old right now, but inside I feel 36. Long, long time ago when I was growing up in a small village in Kerala, India, my mother always used to tell me, Gopi, whatever God gives you, accept it with both hands and say thank you, it could have been worse. So I have used her wisdom as a problem- technique, no matter what the problem is. That's what I want to share with the world. In gratitude is something that's real important to take and have and find in your life. I found that sometimes in my darkest moments, finding gratitude of being grateful for what

I do have as opposed to maybe what I do have, as opposed to maybe what I lost or what I wanted to have and thought I was going to get. What are some of the benefits of practicing gratitude utilizing your journal? Well, if you looked at my title, you know, it is crazy. I am crazy, of course. I call myself a gratitude practitioner. And I have never heard that expression before. In 2016, I started practicing gratitude as a way of life. And as soon as I started practicing gratitude, maybe in 30 days, I started to notice two changes in myself.

Number one, I stopped judging other people. Hmm. Judging other people is so much fun. I love judging other people. Well, in your business probably yes. But I was not judging people left and right, but as a human tendency, we always judge other people. But once I started practicing gratitude, it started infusing doses and doses and doses of empathy in me. I start looking at things from the other person's perspective In other words, I started to step into the gratitude shoes of the other person. Hmm And so by understanding and empathizing with the other person You you can maybe understand things better as opposed to maybe getting upset with them. Yes, exactly Hmm. So this is pretty interesting.

So how did you get into the field of gratitude and helping people learn to be, you know, gratuitous and etc., etc., or how gratitude, I should probably say. How did you get into this? A. You know, I have to go back to my mother again. She is my guru or my teacher of gratitude. Years ago, when I was growing up in a small village in Kerala, India, my brother used to work in the northern part of India.

And every month as a clockwork, he used to send a letter and a money order to my mother. Coming from a lower middle class or middle class family that was the only source of income we had. So we were very happy to receive the mailman and it was like a celebration. As soon as my mother signs for the money order and receives the letter mother signs for the money order and receive the letter, she would offer the mailman a simple vegetarian lunch. And after the lunch, my mother also would offer him a gratuity or a tip of one rupee. Being the youngest of the family, I had certain privileges using that privilege, I asked my mother giving lunch to the mailman, I can understand because that used to be our custom in the house.

But why should you give him one rupee, especially when we don't have too much money to spare. She drew me close to her, looked into my eyes and told me, Gopi, this is the mailman who brings good news from your brother. This one rupee that we give to him is a token of our gratitude. Even though I really didn't get it, but at least it appeased my curiosity. Yeah. Well, that will definitely do it. And so how did you find that gratitude changed your life when you adopted it? You know, I have been in sales for the last 50 years, 50 plus years. And selling life insurance is the toughest sale in the world.

Oh yeah. Think about it. You are telling a man, well, when you die, your wife is going to get a million dollars and she's going to have a good time. How many people want to hear that? She's going to have a good time with all that money she got. Right. She's gonna have a good time with all that money she got. All right. It's rejection after rejection after rejection the new cell life insurance. Yeah. And a lot of people don't want to, you know, they don't, it's hard to believe sometimes that we're going to die. It's hard to face that like that. And I think funeral insurance is hard to sell because, you know, we don't want to, you know, you feel like you're accepting the fact that you're mortal which you are

But you know some people denial Love it. So um Yeah Uh, and so you came with this book now you have multiple books out don't you don't when you say you do Yes, I do. I have written 13 books so far And what are the books mostly about? About the managing your mind. If you don't manage your mind, somebody else will mismanage it for you.

Yeah, that's true. That's true. It could be your spouse, it could be your children, it could be your boss, it could be a stranger on the expressway. Hmm. What role does gratitude play in healing, whether emotional, physical or spiritual? Let's start with physical. Whenever you are not at ease, we call it a disease. I have a disease. Meaning you are not at ease we call it a disease. I have a disease meaning you are not at ease. Every disease or physical illness begins in the mind. Most of us think about the past what happened 20 years ago and we still cling to the past 20 years ago and we still cling to the past. And that causes a lot of pain. That's why the great Lord Buddha said, pain is inevitable, but suffering is optional.

Ah, so it's optional. We don't have to suffer people. You don't have to be a victim all the time. Correct. And that is what exactly gratitude does. Gratitude helps us to erase suffering from the shores of human mind. Hmm. Well, we need to erase a lot of suffering because there's a lot of people running around

being victims in this world. Tell us a little bit about how you grew up. What inspired you to start writing books? And how did you know you were good at it? Well, I did not know. I was even not thinking about writing a book. I learned English as a second language. When I grew up with my native language, which is Malayalam. Okay. M-A-L-A-Y-A-L-A-M. Uh-huh, what country does that originate from?

Pardon me? What country does that originate from? India. Yes. There you go. Now I used to hang out at Borders Bookstore when my second son, Harry, was in high school. And we used to hang out there and he will wait for me to come from office so we could go to Borders. One day when we were there, there was a book signing going on.

So we went for the book signing and listened to the author speaking and bought a book and then I declared to my son that Hari, I want to sit in the chair and sign my own book one day. And he was a second year in high school. He said, yeah, dad, you can definitely do that. He is always an encouraging person. To increase my craziness and to, I did not know at that time I was putting my foot in my mouth. I went to the lady who arranged the book signing and told her, I will come back here to see you. I want you to arrange a book signing for me. She said, Mr. Nair, you are a regular customer here. I will have no problem convincing my boss to arrange a book signing for you.

I have never thought about writing a book. Now I really put my foot in my mouth. I have no choice. So I started writing a book about mental science. One, no one. And, and hopefully you can battle negativity. Now you've got some other books that are kind of interesting as well. There was a book that you wrote called how I made half a million dollars

in selling at age 69. I found that kind of interesting. Yes. I just wanted to inspire the younger generation or young people coming into the sales world. I know it is tough to sell anything. After all, the life itself is the art of selling nothing. You are always constantly selling something to your wife, your children, your small children, you know, just like that four-year-old girl said dad If you say please I will let you carry me that is selling Let you carry me that's a that's a good one. I like that one. Yeah, so, you know

It's it's an interesting world. The other thing you have I see here is a book called 100 essays on gratitude for daily transformation. Are those, is that very separate than the journal book or did you integrate some of the details in that one? Some of the details, you know, when you practice gratitude, you are practicing empathy. We talked about empathy. Empathy according to me is listening without judging. You give five minutes of your time to your spouse or your other children or your friend or somebody who needs your time to take something out of the chest. And at that time, you don't give them advice you just simply

sit in silence note and listen to them help them get something out of their chest no okay that is the best you can do for a person who needs your help sit and listen just listen don't don't give your advice. And I can't be judging. No, but I like judging. Well, maybe in your, in your profession and in your background, I know you are an ex FBI agent in charge of a whole state negotiation. So in your case, probably you have to constantly judge. Now you're actually thinking of another, there's two different Chris Foss's. I'm the one with the huge podcast. Yeah. But I'm the original Chris Foss's award. So anyway, the, so your, your goal,

what do you, do you offer services on your website? Do you do coaching? Do you advice, you help people one-on-one with programs or anything like that? To be honest with you, no And I don't give any my challenge is to inspire one person at a time I have not taken it to any commercial level at this time My challenge is to make a difference in the other person's life. So anybody

can call me and I will share my experience with them. I don't have any wisdom to share, I have only experience to share. So that is what I do and gratitude is also respect. One of the most misunderstood word in the English language is respect. See, I respect my teachers, I respect my parents, I respect elders from the church. So what is more there to talk about respect? But respect is a line of dignity. No matter who you are, who the other person is, he could be your spouse, he could be a child or he could be a stranger on the expressway or he could be a homeless person. We have to show respect and when you cross the line

of dignity, you are not respecting that person. When I teach the attitude you are also teaching people how to be respectful. It doesn't matter who the other person is. Well we need we definitely need to be holding each other more respectfully and actually behaving in respect and a respectful manner. I'm a believer that respect needs to be earned. I'll be gracious to you as a human being. I'll be, you know, basically empathetic. If you're hurt, I will assist or call 911 or I'll help you. But to me, respect is kind of earned. What are your thoughts on that? Because I just can't walk around giving people respect that think they're entitled to it. They've got

to behave in a respectful manner. So, if I see somebody behaving disrespectfully, I can try and understand them, I can try and be empathetic, that doesn't mean I have to respect them. What are your thoughts on that? I respectfully disagree with you. That's why we ask. If another person does not show respect towards you, it only shows his character. It does not reflect on you. I see. Okay. So I respect anybody and everybody because it is not the form that I am looking at. It is the unity of spirit that we all carry within us.

So there is a spirit in you, there is a spirit in me. No matter who you are and who I am, we all come alone and we go back alone and we all live in a borrowed body with borrowed time. What can you feel if I disrespected somebody today and tomorrow morning I am not there or he is not there? I will feel bad about that because I will not get any other opportunities to say sorry. So respect reminds you to the need that you have to be appreciative of everybody, everything in this world. Yeah. And gratitude is also appreciation.

And many of the human suffering today is because of the lack of appreciation. I want more. I want more. I want more. But I don't know what I have got. I have no time to enjoy the things I got. One day a young fellow asked me, Gopi you are talking about gratitude under all circumstances. It is also the same message Saint Paul echoed when he said, be grateful under all circumstances. Yeah.

So this young man asked me the question, Gopi, if my father just died, you want me to be grateful? I said, yes. That is pathetic, he said. I said, no. Why is it necessary for you to be grateful? Number one, it is your father who just passed away. He taught you a lot of things.

He showed you how to be a man. And this is the time for you to act on his advice not to cry about what you lost. It is your mother and your siblings, they need your help. They are looking for an anchor to latch on to their life. That anchor they had is lost, so you are the anchor. So you have to be grateful for all the lessons that you learn from your father and this is the time for you to take that mantle and run with your family. That's why you have to be grateful. When you are grateful, you accumulate your energy. When you are ungrateful, you dissipate all your energy.

Yeah. I mean, I've gone through some of the darkest times of my life, cathartic moments. And I, and I have found that, um, by, by, um, uh, what I found that is by, um, being grateful at that moment, sitting down and sometimes it's a moment of loss. Sometimes it's a moment of cathartic change. It's out of my control. Sometimes it's, it was in my control change. It's out of my control. Sometimes it was in my control and I fucked it up. But basically, you know, it's a hard time. And so, and sometimes you're kind of overwhelmed by the loss of it all, because you're like, I've lost something. And, you know, you kind of have to understand, you know, memento mori and, and so this is a Marcus Rellis talks about this. And I think other

stoics that you never own anything in this world. You never have anything. You know, I used to have when my first dog died, I had problems with, with feeling like something was taken from me. with feeling like something was taken from me. And in memento mori, in soticism, they teach that it's never yours. My dog passes through my life on her journey. It's her journey, it's not my journey. She's the one who had cancer, she's the one who had to deal with daily at the end

with all the hell that she was going through. And it was her journey, it was her decision to live life she wanted to live. And for me, that's what a lot of us are doing. We're all passing through each other's lives and we don't own anything, you know? And so this mind trick that we play with ourselves that we're like, you know, we own this, you know, I own this car, I own this house, and as long as I have this, I'll be happy, you know? Those sort of Faustian bargains we make with ourselves.

And then when we maybe lose them or loved ones, spouse or girlfriend, boyfriend, people in your life, children, parents, we feel like something was taken from us when really it was never ours to begin with. And so by having the gratitude of sitting down and go, what am I grateful in life right now for? I went through that in 2008 with the mortgage crisis. So I went through that during COVID where I sat down,

I said, what do I have? What are my real assets? I'm sure I'm losing a lot, but what I have, and it's kind of interesting when you focus on what you do have, you realize you probably still have the most valuable things you can ever have. Love of good people, family around you. For me, a dog, dogs that love you unconditionally,

there's a lot of great things that I have in my life that I should be grateful for. And sitting around, you know, throwing a pity party just doesn't help get out of that cathartic moment that you need to grow from. I agree. I agree with you. Well, I'm glad we got that settled. Any more thoughts as we go out as to what people need to know about gratitude, how I

can help them and how they can really use your journal to get that done? Yes. You know, there are three things we can do as a daily practice in gratitude. As soon as I get up in the morning, or wake up in the morning, before I get out of the bed, I say, I'm grateful to the universe, I'm grateful to the universe, I'm grateful to the universe three times.

And it is the best way to start a day. You know, people do not realize one thing, the human mind is organized in certain way. We have a master mind, the conscious mind and we have a subconscious mind, the servant mind. There is a dialogue going on all the time within us. The master mind or the conscious mind says, I am terrific today. And the subconscious mind echoes, my master says he's terrific or she's terrific.

Let me make sure that she's right or he's right. So everything that we do that day will be terrific because he started the day like that. When I'm expressing my gratitude, the subconscious says, my master wants to be grateful for everything that happens today. Let me make sure he's right and he does it. So that will be the trendsetter for

the day. And, you know, gratitude is one, is a thing. So, you know, I set aside Sundays as my gratitude. I call it, what do I call it gratitude for gratefulness and archives day So it's a day where I sit down. I kind of go through my photos process my photos Uh make sure that they're backed up stored Uh, but it's also to kind of reminisce about my life Uh kind of meditate a little bit if you will where I kind of trying to be in a peaceful state And I think about you know, what's going on with my life,

what all the things are. And that just really helps me when I do that. And it kind of starts my week off really well because there's kind of this meditative approach to it. And I really tend to enjoy it and find that it's really good. Sometimes I've talked before about this sitting out in the sun, soaking up the vitamin D rays and I'll read Marcus Aurelius or some stoic material while I'm out there. It really helps me get the day started off right. That's the way to go. That is the way to go either every day or once a week, once a month, but the more you do the merrier and it will bring more peace in life, more tranquility in life, more harmony in life, and it will also help you manage your mind better because your mind is not agitated. Pete Yeah, we kind of have that ego mind that whips at us, don't we?

Where it likes to remind us of mistakes we've made in the past to try and keep us remaking it, but sometimes it can get really abusive. That is true. That is very true. It's a human nature. Mm-hmm. But then gratitude helps us to iron out the wrinkles in the human mind. Mm-hmm. Yeah. It brings more harmony.

My human mind is pretty old, it's got a lot of wrinkles to it. We all have wrinkles. Yeah, I think it needs some ironing at this point. I could use some mind ironing. The attitude is mind ironing. Gopi Sathya Gopi's Gratitude Journal is available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble and wherever books are sold. And my email address is gratitudepractitioner.com The final thought I have is destiny has given all of us a book of rules, a bag of tools and a lump of clay. All of us must and all of us will either make a stumbling block or a stepping stone. When you practice gratitude, you can convert every moment of sorrow into a moment of joy.

Every moment of sorrow into a moment of joy. Wow. When you practice gratitude, you can convert every experience into a, every bitter experience into a better experience. And when you practice gratitude, you are making two people happy. The person who expresses gratitude and the person who receives the gratitude there are two winners Hmm. There you have it folks. Well, thank you very much sir for coming on the show. I really appreciate it Thank you very much Chris for having me and I'll be more than happy to come on your show anytime Sounds good. Thank you very much for coming the show

Thanks for tuning in open order of the book where fine books are sold go peas the show. Thanks for tuning in. Order up the book where fine books are sold. Gopi's Gratitude Journal out September 7, 2021. Check out his other books as well. Thanks for tuning in. Go to Goodreads.com, Fortress, Chris Voss, LinkedIn.com, Fortress, Chris Voss. Chris Voss won the Tik Tokkity and all those crazy places in it. Be good to each other. Stay safe. We'll see you next time. That should have us out.