Latest / Good Morning From The Chicken Coop! / Season 3 - Episode 99 - The Gratitude Practice

Transcript

Season 3 - Episode 99 - The Gratitude Practice · Good Morning From The Chicken Coop!

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  Welcome to the Good Morning From the Chicken Coop Podcast with
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  Kim Johnson, your creative strategist and mastermind set
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  coach. Filled with inspiration,
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  distinctions, perspectives, and possibilities, we help you to
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  cultivate a mindset that leads you to create the best version
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  of yourself you could ever imagine.
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  Join Kim every morning from one of her favorite happy places,
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  her chicken coop along with all her chickens.
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  Hey, everybody. Good morning from the chicken
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  coop. If you hear some weird sounds in
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  the background, it might not just be the chickens today
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  because apparently we have a wild Peacock that has shown up
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  in our neighborhood and boy is he loud.
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  I always thought I wanted a Peacock until one showed up and
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  now I'm like, oh maybe not. Anyway, if you hear it, that's
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  what that strange sound is. OK, so today we are talking
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  about gratitude practices, and I think this is such an
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  interesting subject because we're told you should practice
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  gratitude and I agree. I 100% agree that we should
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  practice gratitude. The challenge that I have with
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  it is that it often becomes A to do item on the list where you
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  just have to run it, do it, check it off and move on.
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  And I find that to be the most difficult part for myself and
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  for my clients. Over the years, I've changed
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  mine. And I'm going to teach you this
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  today because I think it's important to understand some
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  distinctions about it and that you can be successful with it.
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  But what I just witnessed with my clients often is they will.
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  You know, people that come and do coaching and listen to this
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  kind of stuff tend to be the the people who will throw themselves
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  into being consistent and forever learners.
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  When you're a forever learner, you're always taking in more
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  information and you hear different things and then you
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  try different things out and then they get disappointed with
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  themselves because they can't keep up with what the person is
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  telling them. So often gratitude is the
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  subject because it it is a key, it is an absolute key piece of
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  the puzzle to success and to long term well-being.
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  And there are many different, Just like there are many
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  different diets in the world, there are many different ways to
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  go about practicing gratitude. Now, I have tried a lot of them.
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  I won't say I've tried all of them.
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  I would have tried a lot of them.
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  And for me, most of them didn't work because I can't just go
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  ahead and put something on a piece of paper in the morning
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  and put something on a piece of paper at night and then for the
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  rest of the day, forget about it.
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  It just doesn't work. The way my brain is wired, it
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  just doesn't work for me. I feel like I'm just checking
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  off a box and I often tell a story about a family member who
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  used to wear a what would Jesus do?
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  Necklace and read the Bible every morning and then she would
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  leave and then be dreadful to people and then come back at
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  night and read her Bible. And I always felt like the
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  hypocrisy of that was just too much for my heart to bear and I
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  just I I this reminds me of that.
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  So when you are not practicing gratitude throughout the day,
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  you you lose sight of what it really means to practice
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  gratitude. And the small stuff you know,
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  you've heard so many people who have said you know, don't don't
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  miss the small stuff, look for the small things, look for all
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  the great little things that you you see all day and can
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  experience all day. And I could not be in more
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  agreement of that. I could not be in more agreement
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  of that. I think that that is a key,
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  essential tool, if you will, to human psychological well-being.
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  You have to stop multiple times throughout your day.
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  So my practice for gratitude was developed because I absolutely
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  needed to settle down. I have a brain that runs very
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  fast. I'm all over the place.
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  I still do, even with everything that I know and all the training
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  I have. I have a coach.
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  I have to practice this because this is something that is a big
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  deal for me. My brain runs 100 miles an hour,
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  as my husband would happily tell you.
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  He'll say, Why are we talking about this now?
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  Because you're thinking too far ahead, or you're doing this, or
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  you're doing this. And it's true.
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  I have a very hard time organically staying in the
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  moment, so practicing mindfulness.
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  If you've ever practiced mindfulness or attempted to
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  practice mindfulness, which which is what it is for me, I
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  attempt to practice mindfulness, It's really just being in the
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  moment. It's being wholly present in the
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  moment you're in and not having your body being doing something
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  and your hands being doing something, but your mind being
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  in 10 different directions, like a whirling dervish out there all
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  over the place. It's hard.
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  Mindfulness is very, very hard, and it's something that we have
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  to constantly practice. And it's something that I work
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  on every single day without fail, no matter what I do.
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  Work on it. Because for me, I have made that
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  as important as hygiene. Brushing my teeth, taking a
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  shower, it's just as important. Cleaning my brain, that is just
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  as important. If I'm willing to take a shower
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  and brush my teeth, I've got to be willing to do something for
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  my brain. So for me, mindfulness is part
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  of it, but how I get there is a little different.
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  So think of it this way, instead of just being in the moment and
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  looking around and saying, OK, here I am, here is a tree, here
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  is the ground, here are my shoes.
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  Here's this if that just felt like I was disconnected.
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  Still, just because I noticed little things didn't mean I had
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  any emotion around it. And as someone who's emotional,
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  we all are just didn't feel right to me.
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  So I started infusing my mindfulness with gratitude.
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  Meaning every time I saw something, I could pour into
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  that and say I was grateful for it.
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  Like, for instance, I could be grateful for toothpaste.
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  I mean, what an amazing little thing that somebody came up
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  with. Or a paper clip.
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  I mean, really pause and think about how cool a paper clip we
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  just use them and we don't even think about them.
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  But it's actually someone actually invented that.
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  You look at that. It's it's pretty cool.
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  Or what nature has for us everywhere.
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  Flowers that show up randomly when you're walking something
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  that grew through the sidewalk always amazes me.
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  And I have such. I think admiration is probably
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  the best word for the seed that never gave up and it just found
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  its way right through the most difficult thing that it possibly
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  could concrete. And here it is.
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  But I'm talking like every little thing that you can think
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  of. I'm grateful that I can buy
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  food. I'm grateful that I can get, you
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  know, time with my family, my chickens, grateful that I have
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  these amazing creatures that I get to spend time with and then
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  a coop. But also every time I go pick up
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  an egg out of the coop, I can say I'm so grateful for these
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  eggs. I'm so grateful for the time
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  that I get to spend with my chickens and watching them grow
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  and seeing them hatch their own eggs and having the babies
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  around. I'm grateful that I get to be
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  able to free range them and let them have a great life in the
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  space that we're in. All little tiny things, it
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  doesn't matter. Pine cones, I don't care what
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  you find. And I said pine cones because
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  I'm out in there chicken coop and I see pine cones all over
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  the ground. It doesn't matter.
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  You can have gratitude for any little tiny thing if you pause
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  and just think about it. And part of this practice is in
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  the pause as well, because you know, before you actually create
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  a reaction or a response, we're hoping you're going towards the
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  response part. You have to pause.
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  And if you've done any of research, you understand then
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  that that breath and that one breath moment you can catch
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  yourself and say, OK, what's the direction I want to go?
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  What do I want to feel? And I'm just telling you, that's
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  the moment where you say I can be grateful for this, or I am
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  grateful for this, or I'm so excited about this.
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  Work your way towards acknowledging those tiny, tiny
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  things and develop this gratitude practice.
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  And I promise you, your days will change and fewer and fewer
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  things will irritate you, my friends.
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  And better and better things will come your way.
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  Because the more thoughtful you are and your gratitude, the more
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  grateful you are about things, the more flows into your life.
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  So practice, practice, practice, and I will see you all tomorrow.
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  Bye.