Latest / MIDDLE GROUND - Real Conversations on Faith, Identity & Becoming — Through Brynne's LDS Lens of Curiosity, Love and Doubt / Gratitude Isn't Just a Nice Idea — It's the Thing That Actually Gets You Unstuck
Transcript
- Brynne Erickson (00:31) With this being the season of gratitude and giving, I would really love to talk about gratitude for a few minutes, but probably from a different perspective and take than you are used to. I love how the word vibe is really big right now. And vibe essentially stands for vibration. And vibration is a form of energy is essentially how things are the way they are. They all have a vibrational frequency that is either high, neutral, or low. So high vibrations are emotions, feelings ⁓ that are uplifting and light and empowering and keep you moving forward such as love and gratitude, bliss, compassion, joy, faith. Those are all higher emotions that we associate with joy and happiness. And then Obviously the opposite would be lower emotions. So guilt, resentment, shame, hate, those are lower vibrational energies, frequencies that keep you stuck and stagnant and feeling low. And what is important to know about vibration is vibration attracts like vibration. ⁓ truly believe in the law of attraction and what you put your focus on is what you bring more of into your life. And it's how you choose to see the world. So if you choose to see the world in a lower vibration and you're just like, why is my life so hard and so awful? It's because you're seeing it that way. Like you're finding evidence for it around you and you're attracting it. Whereas if you have that higher, that more positive, glass half full perspective, you're gonna experience more joy because you're finding evidence for it all around you and you're attracting it to you. So that's why gratitude is so important. It helps you keep that higher vibration, keeping in that state of positivity and joy and happiness, love, compassion, gratitude helps you stay in that higher emotion. And now obviously we go back and forth like constantly, right? Like you're not always gonna feel love, joy, faith, gratitude all the time. there are days that are hard, there are moments that are hard, but the awareness of it is so critical. So when you do have those moments or times of your life where you are feeling low and stuck. can do something about it knowing that you can get yourself out of that slump. and there's so many ways to do that whether it's some personal maintenance. think it really is important to have some healthy habits that help raise your vibration. whether that it's gotta be self care in some way for sure. and caring for others in a way that aligns with you. think serving others and taking care of yourself, loving others and loving yourself are so important. And maintenance of that daily in some way is critical to helping you get out of the low vibrations ⁓ because it happens throughout. the day, right? You have the highs, the lows, some are more neutral in the middle. They're helpful. neutral area is more helpful and necessary, but generally they're still not desirable. So a lot of terms that we use for these emotions are good and bad, but the reality is, is they're all just neutral. The feelings themselves don't hurt you. They're just information. But as far as vibrations go, we do tend to want to be more light, joy, love. Those are the desirable ones, right? So maintenance is super important to help us feel more of that. taking time to find evidence for it. And that's what gratitude is. Gratitude is that opportunity to look for evidence of the joy in your life, ⁓ the positivity, the blessings, the things that are working for your good, even if it's hard to see how or why in the moment. Gratitude, I think, is the maintenance thing. And I learned that how I was raised to pray, a big part of prayer was saying thank you for something. The food, three times a day, I was raised saying a prayer for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. You thanked for the food. You'd say other things as well that you're thankful for, and other parts of the prayer wasn't like a rote prayer, but food, food prayers tend to be pretty rote. ⁓ But again, like just taking that moment. for gratitude is incredibly helpful in just keeping that perspective of looking for evidence of what is helping you find more joy in your life and what is helping you live the life that you truly desire. So with this season of gratitude, it truly is a recipe for finding joy and there's a scripture. in the Book of Mormon that says Adam fell that men might be and men are that we might have joy. And I love that. Like to me, I love how it starts with the creation story, Adam falling in the Garden of Eden so that man could exist. And why are we here? To experience joy. And guess what? You, Have control over how much joy you experience. even when it's hard, even when it feels out of control. you actually have more say and power in creating joy in your life. which is pretty awesome. We're not just subject to what people say and do to us. We can recognize how we feel in those moments when someone says something or does something, and that's good information, but we can get out of it by changing our thoughts about that situation. I find that compassion is really helpful when someone says something or does something that's hurtful. trying to see it from their perspective and why maybe they would say that. Like, what do they think? What do I know about this person? Or even don't know, like what could be going on in their day? What is their background like? What are their beliefs that would cause them to say such a thing or do such a thing? And compassion is a good step into raising yourself. in those circumstances where you're being acted upon per se and raising yourself from that lower vibration to that higher vibration and living more in light than the heavy in the dark and I'm so grateful for that knowledge and I find that I am in the light and the joy, the higher vibration, the high vibe a lot more ⁓ than the love. and it is a wonderful place to be. So I encourage you as a part of your daily maintenance to help you stay in high vibe to implement some form of gratitude, whether that is a meditation, a prayer, writing a few things down, you were saying it around the kitchen table, something while you're driving, like there's so many ways that you could incorporate this into your daily routine. And I really do believe that it is beneficial and I hope that you find a way to incorporate it and that you find that it works for you too. All right, make it a great day and find some things to be grateful for.