[00:00:00] Welcome to the UFFDA podcast hosted by Emily O'Connor and Jordan Rudolph. The UFFDA podcast brings you a surprisingly fresh take on everyday topics in health, fitness and everything in between. We want to open the door to explore new information and new solutions in a way that's easy for you to understand and apply to your own life.
Let's get into today's episode.
Introduction and Holiday Season Reflections
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! Podcast. I'm Jordan Rudolph.
And I'm Emily Morris.
We're happy to see you again, I guess, or have you listening again, be back again. Uh, we are a week before Christmas as you are listening to this.
Yeah, which is kind of crazy when we think about it.
Bonkers. Like every, every time I think [00:01:00] about the fact that Christmas is in, at the time of listening to this one week, uh, at the time of recording a little bit over, uh, it's wild.
Yes. So. And here we are right in the thick of it.
Yeah.
Understanding and Managing Stress
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Um, one of the things that we've talked about in the last two or the last three episodes were, like, how to manage this holiday season, how to thrive during this holiday season.
We talked a little bit about stress before. And it's one of those things, like, if somebody's stressed, if we are stressed, if we give, uh, any more notion, energy, acknowledgement, awareness towards it, and it's always one of those things where if somebody tells you, like, hey, you're stressed, what happens when somebody tells you that?
You get more stressed. You get pissed off. You get upset. You get angry. And it's not usually at the person calling it out. It's more so, like, I'm just mad at myself because I know I'm stressed and I'm letting it get to me. Now I'm letting it affect other people.
Absolutely.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. It
just continues, like it brings it to that forefront where you're like, oh gosh, yeah, I am stressed.
Oh God, like why am I stressed? Then you're stressed about being stressed.
Correct.
Right? It's the whole, yeah.
100 percent stressed about being stressed. Yeah. And then we realize like a lot of this is probably just [00:02:00] based on control.
Mm hmm.
Going through the rabbit holes of this, right? It's, it's the inch wide, mile deep.
Mm hmm.
The Power of Gratitude
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But one of the things we often don't think about when we are stressed, when we are busy, When we are trying to do all that we can for others and making sure that we're staying, uh, as helpful and as useful as we can, as Arnold would say, is gratitude. We, we, we tend to let gratitude slip a little bit, and, and it's because we can't be present, we're not acknowledging ourselves, we're not appreciating the moments as much as we usually can because this is just a quote unquote stressful time of year.
But we're going to go through a little bit of some, maybe some science and some tactics and some strategies of why gratitude is so important in today's episode. We're going to keep it short and sweet right to the point. Uh, and then I'll just throw it back over to you, Em. Why is gratitude so important?
Yeah, well I think you alluded to it right there in that, Gratitude can keep us at, for one reason, in the present moment, [00:03:00] and acknowledging what is happening in the present moment, that is good, right? We talked a few episodes back, or maybe I talked about a few episodes ago, I don't remember when we talked about this, but where we as humans, it's easy, To recognize and to focus on the negatives of things going around us, right?
When we're stressed, it's easy to just focus on the negatives and the causes of that stress. But when we can pull back, there's often a lot of good. There is, I would argue, always some good that can come out of even the Challenges and the toughest of times. So by practicing and being aware of gratitude, we're not only forcing ourselves to think of those good things and think of those things that we are grateful for, that we are thankful for, but it also allows us and subconsciously we will start to see those things.
Faster and see those things easier [00:04:00] than really having to ponder and really having to dig deep to find them. So one reason is just that awareness and that presence that gratitude can bring to the current moment instead of. thinking about the past or moving immediately on to the next thing because it is such a busy season.
With all that easy to get lost, right, with with what you just said and how quickly that is there, what do you think happens to people, um, let's just take a quick deeper dive in because I think this is very relevant for people to hear and especially coming from, like, This is becoming more and more of our jam, you and I.
This is where we like to tap into people because we understand if they're not operating in a level of Um, of personal abundance, gratitude, curiosity, openness, with a clear vision of what they want and how they want it, and, and, and wants and aspirations, and they're focusing more on fears and frustrations.[00:05:00]
We don't get anywhere. We, we, we be, we lose our sleep. We lose our, our hope, if you will, a little bit, not, not a lot, but we tend to almost care too much, you and I, on the success of somebody or wanting to help with somebody, but we can't lead a horse to war. Right, the horse to water thing. Yes. Like, we can lead the horse to water, but we
We can't make them drink.
Right. Yes. So, when we think about this, and if somebody goes through this level of, um, uh, frustration through this, and they're not practicing gratitude, or they're not acknowledging gratitude, they're just not, like, focusing on it. What happens I know you just described it there, but take a, take a deeper dive and like what happens to that person.
What do you think, what do you think really frustrates them in that moment?
Yeah. Oftentimes when we, I mean, we know when we focus on those frustrations, everything that we're worried about, everything that we are afraid that happens, does start to happen. Because we aren't focusing on the things that we want.
We aren't focusing on the good. But [00:06:00] instead, everything that we're afraid of happening, becomes the good. Our reality, right? We're not focusing on instead of what we aspire to be. We focus on the fears and that starts to become the reality, right? I've done episodes on the thoughts and the words become your stories that you tell yourself.
The stories lead into your actions and your actions create that reality. And when we're focused on what's frustrating when we're not focusing on the gratitude, gratitude. Yeah. Our reality quite literally becomes that. It becomes our fears. Our fears start to come true.
My, my key word that I, that was burning in the back of my head, that I was hoping you would say there, and you literally said it 13 times, and maybe it was 9, is focus.
Our focus changes. And our energy goes where our focus is, right? Our focus goes where our energy flows, is the, is the, Is the, I think we actually had an episode. We did. Literally named that. Um, might have been in this season, don't remember. We've done too many episodes now because we're a big deal. Haha, I
think it was this season.[00:07:00]
Yeah, but the focus part, their focus is not necessarily on the things that can be of gratitude or of beneficial. Um, I like to also think that the person in that state almost becomes competitive with themselves. And everything around them, everything becomes a competition. Even eating well, sleeping, just doing the normal routine.
It all becomes competition. And what happens there is what you just said, too. We start acknowledging and giving too much power and too much focus to just for being blunt and Frank, like the negative stuff, the bullshit that's out there. That's, that's making this worse. That is a catalyst that exponentially grows this.
Implementing Gratitude in Daily Life
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So if we stay with gratitude for a moment, how do we focus on gratitude? Like it's, it's one thing if you and I are just telling it and saying it and doing it, but that is a big part of it, right? We have to act it. But how do we [00:08:00] have a person understand or be aware of gratitude? What's the, what's the, what's the way that we can help somebody with that?
For sure. I think one of the easiest ways is, again, you alluded to kind of that awareness, but taking the time to actually physically list the things that we are grateful for can be such a powerful thing. Whether that be, In the morning, at night, right? Choosing three to five things. And when we start this, oftentimes we find that it takes some time.
It takes a moment to really actually think, especially on the tough days. Like, wait a minute. It's going to feel
uncomfortable when you first start doing this.
It's hard, right? And
deep.
It's hard to kind of come up with things. Like I always remember, uh, not to go too off on a tangent, but when we were growing up as kids, family dinner, we'd always say grace before, and everybody had to share something that they're grateful for, right.
Every single day. And sometimes it's a surface level thing and sometimes it's a little bit deeper, but every day we had to. [00:09:00] Think about what we were grateful for and share it and it really creates this habit of Then as we start to write them down Starting to think like oh my gosh, I gotta write that down I better start thinking now and then we start to recognize those moments of gratitude More and more throughout the day because we know we have to write them down later or say them later
Well, we start operating through it right and and when you're not acknowledging those things and and and I and I and I say this like A lot of your initial stuff will be skin deep when you first start doing this.
Let it be. It'll feel uncomfortable because you feel like you can't be, you're not grateful for anything. And don't be hard on yourself, listener, when you're doing this. I'm not talking to Emily. I'm talking to you. Um, just let it flow. Let it be open to accepting and receiving and then acknowledging it.
And one of the cool things I love to do with people is they do this journal. Or if they don't want to do a journal, they do a piece of paper or a post it note. They write these three to five things down right before they go to bed, right after you brush your teeth, right? Put [00:10:00] this thing in your bathroom vanity in the mirror somewhere like that and then leave it there and go to bed.
Why do I say put it in the bathroom? Because what's one of the first things all of us do when we wake up in the morning? Brush teeth. Brush our teeth. And we go to the bathroom, and guess what, we're doing it in the exact same spot we did it the night before, and we see that list. So now you're going to bed, thinking about the three to five things that you're most grateful for that day, and you're waking up the next day and seeing those three to five things that you were most grateful for the day before.
You ended your day, and you started your day with gratitude. How powerful do you think that can be for you? Listener, I'm not asking that to Emily again. When I'm asking it to Emily, I'll talk to her, and I'll say her name. That's to you. Now going back to you, Em, like how powerful do you think that could be for somebody?
I mean, it's massively powerful, right? We've seen it when we work with people who start doing this and then all of a sudden it becomes just the thing that they do, right? It's like any other habit, but their actions, like you were alluding to, change [00:11:00] throughout the course of the day as well. When we kind of end cap the day, morning and night.
With this practice, we start to then act through that. We start to start to think about it. We start to use different words, our thoughts change, the stories change, the actions change, and everything else is impacted as a result of that.
When people feel like they're just getting their ass kicked by life a lot too, a lot of times they'll focus on all the things that life is kicking their ass in and how much they feel like they're getting their ass kicked and all the losses that they're having.
This same type of thing that we're talking about with gratitude works for your wins. What are your big three personal wins that you had each day? Write them down and then look back at it after a month and see how much you've accomplished.
Conclusion and Final Thoughts
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The last thing I'll say is how this operates with gratitude because Em and I are on a time crunch and we have to go in like 45 seconds.
This works by rewiring your brain and making your brain more aware through the reticular activated activation system, RAS. When you get a new car and let's say [00:12:00] it's a totally different car that you ever had or you get a new color of car. The one thing that you start noticing when you're on the road is all the other colors of that car or all the other types of cars that are actually out there.
I got a Jeep five years ago and I didn't realize how many Jeep Wranglers were out there, right? But they were everywhere. Like, I knew it, but now I see them everywhere because you have to Jeep Wiggle. When you start operating through gratitude, your brain will pick it up for you automatically. It'll, it'll start recognizing that throughout the day.
You'll start shifting the way you think and how you think.
Absolutely. As always, thank you guys so much for tuning in to this week's episode of the UFFDA! Podcast. Share this with someone who you think will find it valuable. Leave us a rating, a review, subscribe, download, all the things that help us to grow organically, and we'll catch you in the next episode.
Bye, everybody.
Thanks, everyone.
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