193: The Simple Practice I Never Skip

Hello my friends. Welcome to today's episode of the Professional Creative. I'm Bonnie Christine and I'm so glad that you're here. Today we're exploring this concept and power behind having a gratitude practice. Now, gratitude has affected me in so many ways over the years and it has helped me really focus on turning difficult times or obstacles into opportunities. So today I want to share really how I do this and how it's shaped my life and career. Plus, I've created a free printable gratitude prompt for you to really help you practice this on your own. And you can download that in today's show Notes.

I'm Bonnie Christine and this is where all things creativity, design, business and marketing unite. I'm a mama living in a tiny town tucked right inside the Smoky Mountains, running a multi seven figure business, doing the most creative and impactful work of my life. But when I first set out to become an entrepreneur, I was struggling to make ends meet and wrestling with how to accomplish my biggest dream of becoming a fabric designer. Fast forward to today. I'm not only licensing my artwork all over the world, but also teaching others how to design their creative life and experience the same success. I'm here to help you spend your life doing something that lights you up. I'll help you build a creative business that also creates an impact, changes people's lives, gives you all of the freedom you want, and is wildly free, profitable. Welcome to the Professional Creative Podcast.

Gratitude sounds really simple, but I think that it's not something that we do by accident. Even if we generally feel thankful, there's something about naming and putting a specific word to what we're grateful for. And that part of it I don't always find really easy. You know, when we're navigating life and struggles and uncertainty and roadblocks and just the busyness that is our day. I think pausing to find something grateful just, it often doesn't cross our mind. So being really intentional about it, it is what has made the biggest difference for me. Maybe you've experienced moments where you felt stuck or overwhelmed or unsure of what to do next. And you know, you're not alone. We all do, and I do constantly. Gratitude, you know, it doesn't erase those challenges, but it does do this incredible thing where it shifts our perspective and helps us find meaning in the now. And even when things feel difficult, that's where the gratitude practice comes in. It's really simple. It's a daily habit. And honestly, I think it can change everything when we reflect on what we're Thankful for it shifts our focus from what's lacking to what's abundant. This creates space for joy and creativity and connection to really come to life. So if you're looking for a place to start, I encourage you to keep a gratitude journal. It doesn't have to be complicated. I'll share with you what I'm doing for this shortly. But you can just jot down one thing, two things, three things every day that bring you joy and that you're thankful for. Maybe it's something as simple as a sip of your favorite coffee in the morning, or it's the rain outside because it represents everything that you love. Or it can be something deeper or more complicated. Right? They can be small, they can be big. They can be friends, family, loved ones, health. So many things that we have to be thankful for. Gratitude has been really a thread running through my journey into surface pattern design. You know, back in 2009, I was trying to piece my dream together with scraps of information from all over the Internet. And it was overwhelming and it was sometimes discouraging. But looking back, I was so grateful for those early days. Every single challenge, every single unknown, every single stumbling block, it ended up being so incredibly valuable. Struggling to learn Adobe Illustrator and figuring out how to design repeating patterns and mustering up the courage to pitch my portfolio, it built resilience in me. Those lessons laid the foundation for everything that I've achieved since. And so when we're in it right, it's really hard to feel grateful for it. And oftentimes the most difficult times of our lives are the ones that have gotten us to where we are today and have really helped us grow. And then when I finally began to teach and I started hearing stories from women all over the world whose lives had been transformed by learning surface pattern design. You know, moms who brought their kids home from daycare, and artists who started their own businesses, and people who found new joy and fulfillment through creativity. It was gratitude that kept me going. I was so incredibly grateful for the opportunity to share, to teach, and to be a part of someone's journey and to be a part of such a beautiful community. Those stories fill me up with immense gratitude. And they remind me why I do this work, even though sometimes this work is hard. I want to invite you to just make gratitude a super simple part of your life.

Gratitude.

It doesn't need to be complicated. I think sometimes we think it does. But one of my resolutions for this year was to do a daily journal, and I've been loving it. So the goal has been to journal in less than 10 minutes a day and just kind of capture what's going on, what's going on in my life, in my business, what's going on in the world. And then some key things that I really want to be intentional about. And one of them is what am I grateful for? And it's been such a beautiful invitation to just pause and reflect and document. So here's a super simple framework that you can use for yourself. One is just set aside a time part of creating a new habit is like, great, when and where are we going to do that? Right? So if we want to start exercising or we want to start eating better or cooking at night, or we want to start doing something like reading 10 pages of a nonfiction book, the next phase of making that habit come true is identifying when and where. And so with this daily journal, I struggled with that. I set the intention and I forgot to set the when and where. And so I was trying to get up early and do it, but I wasn't super committed to that. So then I would be doing it in the evening sometimes, and I finally just realized I wasn't clear about when and where. And so then I started setting my alarm 15 minutes early, doing it in the morning. And so I've loved that. So you've got to just set aside the time whenever it works for you, right? Morning is a great in time to set your intention. Night is a great time to reflect on the day and then just write down. It can be one thing, it can be two or three things, But I want it to be specific. So focus on specific moments or experiences or people that really brought you joy that you're truly grateful for.

Okay, picture this. Have you ever spent hours scouring through your video or maybe your podcast content trying to find that one place that you said that one thing. Or if you've forgotten or never found it and you had to rerecord everything, I've been there, and it's so frustrating and honestly a huge waste of time. But it hasn't happened to me ever since I started using Searchie. Searchie is the software that I use for all of my videos and all of my podcast content, because it not only transcribes it, but it makes it searchable by key word. And so for you to see this in action, I have an example set up for you over on bonniecristine.com resources. Again, that's bonniecristine.com Resources. And you can actually play with Searchy and see how it looks on one of our videos because once you understand what it does, it's a game changer. I also host all of my workshop and my class, my membership and course material through Searchie as well. So students can can search for any question that they have and go to the exact time and place where I talked about that one thing. And just imagine this. If I ever do a Q and A and they want to know if I answered their question, all they have to do is search for their name and see if I did or not. It's literally like having your very own personal search engine for your content. So no more wasting time scrubbing through your video or audio to find that one golden nugget. With Searchie, you can easily find what you're looking for in seconds. Just type in a keyword or phrase and Searchie will pull up all the relevant content. It's a game changer for anyone who creates audio or video content. But honestly, that's not all. Searchie's new AI powered transcription and captioning tool makes it easy to create accessible content that everyone can get access to. And with their customizable player, you can embed your videos and your podcasts on your website or social media channels in a way that looks and feels so professional. So if you are ready to take your video or your podcast content to the next level, head on over to BonnieCristine.com resources and just give Searchie a try. It's incredible. I think you're going to love it and I can't wait to see how it revolutionizes the way you create content.

And then the next thing is that I love to reflect on growth. Consider, you know, what have you learned? What growth can you be grateful for? What have you accomplished in the last day, week, month, year so that you can really start to appreciate the journey? I know you, you're like me and oftentimes we just kind of barrel roll through from one accomplishment to the next and pausing to really be grateful for how far we've come and what we've done is so incredibly important and it's powerful. So to make this even easier, I've created a pretty little printable gratitude journal prompt that you can go download today over@PropriationalCreative.com use it to guide these reflections and your gratitude time and not make it a meaningful part of your day. You know, I don't know if any of you struggle with anxiety or feeling anxious or feeling worried about things. This is probably the thing that I work on the most. I have been on a long journey with Anxiety and really getting a hold of my tendency to worry too much. And there's a verse in the Bible that I love so much. It's Philippians 4, 6, 7. It says, Be anxious for nothing but in everything by prayer and supplication. With thanksgiving, let your request be made known to God. And then the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ. Okay, so when I was really struggling the most with anxiety, I read this, and that with Thanksgiving popped out at me. For the first time in a long time. I hadn't really thought about the with Thanksgiving, meaning with thanks, with gratitude. With Thanksgiving, you literally can't experience the anxious feeling like anxiety and gratitude can't coexist. And so gratitude has been a huge part of my, I don't know, call it recovery outside of being really struggling with worry and anxiety. And so it's super duper powerful. And if you haven't ever spent time focusing on the with Thanksgiving part, with the gratitude and, and pausing to be grateful for the things that we have in our lives, even when things are really hard, I think you're going to find it really powerful. You know, right now we're in the middle of the launch for the Surface Design Immersion course, and I can't help but feel immense gratitude. I'm grateful for the story that led me here, for every student who has taken this journey with me, and for every student who's about to join. I get so excited thinking about their next steps. Every time we open the doors to this course, it feels like we're just throwing open the doors and welcoming new members into our family. This family built on creativity and joy and the courage to pursue dreams. You know, watching students grow and take risks and transform their lives through surface pattern design is something that I don't ever take for granted. If you've been considering joining this course, I'd love to invite you to step

into this world with us.

Surface Design Immersion is an eight week journey where we dive into learning Adobe Illustrator Surface Pattern Design, building a portfolio that reflects your unique style, and then how to create income from your artwork and build a business. But it's so much more than just skills. It's community and joy and it's the fulfillment that comes from really doing something that you love so you can learn more. And join us over@bonniecristine.com immersion and if you're wondering whether you belong in this creative space, there's room for you. Your creativity is there and it's worth pursuing. Okay. Today We've explored the power of gratitude. We've talked about how it can shift your focus, fuel your creativity, and help you navigate challenges that you have in your life. I've shared my story of gratitude, the power that it's had over kind of renewing my mind and how it's affected my creative journey as well. And I hope that my simple framework for you has also helped you build a practice or be inspired to build a practice yourself. As we wrap up, I want to thank you so much for spending this time with me. You know, your creativity and your stories and your dreams, they inspire me every single day. So don't forget to download your free gratitude journal prompt in the show notes and start your practice today. There's never been a better time and if you enjoyed this episode, I'd love for you to send it to a friend. I would also love to invite you to leave a review over on Apple Podcasts. It helps us grow this incredible community and get into more listeners ears. Until next time my friends. Create the beauty that you want to see. Come alive in the world. And remember, there's room for you.