Q&A: Why Gratitude Is So Powerful

Hello and welcome to today's Q and A session. I am Wendy Greer with Learning Strategies and Mind Tracks. And today I was going to talk about the incredible power of gratitude and why it is so powerful. Preamble Long before I came to Learning Strategies, I was aware that gratitude had had a. An incredible strength to it. I have a son who. It was quite a challenge. I got my first call from the preschool, but he was telling the teachers what he was and was not going to obey him among the list of rules based on whether or not he thought they were stupid. And it went, it went on from there. And it got to the point where early preteens and teens, things were looking pretty bleak. And I was tired of talking to the counselors and the principals and the deans and the teachers. And, you know, he was so sharp, but he would do and say things without thinking. And it was just. And I'm a person where people matter. Compassion is one of my core values. And so it was very challenging for me to have a son like this. And I had a friend who happened to be doing Sarah von Breathnox Simple Abundance course. It's a, it's a book. And the core tool in that is gratitude journaling. And all the Gratitude journaling is one simple exercise before you go to bed at night. You list five things you're grateful for and you cannot repeat night after night. You need to have a different item every time. So what you, what this does, of course, is it starts you looking about at what is working in your world, what, what you want more of, and you sort of start expanding what you're expressing gratitude for because you, you hold on one second here. I have a, A slight. All right, I think I'm good. Because, because it's expanding and you're focusing more on what you want more of. You're getting more of that and you're seeing you. You get what you look for. So I started seeing the positives. I started seeing what was working, what, what was where I could find some optimism in the situation. And it was very, very powerful. I started doing it morning and evening. So that was, that was long before I came here to learning strategies. Now, another epiphany I had on gratitude and, and why it's. It is such a powerhouse is when we were doing our 4 elements manifestation course with Brian Osborne, he talked at some length in one of the. For the initial teleseminar series we did about gratitude and how important it is. You state your goals in the present tense. So act as if it's here I am so grateful that I have this job where I'm well, even though you may be in a dead end job right now, you're expressing gratitude for or the ideal job, the perfect relationship, you're expressing gratitude. And of course your conscious and your other than conscious mind are going, oh, wait a minute, she's expressing gratitude. It's not here. We'd better get busy. So it's a really interesting phenomenon because I see that in paraliminals because you're setting a goal. I now I have, I choose, I'm grateful for, I'm thankful for. And you're setting that goal and then you're doing the paralimal. Well, if you're not already there, the conscious and other than conscious minds, they need to bridge that gap. They need to make it here and now because you're assuming it is. And I just thought that was an incredible insight into why gratitude can be so incredibly powerful. Another nuance with gratitude that, that I just think is just. It's such an exquisite plan we're part of. We have customers that I hear from regularly and it's pretty predictable. It's the same issue cycling around in a different relationship, a different job, a different circumstance, and it keeps coming back around. And I hear their name and almost always it's the same thing they called about before. One of the things I've come to recognize is they have not received the growth, the wisdom, the evolvement, the expansion that's inherent in whatever they're going through. And even, even if it's an incredibly challenging situation, which is of course where we seem to grow the most. Darn it. Even if it's incredibly challenging, the, the opportunity for growth is there. And it's almost like there's a divine being up there who will not let you throw the baby out with the bathwater until you get the wisdom. Until you pluck that out of the circumstance, out of the challenges, out of the relationship, whatever it may be, it's going to repeat until you got it. Well, when people start doing gratitude journaling or just having that positivity bias, I like that expression.

You start looking for the positives and it starts expanding into the things that you found most challenging. And you recognize, oh, wait a minute, this is the reason that I am so powerful now. I've learned to do this or I've learned to set my boundaries. This is great. I'm stepping into my power, okay? And that you don't need that anymore. You don't need that circumstance anymore because you've acknowledged the growth. You've, you've really stated. I get it. I've learned this. This is, this is where I'm taking this. This is what it means to me. This is how I'm going to express it in the world. This is part of my gift. I don't need the rest of the story now. I can, I can get rid of the debris. I don't need that anymore. So those three components are just huge. Just the fact that you're doing it, that you're focusing on, on things to be grateful for, even in the quote unquote negative, challenging opportunities. That, that, the discrepancy, that gap between what you're giving thanks for and what you, where you're trying to get to that discrepancy between those two places is just unconscionable for, for, for your, your integrity, your, your, your other than conscious, your conscious mind. They're just got to make it happen. Got to make it happen. And, and that's when parallel can really kick into gear because it's clear what you want. You, you stated it and it's not here yet. Let's get, get hot here. And then that, that nuance of you are not allowed to give up a circumstance until you receive the growth. And I've seen some incredible transitions. Once somebody says, you know, oh my gosh. And I've had people tell me later, even though that was the most horrible period of my life, it's where I grew most. And it put me on the track I'm on now. And I know it's right. It feels right. It is right. And I'll bet you know which parallel I'd like to feature today. Gratitude. It's, it's the tagline on that is welcome the magic and fullness of life. And I want to read just one little section out of this because it reiterates exactly what I have just said.

Finding the good and the bad, the recognition and acknowledgment of anything good in life creates more of what you love, including when that good is a lesson from misfortune or setback. So that pretty much sums it up. We had no questions this week, so I want to reiterate that we love talking to you. Any questions about using the, the parallel. Any questions about goal setting, any questions about any aspect of paralimal use customer service@mindtrax mind trx.com and we love to help you with that. And you know, the beauty of what I do here is.

Going back to the issues with my son because of what I went through with my son. I've been able to help so many women with challenges with. With their children. It's like I. I pay. I. I was able to pay it forward. And so what I work on with customers is in turn a learning experience for me. It's a learning experience for you. And then I get to pay it on. I get to pass it on, that. That wisdom to the next person that needs those insights. So it's. It's a. It's just a great reciprocal relationship. So I really want to encourage you to. And let. Let us know about what's worked for you as well as what you're finding challenging. Since I have the time and we had no questions, I want to share probably one of the most profound experiences I've. I've experienced here at Learning Strategies.

We released our Abundance for Life course, and I had a woman who started calling in. She was. She was ostensibly there. The initial calls were she worked in the financial industry. I think she was a mortgage banker. And she was having some serious issues with. With advancing her career. She was. There was a lot of infighting in the office, and she was just having a tough time. Well, it happened to come up, and I think it was only like a weekend. She would call a couple times a week. And it came up that she was having some issues with her husband, who had lost his job, and apparently was not only very depressed about it, but it was aggressive depressed, and it was. It was coming out violently. And he was drinking quite a bit. And so he started coming home at night, and he'd been on her. Well, reading between the lines, I was getting pretty concerned because it sounded like there was some physical aspects. And so I checked with her every time. And apparently the night before, the time that I got really concerned, he had hit her and knocked her down, and she had trouble getting back up. And I was just devastated. I mean, she was on the east coast, but I would have. I would have rounded up. My husband said, we need to go do an intervention. She would not talk to the police. She wouldn't get a restraining order. She didn't want to do anything about it. And part of the issue was that he had threatened her. If you leave me or tell anybody about the shape I'm in, I will find you. And so completely paranoid, completely scared. And. And so she was calling still about the financial issues. But I check in with the other thing, and it was clear to me it was getting worse. And so I took a chance one day, and I thought, okay, I'm. I'M an accountability partner here. I'm stepping over the line a bit. But I said, I want you to do one thing for me. I want you to check on, on shelters near you for women that are, that are having issues with family members, you know, abusiveness, either psychological or physical. Just check and see what's available and see if they can preserve your anonymity. I'm sure there's somebody out there who can help you and I don't want to hear from you until you've done this. Well, I hung up the phone and I, oh, that was the worst. She called me three days later. But in the meantime, you overstepped your boundary. Oh my God. What if she doesn't call back? I'm the only person she's been confiding in. Did I betray her? She called me back three days later. Not only had she researched it, she was in a shelter. She, she was there. And so.

It was, it was, it was such a profound call. Well, we talked a few more times about, about her job and she was, you know, she was trying to debate how to, how to, how to work that around her husband, knowing where she worked. Anyway, so. And then I didn't hear from her for about two months. The final call just, it still brings tears to my eyes. I, I hardly recognize her voice. She was so light filled and so ebullient. She was just, she, it. There was a little to her voice I hadn't heard before. She goes, wendy, I know what I want to do. I know what I'm going to do. I have the tools from Learning Strategies. I have a skill set that so many of these women don't have. And I've started, I've registered in a coaching program. I'm going to coach people that are, that have been in my boat. I'm going to, I'm going to be there for them. And I had a little cry after I hung up the phone. I mean, nobody will ever, ever come close to what she can do for those women. She's walked a mile in their shoes. She's been in a corner, she's been scared, she's been petrified for her life. And she's coaching other women that are in that boat. And look at what she did. She had a horrendous situation. It looked like there was no way out. She started, she, she finally sought help. She looked at what had happened, she looked at what she could do. No wonder, you know, maybe the reason she couldn't get her financial things sorted out was that that wasn't what she was here to do, that wasn't her life mission. She was here to help other women in this boat. She stood in her power. She had the courage to step into who and what she could be. She recognized the gifts that came from that horrible situation, and she put them to work. She took the pearl out of the oyster and she was going to keep handing that on to the next woman that needed help. And I just. That sort of sums up what. Gratitude can do. That. In every situation, there's an opportunity, and if we're looking for it, we'll find it. We find what we look for. So anything that's repeating in your life, take a look. If it's something you don't want more of, what's the learning? What's the opportunity there? What do you have to be grateful for in that situation? How have you grown? How can you put that out into the world? How can you step into the power that you've gained and the strength you gained from dealing with whatever that situation is? So I just. Oh, my gosh. I just. It's. It was just. It was so profound to me, what that woman had done. I mean, one of the things that I get to do here is it.

The courage and the. The. The sheer resilience of. Of people when they. When they have a little boost and they. They sort of tune into what they are. They listen to what's going on. They use the tools at hand and they. And they. And they. They integrate. They integrate what's going on in their life. What's the opportunity? You know what, I know this is challenging, but what's the opportunity? And it's just. It's. It's. We are. Oh, we're so powerful. So on that note, I'm going to say goodbye until next time. Remember how powerful you are. Use your pair of liminals. Enjoy them. Email customerservice at mindtrax. Com if we can help with anything and as I said, or share your successes, because we love to hear that as well. So lots of love to you from all of us here at Learning Strategies, and we'll talk again next week. Take care.