Full Episode Transcript
Michelle: Hey everyone, my name is Michelle.
Lindsay: And I’m Lindsay. And you’re listening to nurse verse. Hey guys, in this episode, we’re going to be talking about gratitude. And in light of that, I just want to start out by saying how grateful I am for each and every one of you that listen, that talk about the podcast, that mention a little something that we said. You have no idea how awesome that is and how it makes us feel. Like it makes us feel super happy and like we’re doing something good with ourselves.
Michelle: Yeah. Anybody that takes any single thing positive from this podcast and I feel like we’ve accomplished our goals and, we want to keep doing it.
Lindsay: Yeah. And that being said, if you want to hear something like a topic that you want us to speak about, you can leave it in the comments below. Let us know what you want to hear. Because we are grateful for you guys and.
Michelle: And we’re here for you guys. Yeah.
So we want to talk about gratitude and its impact on our health
So we want to talk about gratitude and its impact on our health, because grateful people are happy people and not the other way around.
Lindsay: Very true.
Michelle: The gratitude comes first, then the happiness follows. So what exactly do we mean by gratitude?
Lindsay: We mean appreciating what you have in your life.
Lindsay: And focusing on the good things.
Michelle: You can always find the good in everything. Just like that quote. That was like, I fell down the stairs, but man, did I get down those stairs fast.
Lindsay: Always finding an upside of things.
Michelle: Yeah, yeah, it’s always finding the upside, but also choosing to focus on the positive things in your life because it’s so easy. Easy. And it’s automatic for us to focus on the negative things. And, it takes us a little bit more effort, and work to train our minds to focus on the good because, our brains are built and designed to focus and emphasize the negatives because it’s trying to help us avoid bad situations, keeping us out of trouble, out of danger, etcetera. so that’s why. Hence it is instinctual. But we live in 2024, so we don’t have to worry about those things.
Lindsay: Yeah. We are very grateful and blessed for not having to worry about larger predators trying to get us.
Michelle: Exactly. So, time to shift our brains. Automatic functioning now.
Lindsay and I were swimming at the beach when a shark approached
and on that note, not being chased by a lion, we do still have some predators that we need to look out for. Actually, now that I’m thinking about it, because today we were at the beach.
Lindsay: Oh, shoot. We were at the beach.
Michelle: Today we were at the beach and we put the chairs down and it was immediately hot. It still feels like dead of summer right now. and so I wanted to go in the water and Lindsay was like, there’s a lot of birds out there today.
Lindsay: And I was like, if you see a lot of birds over the ocean, that means there’s a lot of fish. And lots of fish means there’s a shark nearby.
Michelle: Yes.
Lindsay: And, literally not even 15 minutes later, less.
Michelle: It must have been five, I think five minutes.
Lindsay: We were writing in our journals and I happened to look up right as a shark is breaching and I see its underbelly and it goes right back down into the. Into the water.
Michelle: Full blown shark right directly in front of us. What, 20ft away? We were like, 20ft upward.
Lindsay: sand it would have been, had we gone into the water.
Michelle: Yeah. So, like, maybe there are some things that we do need our brains to, like, activate for, like that. That was a good thing. That Lindsay was maybe was a little pessimistic about not going in the water, but she was right. Yeah.
Lindsay: It was mental mapping whether or not we should go in. And I was like, birds plus fish equals shark.
Michelle: Yeah. Yeah. But then we can still take the bright side of that. like, the fact that you knew that and we happened to see the shark and decided not go swimming at that moment in time and that we’re still alive. Like, we’re so grateful that we were not here.
Lindsay: And also we were sat in our beach chairs and I’m, grateful we were sat safe in our beach chair.
Michelle: When we saw the shop. Yeah.
Lindsay: 20Ft in front of us and we.
Michelle: Were able to warn other people.
Lindsay: That’s true.
Michelle: Oh, my gosh. Like, I ran to go.
Lindsay: You did run. I wore the wrong bathing suit to run.
Michelle: There was no running for you.
Lindsay: There was no running happening for me. But we did alert beachgoers.
Michelle: Yeah. I feel really bad. I’m so sorry for the gentleman that I probably made him crap in his pants because he was swimming and I was, like, running towards him, like, get out of the water. And he was like, what? And I was like, there’s a shark.
Lindsay: Oh, my gosh. I saw you grab his arm like you were helping him out of the water.
Michelle: Well, because he got caught, like, right when I said that, of course a wave is coming and he’s getting caught in the wave. So as soon as he got close enough, I, like, grabbed his arm to, like, pull him forward and he was super chill, a really nice guy. And I’m, like, really glad that you’re alive, sir. And, yeah, we were able to laugh about it afterwards. And then same thing. Then there was, like, another younger girl in the water. But it’s like, see, we’re so grateful.
Lindsay: We saw that.
Michelle: We saw it. We were able to warn people. Everybody was okay. Everybody was safe. It’s all good. Like, no need to worry now. and we were still able to go swimming later.
Lindsay: Yeah. After like an hour or two of shark watching on my part.
Michelle: Yeah, yeah. The, coast was clear, so. So just, just like that. That’s, I feel like is an example right then and there of what gratitude looks like.
Lindsay: Yeah.
Michelle: You could look at that in a different, completely context. You could be like, oh, my gosh, I’m never going to the beach again. We could have died. We could have been eaten alive by sharks. Okay, now that just would completely ruin the beach for you. Completely ruin the ocean and nature and take away so much from your life instead of just like, like, no, we’re really blessed, and today was not our day.
Lindsay: Yeah. And we didn’t have to go far to adventure to see some wildlife.
Michelle: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Exactly. appreciating that we are the visitors in the ocean. That is their home, not ours. So always being aware of it, but still being appreciative and grateful and enjoying it.
Lindsay: Yes. So as we’re talking about looking on the bright side of things, like, if that’s not your default, these are some things that we can. That you can do to help you do that too.
Michelle: Yeah. Yeah. How you basically retrain your brain to start to default. On the positive side.
Lindsay: Yes. You can actively notice and look around things in your everyday environment. When you walk outside, if you take your dog out and do, like, an.
Michelle: Active practice of it, like going outside and just acknowledging the weather, like, wow, it’s a really nice day.
Acknowledging your gratitude for the people in your life is incredibly powerful
Oh, my gosh, look, it’s so sunny. It’s so beautiful out. Or if the sun is rising, look at how gorgeous that sun rises. birds are chirping or flying by.
Lindsay: In the trees or even if it’s raining out and you have an umbrella.
Michelle: Yeah.
Lindsay: And you’re like, I’m grateful for this umbrella right now. I have to walk in this rain.
Michelle: You can find it in any moment, in anything at any time, what you’re grateful for, even, like, the slightest things, you know, a cup of coffee that you’re drinking and getting to enjoy or a laughter that you get to share with your significant other or family member, friend or neighbor, whoever it is. and I find that acknowledging your gratitude for the people in your life, I think is probably one of the most impactful ways to really shift that internal emotion and feel it. Like, you think about your family member, your loved one or your friend, and just recollecting that person and why you’re so grateful for them will help stir up those emotions. And when you feel that, like, gratitude in your chest, it’s, like you really mean it. Then that’s the point. You want to get to where you feel it and you really, really mean it. And you realize in that moment you’re like, I am really lucky. I do have a lot of awesome things, in my life that it’s not so bad.
Lindsay: And also, this is a gentle reminder to tell your loved ones that you love them. Yeah.
Michelle: Do it all the time.
Lindsay: Yes.
Michelle: Obnoxiously. Yeah.
Lindsay: Whether a text.
Michelle: Yeah.
Lindsay: Call, video chat, whatever. a random bear hug from behind. If they’re into hugs.
Michelle: Yeah. Yeah, yeah.
Lindsay: Make sure they’re into hugs.
Michelle: Yeah. Yeah. Before especially.
Lindsay: But, yeah. Or you can write it down in a journal how much you appreciate and love, like your family and friends. Or I even the roof over your head. The refrigerator in your kitchen.
Michelle: Yeah. The food on the table. Your pets. Your pets.
Lindsay: Yeah. Your pets for using the box on a regular basis. Your dog for like, nudging the door when she has to go.
Michelle: Yeah.
Lindsay: Little things like that.
Michelle: Every little thing. And writing it down is like using now another, it’s like another sensory input or it’s more active as well. And I feel like writing either, like, before you go to bed or when you wake up in the morning is also the best time. Is the best time to, acknowledge gratitude. Because first of all, when you wake up in the morning, great way to start your day. Think about all the things you’re grateful for and it’s going to immediately start to put you in a good mood and get your brain to start looking for and focusing on all of the good things in your day. And then before you go to sleep, also, it’s like priming yourself for sleep. It’s like priming your subconscious for the power positive things in your life. So hopefully have good dreams and nightmares or anything. but also having those on the forefront of your mind right before you fall asleep or when you wake up, you’re in that dreams almost dream state or that theta brain wave state. that is where you really can program or reprogram your subconscious mind, like what your defaults are. and so why not take advantage of that and help it along more in the positive direction?
Lindsay: Yeah.
Michelle: And also, if you are religious, saying it in prayer form, is extremely powerful as well. if you use anything like rosary beads or mala beads, that also incorporates, like, an object or counting a number of times. Ah. In that. Along that same vein of religion, too, actively thanking God or the universe or whatever that terminology is that you want to use. thanking that for whatever it is that you are being grateful for or.
Lindsay: Saying life happens for me, not to me.
Michelle: Yeah. But definitely the biggest emphasis is, like, getting yourself to the point where you do genuinely feel it. Like, you feel you want to feel the emotion, you don’t want to just say it, and, you know, it’s superficial. You got to get down, to that, like, deeper level.
Lindsay: Exactly. Because once you do that, then you’ll notice all the positive impacts that it’s. It has on your life.
Michelle: Yeah.
Lindsay: On your. On your self talk, your mindset changes. You start to notice, like, more positive things in your life happening to you or happening for you.
Michelle: Yeah, exactly. It is a domino effect. It’s so. It’s so crazy how quickly it can, you know, it can go in one way or the other, just like how we were talking about in the mindset episode or the energy episode. Like, everything leads into everything else. And so it’s cool because we can shift that if we’re aware of it and we’re acknowledging it. and if we are putting that emphasis on the positive, then you will start to see the domino effect go in that direction. Now it’s just practice. It’s just continuously doing it and continuously being aware of it and noticing it.
Lindsay: yeah. Noticing the patterns that of your self talk to.
Michelle: Yeah.
Lindsay: Because maybe you could just flip that switch upside down and just turn it into something grateful for something or.
Michelle: Yeah, yeah. And I feel like, when you’ll have, like, once you started to do it and you start to notice the domino effects taking place, you’ll have, like, all of a sudden these, like, moments throughout your day where something really positive or something really cool happened, and you’ll take a step back and be like, okay, now I get it. Now I see it. Now I see, like, how it spreads. Almost like a ripple effect, you know.
The more you practice gratitude, the more positive things start happening
Lindsay: You’Ll see the magic unfold.
Michelle: Yeah, yeah. It’s like you start making more friends or you start connecting with people more, whether it’s the friends you already have or the family members that you have or even neighbors or other people that you’re meeting for the first time, it’s like you’re able to make, like, more of a connection with those individuals and also another, like, real world example of how our brains do adapt to this. For example, Lindsey and I like to hunt, for shark teeth at Juno beach. It’s, There hasn’t been a lot of shark teeth lately, but anytime they dredge the beach over there, it’s incredible, like, the shark teeth that you can find. And so what, we learned when we first started looking for shark teeth is that, like, we could have been walking on that beach for years, never saw a single tooth because we weren’t looking for it. And then the second you look for it, it takes a little while. It takes a little while to find that first tooth. But, like, once you find the first one, now your brain starts to pick that up. It gets like. It’s like a, it’s like a dopamine hit. Like, oh, my gosh, you were hunting for this, and you finally found that tooth. And so your brain now is like, oh, okay, all right. So I’m looking for this triangular shape. I’m looking roughly for this texture on the outside. And now your brain knows, okay, oh, this is what I’m looking for. So now every subsequent tooth you find, your brain becomes more and more ingrained, and it, like, picks it up. Like, you could be looking at an entire, like, bed of shells, and your brain can spot that tooth. Like, I will now, like, we go to the beach. I could literally just be walking with monster, and I will see it tooth, like, not even looking for it, because, like, my brain is trained and knows that’s what it’s looking for, and it knows that it’s, like, up a positive experience. It’s like a dopamine hit. When you do find that tooth, it’s so satisfying. So the same thing happens when you are practicing gratitude. Your brain, the more you practice and train your brain to do it, and then positive things start happening in your life. Now your brain is like, oh, okay, this is what we’re looking for. Yes. And I get a reward when I find these things or when these things happen or I feel good or I’m super happy. So then that snowball builds in that direction, and so that’s kind of just what we’re trying to say here. It’s like, I know some people might look at, like, oh, writing in the journal. So silly. Or writing what you’re thankful for is so silly. But, like, if it’s silly but it works, then why not?
Lindsay: Why not? Yeah, why not? It takes, like, 3 seconds out of your day.
Michelle: Yeah.
Lindsay: As long as you want it to. Actually, whatever time you have, that’s enough.
Michelle: Yeah, you could be driving to work, just, like, start thinking about things you’re grateful for driving home from work, while you’re eating your dinner, while you’re walking the dog, anything, even, like, during.
Lindsay: Some road rage you might be having. I am grateful for not hitting this person right now. I’m grateful, for being mindful of how I’m feeling while I’m driving next to this person.
Michelle: If you can practice gratitude, but when you get enraged, then you’re, like, buddha level at that point. On another level, you’re on a master level at that point because you have to genuinely feel it. And. Yeah, but it’s also a good way to shift that rage as well.
Lindsay: So thank you guys so much for listening.
Michelle: yes, thank you, guys.
Lindsay: We really appreciate it. Also, let us know what you guys want to hear. Okay, thanks. Bye.
Michelle: Okay, thanks. Bye.