thank You: embodying gratitude

As the season changes from blistering hot days to sweater weather and from iced teas to pumpkin spice everything, soon we’ll be stuffing turkeys and gathering with loved ones for the Thanksgiving holiday. The occasion calls for reflecting on areas of appreciation centered around gratitude. 

Gratitude is a practice of finding appreciation for the goodness and fullness that shows up in your life regardless of circumstances. It is a healthy way of expressing affection, managing stress, and processing big changes. 

Numerous studies have shown that having a daily practice of gratitude can fundamentally shift your vibrational frequency, life perspective + outlook, and even improve your health. Gratitude is mindfulness in action because it is given life through contentment for where you are, what you have, and the people in your life right here and right now. With gratitude, there is neither regret for the past or yearning for the future. It’s a graceful and loving acceptance that you are exactly  where you need to be and already have everything that you need within you. Where stress wants to tell a story of “I have to,” gratitude opens the book saying “I get to.” Where stress wants to end the day telling a story of “I didn’t do enough,” gratitude wants to have a party with a story of “I did so much.” 

From a science perspective, notable Stanford neuroscience professor Andrew Huberman has found that effective gratitude practices positively impact physical, mental, social, cardiovascular, and cognitive health. He posited that gratitude is a prosocial behavior and mindset – meaning that it’s a behavior and mode of thinking yielding more effective interactions with self and others. And so by nature of practicing gratitude intentionally and effectively, one can actually begin to shift the circuitry in the brain in a way that is on par with pharmacology and physical exercises like HIIT training. When you practice gratitude, the medial prefrontal cortex and anterior cingulate cortex of your brain become activated in ways that while the fear + defensive circuits become antagonized. Neuromodulators called serotonin are released in association to gratitude. Serotonin is largely responsible for happiness. It sets the context for how you think, what you feel, and what + who you feel connected to. 

This has given rise to a whole wave of gratitude challenges as numerous studies and thought leaders have backed that in just the short amount of 21 days of consistently practicing gratitude, those registering as low level pessimists become low level optimists. 

I’ve personally found that the most transformational gratitude practices move beyond prompting curating lists of things to appreciate and into embodiment as a part of how you can live your life more deeply + fully. For instance, Huberman’s research has revealed that in order to feel gratitude, one cannot simply think or fake their way into it. Gratitude must be received, felt, and must be genuine in nature. That gratitude has to be grounded in a narrative in which the experience is somaticized and felt in the body emotionally: you are so moved by someone’s or your own thankfulness that it is palpable. It can be felt by reflecting on an act of kindness, letting something go, a humbling experience, an unexpected occurrence, and/or a good feeling moment. 

With narrative as a pivotal cornerstone of gratitude, from a spiritual standpoint, it’s no wonder that the story of Jesus serves as a foundational backdrop for a lifestyle of gratitude. 

In 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18, we’re taught to: 

“Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” 

This is part of what is likely the oldest letter penned by Paul to the people of Thessalonica. As Jews and Greeks declared faith in Jesus, they were met with hostility, especially during the rule of Caesar. Paul is writing this in acknowledgment that committing one's life to Jesus is countercultural, and yet encourages them to meet circumstances with love, hope, grace, and generosity. 

To live in gratitude is to make a conscious choice to live in joy each and every day. Doing so keeps us strong and resilient and keeps our focus on growing in His love, the assurance of the return of Jesus, and faithfulness to living in accordance to His will as if the return of Jesus has already come.

Where there is gratitude, there is the presence of God because it’s a mindset that puts Kingdom over self. It asks for giving from a place of faith first as opposed to after caring for one’s self. As in giving to His house before your own, His children before your own, His desires above your own. Doing so places trust that He has got your back through everything and has a grand plan for it all. Gratitude is faith in action because it’s a fruit of God’s grace. To accept that nothing is yours and everything is ours provides eternal space for gratitude to pour in. What you have and all blessings that unfold are undeserved, unmerited, and received by His grace out of love for you. I would even go so far as to say that gratitude asks for more from us because of that very love. Where there is love, there is no room for fearful thoughts, words, and actions. When there is only love to give, grace is a reflex and forgiveness is a muscle. 

Gratitude icon, David Stendal Ross proposes that gratitude is the great fullness of life and he’s quoted to say that… “when you're in the great fullness of life, the bowl of life is so full, it's almost overflowing, but not quite, not yet dribbling over the edges and you're one with God, one with the universe. And there is no other when you stand in and live in the great fullness of life. And that gratefulness is so powerful that it overflows into a fountain in a bowl of life. And that puts you in this other branch of gratitude he calls Thanksgiving. And when you're in the branch of gratitude called Thanksgiving, the bowl of life is overflowing. And you're so grateful that there's another because all you want to do is give and share and serve and contribute.” 

This more than anything captures a lifestyle that transcends this holiday and the spirit of His greatest gift to us. Allowing gratitude embraces joy, captures the belief that it is possible, and that you have everything within to harness it so much that the greatest desire of your heart is to give + share in blessings.  

If you’re ready to embrace gratitude as a lifestyle, you can schedule a 1:1 complimentary consultation here. 

Kim Yamasaki is a Christian wellness coach who supports her clients in cultivating space  + stillness in the mind, body, and Spirit through collaborative processes of co-creation. She provides services that create space _ stillness for deeper connection: spiritual wellness coaching for burnout, home organizing, and yoga. Her methods are affirming, grounding, and nurturing – all interlaced with playful creativity. She is a native Angeleno with Japanese and Chinese roots. 

This article was originally published for the  “selah space” newsletter, reclaiming abundance’s care package for go-getters. “Selah space” offers content to support readers looking to break the cycle of stress + burnout by living, loving, and learning deeply to be their most calm, confident, and complete selves. In the Bible, selah means “to pause or to reflect.” It appears  most heavily in the Book of Psalms and Habakkuk as musical notations at the end of verses to draw attention back to what was previously expressed.

References:

Winfrey, O. (Host). (2021, January 27). Oprah Winfrey: GRACE AND GRATITUDE (episode 310). [Podcast]. In Oprah’s Super Soul. OWN Podcasts. https://www.oprah.com/own-podcasts/oprah-winfrey-grace-and-gratitude

Transformation Church. (2021, August 1). How To Get Your Joy Back // Have You Been Robbed? // Fun Month // Bianca Olthoff [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ORV4hRgcqM

Leder, M. (Director). (2000). Pay It Forward [Film]. Bel-Air Entertainment.

Herold, K. (2021). More Than Gratitude. Blue Star Press.

Breathe Magazine. (2019). Breathe Mindfulness Journal. Sterling Publishing Company, Incorporated.

Haynes, Jr., C. L. (2021, November 30). 10 Hebrew Words from the Bible That Every Christian Should Know. Crosswalk. https://www.crosswalk.com/faith/bible-study/hebrew-words-from-the-bible-that-every-christian-should-know.html

Yamasaki, K. (2022). 4.4 Joyful Living, Attitude of Gratitude. burnout to Breakthrough.