The Dennison Download

The Science of Gratitude

Kara and Jack Dennison

Today’s thanksgiving and between the turkey, family, and football… how grateful are you feeling?

Did you know that gratitude has some serious scientific benefits?

Scientific studies have proven that there are several positive outcomes from cultivating an attitude of gratitude, including benefits that can transform your physical and emotional health.

In this episode, Kara and Jack Dennison discuss how gratitude has changed their lives.

In this episode, you can expect Jack and Kara to talk about:

  • What they are both thankful for this Thanksgiving
  • How gratitude has played a major part in both of their transformations.
  • The power of daily gratitude and its many scientific benefits

Want to watch this episode instead of listening? 

Click here: https://youtu.be/XKvS-poz5dY


Sponsor: Optimized Career Solutions at www.optimizedcareersolutions.com  If you're ready for a transformation in your career, but not sure how to take that next step, we want you to learn the strategies and gain the support every high achiever needs to feel empowered in their career. Be confident in your job search and schedule your free consultation with Kara and Jack at https://getstarted.optimizedcareersolutions.com

About Kara: Kara is the CEO of Optimized Career Solutions, an Executive Career and Leadership Coach and a Forbes Contributor. She is a Senior Professional in Human Resources (SPHR) who has spent her career as a Corporate Recruiting Leader, working closely with decision-makers. Throughout her career, Kara has personally reviewed over 300,000 resumes. Through her executive coaching programs, she has helped thousands of professionals land their dream jobs and has been responsible for negotiating over $10 million in salary increases over the last few years.

About Jack: Jack is the COO of Optimized Career Solutions, an Executive Career Coach, and comes from a life coaching, personal training, and philosophy background. As the Accountability and Mindset Coach in their coaching program, Jack is passionate about helping high achievers and leaders live impactful lives by shifting mindsets, gaining personal accountability, and achieving personal and professional wins that lead to major life transformations. As a high ticket sales closer, Jack has sold over $1M in high ticket sales in under 3 years.

Email – thedennisondownload@gmail.com

Website – https://optimizedcareersolutions.com/

Kara LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/karadennisonsphr/

Jack LinkedIn -https://www.linkedin.com/in/jackrdennison/ 

Instagram - @karadennisonsphr and @jackrdennison 

Tiktok - @karadennisonsphr




I love motivation but what I love more than motivation is discipline and


consistency because when I'm consistent and when I'm disciplined I see the


result of that consistency and discipline and I get motivated in the moment to continue


yeah as opposed to let me get some motivation to just get this one thing


done and then I'm spent because I went to a negative place to get it done yeah


and then then you're almost setting yourself back because you you kind of don't like yourself that much afterwards


you know because you beat yourself up the whole way you know


welcome back to the Denison download and Happy Thanksgiving Happy Thanksgiving everybody I hope that you are enjoying a


wonderful holiday with your friends your family or uh maybe just yourself I don't


know but whatever you're doing I hope that it's a great one maybe there's a little turkey with you though hopefully a little bit I hope so


what's your favorite Thanksgiving side uh my favorite is mashed potatoes oh


it's a good one you need yours it's always been mashed potatoes but I


like the mashed potatoes you gotta have a gravy core you know so it's like a


gravy volcano you know okay and then I like the turkey and the stuffing those three Classics oh that's what makes a


Thanksgiving for me I like to do a carb casserole where I get uh you get the mashed potatoes you get the stuffing and


then you get maybe a mac and cheese and then you've got all three of those uh maybe even topped out with a little bit


of cranberry yes I said cranberry I don't know if you're not a cranberry lover like me that's okay


um can or fresh I am a can I don't like that why is the


can so good I want The Ridges I want the slices so good it just it's as the kids say it


slaps harder it does it's Labs I want me again any


other time of the year I don't want canned cranberry sauce but like if I do not have a can on Thanksgiving it just


doesn't make it I don't know someone's going to the store


well since it's Thanksgiving we are grateful we are super grateful


especially this year because you know it's been a tough year and what are you


grateful for this today on Thanksgiving oh man so many things uh first and


foremost your health the fact that you're here uh and you are as healthy as you ever been uh staring back at me that


uh that is a gift that I will take every single day oh my good blush I know I I'm


really just grateful that we got here it has been a long road and I'm thankful for uh you and I'm thankful for our team


and I'm thankful for just all the lessons that we learned this year it's it's been a wild ride huh yeah we could


uh definitely write a book or two well with all these lessons uh got some lessons stacked in the corner here yeah


or maybe start a podcast I don't know oh yeah yeah I think we did that this


year yeah oh we're doing that now got it got it so since it's Thanksgiving which is uh I


gotta be honest it's one of my favorite holidays um don't get me wrong I love me some Christmas I love me some of my birthday


um but I love Thanksgiving and here's the reason why is because Thanksgiving is one of those holidays


right that it always falls on a Thursday so you're almost guaranteed to have a long weekend for the most part um some


years I didn't depending on retail or where I worked but um you're almost guaranteed to have a long


weekend you're almost guaranteed to have a great meal right depending on where you are and it's usually with people that you


love right your friends your family and there's no pressure to go out and buy all these presents right like I feel


like sometimes Christmas uh your birthday there's like this pressure to


perform make sure you get the right present make sure that you hit the deals all this other stuff I know there's Black Friday and and stuff afterwards


but Thanksgiving is just showing up cooking a meal spending time with family


and just being really freaking grateful and there's just something really magical about that for me


yeah and if you add in the just the community aspect that Thanksgiving


typically comes in because everybody's you know typically making food all day long that day and you get a lot of great


conversations now those happen at other holidays as well um but uh typically uh for Thanksgiving


there's just a little bit more kind of thrown behind those dishes you know at the Christmas you might Outsource some


of the holiday food you might you bring in different types of foods Thanksgiving is typically a little bit more


traditional in terms of the way uh the way things go um and I've always enjoyed when


individuals take those traditional recipes and they just put a little twist on it and make it their own that's always fun yeah what I love about the


holiday is that it's all about being thankful right and so you know sometimes Christmas it's all like oh what am I


gonna get or what do I gotta get or what do I have to wrap up the year with or whatever but I just love the idea of a


whole holiday around being thankful I mean at least that's that's what I get from it or the the original


intention around it being for me and so that's what we want to talk about today


is gratitude right and gratitude has been a huge part of our


life especially recently especially this year and I did some research on gratitude


last year around Thanksgiving and found out that it has some incredible


research-based benefits oh I can't wait to hear I I only know from the benefits


that I've experienced myself because there have been points in my life where I've instituted uh gratitude practice


um to be able to really overcome some tough situations yeah so gratitude is


something that you and I uh take very seriously I think it's something that you and I practice


um if not daily uh hour by hour sometimes minute by minute


um and it really has had a huge impact on our life but I thought for this episode what


would be really fun uh is not only just sharing some of those research uh backs


benefits of gratitude for our listeners who either might already have a


gratitude practice might be thinking of a gratitude practice might be doing this on their day-to-day or maybe who don't


and might be finding themselves in a rut who might be today on Thanksgiving of all days right either listening to this


or who have just gone through Thanksgiving and might be thinking hey I've had a really crappy year maybe


their year has really sucked or maybe it's just been a neutral year whatever and they're looking for some transformation what I have found in my


life and I'll speak for you just in a second because I've seen it is a lot of our transformation stemmed from our


gratitude um I I don't want to say it's a Magic Bullet it's not that we've done a lot of


work for our transformation but I think gratitude and being grateful has been a key linchpin for most of our


transformation and so I mean I have 30 different uh benefits of gratitude right


now on a document that chose how powerful it is so I'm really


excited about this episode I really think in fact I'm grateful for it no


okay um but I am really grateful for it I'm really excited about it


um and I think that it is something that doesn't take a lot of time for people and as you practice it it becomes easier


and easier and easier and easier and easier to do um and the benefits are incredibly uh


beneficial yeah I I wholeheartedly agree um gratitude has pulled me out of some


very very deep uh Twisted kind of thought patterns and really it it's kind


of that uh spark if you will that allows the Catalyst of change because it allows


you to shift perspectives very quickly um very very very important topic but also one of my


favorites because it really has helped me personally yeah yeah well I want to do something fun I want


to do well it might be fun I think it's fun for us um I want to do the GQ six scale


um it's a little mini questionnaire it's literally called the Gratitude questionnaire it was


developed in 2002 by Nicola Emmons and sang and it's literally the most


frequently used assessment for gratitude it's six questions I figure since it's so short it's six questions you and I


could do it together on this podcast live we will explain it very slowly and


easily so that you can do it along with us if you want and it's literally just an assessment of how grateful you are


right in your day-to-day life uh what's really great about this is when we were


kind of researching this again this year uh this week we found that this self-reported


questionnaire measures um your tendency to recognize respond and experience gratitude and it also


measures the intensity frequency span and density of gratitude as an emotion so all of this is really


really uh just a self-assessment self-reflection uh I'm not going to know


your scores uh people who are listening if you decide to do this I'm not even going to know if you decide to do it or not so uh take it or leave it so Jack uh


for us you and I since we're going to do it uh the Gratitude the Gratitude questionnaire six item form or the gq6


is going to use a likert scale for those of you who don't know what a likert scale is it is a scale from one to seven


where one is strongly disagree seven is strongly agree and the scale goes one


strongly agree two disagree three slightly disagree four is neutral


five is slightly agree six is agree and seven is strongly agree now two of these


six questions are going to be reverse scored so I will give you instructions for scoring later


um after we go through this but let's go ahead and go through the questions so number one


I have so much in my life to be thankful for again we're going to write that one strongly agree all the way to seven or


I'm sorry one strongly disagree all the way to seven strongly agree I should


take some notes Here number one keep track of my score is I have so much in life to be thankful for


you got your answer I got my answer all right cool number two is if I had a list if I had to list everything I felt


grateful for it would be a very long list okay


number three when I look at the world I don't see


much to be grateful for again this is one strongly disagree to seven I


strongly agree again when I look at the world I don't see much to be grateful


for I feel there's a trick in here somewhere


that one is going to be one that is reverse scored okay four I am grateful


to a wide variety of people


five as I get older I find myself more able to appreciate the people events and


situations that have been part of my life history


six and this is the last reverse scored one long amounts of time can go by


before I feel grateful to something or someone


okay so I want you to look at your scores for number three and number six it's going to be reverse


scored so for instance number three I uh when I look at the world I don't see much to be grateful for if you scored a


one I strongly disagree you're actually going to give yourself seven points if


you scored yourself a two I disagree you're actually going to give


yourself six points three you're gonna give yourself five points and a four you're going to say the same and reverse


that the same way number six is going to be the same way okay so flip it around


so go ahead and do that now and then add up your total points


I think I broke this assessment did you what happened


what is a perfect score mean did you get a perfect score yes okay that's amazing


so you got 42. yeah so you got all sevens or ones for the reverse ones for


everything okay great that means that you are an extremely grateful person now I got a 39. that's still pretty good


right so that means that I'm fairly grateful right so I feel pretty


good about that um and you should still feel I mean you should feel great right how I mean do


you feel grateful for your score I mean no it's just a score but yeah I guess I


yeah just appreciative of being able to be here and knowing and sharing that's it yeah yeah so I


feel good about those scores because you and I have been in a rock solid gratitude practice for probably two to


three years now we started in 2020 at the least consistently since we've been


together yes but before you even met me I I've been doing this yeah so that would make sense that you have a 42


right yeah yeah and it would make sense that I have a 39 because I've been a consistent gratitude practice for at


least three years but some days some days or some days right so I would love


for you listener to just figure out where you are right and there's no


judgment you don't need to be at a 39 or a 42 you can be in the 20s or the low 30s or wherever you are on the scale you


could be at a six and it's okay you can be at a six and that's okay the reason is just to kind of give you an


eye-opening look at to where you fall on the Gratitude uh scale right


so I hope that was a little eye-opening what I love about that Jack is it kind


of gave me a little bit of an eye-opening look too of some areas right where I didn't write a perfect seven or


a perfect one that I could maybe work on right so I would love to kind of go into some


of the benefits of gratitude um that we have found when it comes to research and maybe we can do that after


the break but I'd love to hear um before we kind of go in since we're talking about our gratitude practice


what is a gratitude practice that you do [Music] um


or that we do that we can kind of share and then we'll kind of go into why and


some benefits and some stuff that our listeners can pick up after the break


if you're ready for a transformation and you're not sure where to start we suggest looking at where your money


comes from your career funds the rest of your life if you're feeling burnt out unfulfilled stagnant or unfulfilled in


your career that can easily start to bleed over to the rest of your life most high Achievers and leaders are


great at what they do but when it comes to finding that next level or a company that aligns with their values attempting


a job search can be frustrating at least and demoralizing at most the traditional job search of submitting your resume to


job boards only yields about a two percent ROI when it comes to interviews and it can leave job Seekers feeling


anxious rejected and with feelings of imposter syndrome and low self-worth at optimized career Solutions we want to


help transform your job search we help by giving you the branding on your resume and Linkedin profile that sets


you apart as the industry leader or professional you are but we don't stop there we give you the proven strategies


that Empower you to be the leader you are in your career within your job search by getting directly connected to


decision makers and teaching you how to tell your impactful story to leaders at companies you're excited to work with


book your free consultation either with myself or Jack at get


started.optimizecareersolutions.com on this recall we will dive deeper into your career goals with you and show you


how we can support you in achieving them without the frustration and rejection most job Seekers feel


we're going to also help you transform your mindset and gain invaluable skills that you'll use throughout the rest of


your career the first step to the next chapter in your career is just a couple clicks away book your free consultation


with us now at get started.optimizecareersolutions.com


all right I've got two okay go for it so the first one that I actually teach our


clients it's really just uh writing three things down every day uh that


you're grateful for at some point throughout that day uh I typically like to do this in the first half of the day


even in the morning if possible uh because it's always good to have those reminders as you go throughout the day


of things that you're grateful for really from this from the starting point of doing this uh we we start very small


really just small things that you're grateful for because really the practice of gratitude it's it's practice we're


not necessarily going to feel it right away and be able to be grateful for all these big things so just being grateful


for the home that you live in being grateful for uh the ability to have a hot meal at the end of the day being


able to be grateful that you're not exposed to the elements uh in the winter those types of things


really just anything that you can point to in life that you feel


makes you feel a whole centered aligned that that is


really what you want to be grateful for then as we start working on these things we can start going to bigger ideas we


can start becoming grateful for people we can become grateful for things we have in our life we can become grateful


for processes we're working on we can become grateful for so many different things uh for instance uh


I might not like the results of you know certain things that might pop up but I can be grateful for the opportunity just


to have that experience right I might not like the turnout of potential exam that I've got to take for


a certification right but the fact that I get to study that I get to be a better version of myself and I get to grow I


can be grateful for that right yeah yeah and I've noticed that when our clients really instantiate this and and


with their their job search they're able to better handle the ups and downs of


the roller coaster ride a lot easier um now the other gratitude practice that


I do also is is in a form of meditation uh where I Express gratitude for


a couple of things and it's also happens to be three um but I Express gratitude to usually


two very small things two very things that most people wouldn't


necessarily see uh fat grateful for um the coffee that I have in the morning


grateful for my pet that I have over here but then the third one is usually something very big it's usually being


grateful for something very moving and you want it to be very powerful and you want to feel that gratitude because if


you can actually feel that feeling then that actually shoots out to the rest of


the people in the universe and uh it what a thought that I wanted to share with everybody it's quantum entanglement


it's the idea that two cells or two particles that once upon a time were in


a similar place can be completely different opposites complete different shapes forms and still be quantumly


entangled in our universe and this is when people talk about synchronicity talk about the changing of


Consciousness those types of things that's where this comes from it's a collective we're all working together to


change the entire universe moving forward so in that meditative practice what you


do is you start out your gratitude practice um in that meditation being grateful for


two things that are tangible little here and then with the you kind of lost me on here so


I'm trying to get some sense here with the quantum entanglement thing you try and think of a much bigger


Collective thing that you're grateful for that might Encompass uh something larger than yourself like a community


um or whatever and you try and send energy out to that so that potentially


clients that you've connected with in the past people Etc that maybe you've connected with in


the past might be able to feel that and and get the benefits of that as well is that what you're trying to say yeah even current clients maybe family members who


necessarily needed people who are um going through a tough time those types of things like we can send out


that love that gratitude that feeling through that meditation to all those individuals and share that that feeling


with all those people and and that allows us to kind of connect with them


on a whole nother level okay I I love that so that's like


level 2.0 of uh gratitude right it's like feeling that energy and feeling


that feeling and sending it out right yeah I probably should have saved that one for the sequel that's okay that's


okay I love it I really do love it um so yeah those are some really great one


that's the Gratitude practices that you're doing every day and I didn't even know about that so that's kind of cool


um and two those are some really great practices that people can do immediately and start right write three things down


either at the beginning of your day with your cup of coffee at the end of your day before you're going to bed um or if you already have a meditation


practice and maybe you're not uh including uh meditation in it maybe thinking of three things and potentially


having two bees two smaller things right if you need to kick start your gratitude maybe you're groggy or falling asleep


and then having something a little bit larger I really like that um so for me my gratitude I started out


really when I was um partnered with someone else and he was doing three goal three gratitudes a


day and I really liked that because for me I like rituals I like routines I my


brain feels very soothed when I'm in a routine and so having a three goals free gratitude uh practice at the beginning


to get me into um a gratitude practice really worked well for my achievement type brain and


then as I started getting into it I started infusing gratitude into other


places in my life uh for instance at the time I was also losing weight because I


was changing my lifestyle around a little bit and I was looking in the mirror and I realized that


uh the words that I was saying to myself right my thoughts were not kind uh when I was losing weight because


instead of losing weight and loving myself more which I thought was gonna happen I started just finding more ways


to hate myself and so I wanted to really disrupt that thought pattern and so instead what I did was for every time


one of those negative thoughts came up I would replace it with uh things that I were grateful for about my body right so


I would look in the mirror and I'd say well I'm grateful for my hair I really like my hair today or I'm really grateful that my I have really long


eyelashes or that my eyebrows look pretty or that you know whatever it is right


um and so that became the more I did that it almost became a habit right so


whenever I would have a negative thought about almost anything it was a quick uh


Habit to replace it with a gratitude practice instead and that was a good way


to start re-programming my brain and my thought patterns from a negative uh track to a more


positive and gratitude type track and then the other thing that we do in our house which I'm glad you saved it


for me because this is my favorite thing um is the god box or the universe portal


or however you want to say it whatever works for you in your house if you want to implement this practice but we have


at the end of our hallway uh so for those of you who um are not familiar with our setup we


have a small little three bedroom house and um at the end of our hallway on either


side is to other rooms and those are our offices um it creates this tiny little alcove


and what we did is we put a box at the end of our hallway and growing up I used to have a little


box that was called a blessing box and I really liked that um I really like that idea and then I


had a friend tell me recently about a god box and what this God box was is that you


would put your worries in this box and you would kind of like deliver it to God and then he would stop worrying about it


and I liked both uh Concepts because if I'm talking to the universe or if I'm


talking to God or whatever I don't want to just leave my worries and make him you know a complaint box right but I


also didn't want to not leave my worries um or turn that over because


um so what we put in this box is we do we write down worries if we have any worries that are going on we put it in


the Box to get it off our mind but I also put my gratitudes in there so whenever


something happens immediately I write it down and I put it in the Box so whenever I'm grateful for you or


grateful for my team or if something happened that day that was really exciting I write it down on a little


Post-It note with a uh the pen and the Post-it notes that we have on the box and we just stick it in the little slot


on the box and the box is locked and then at the end of the year what we're going to be doing is on New Year's Eve


we're going to open the box and we're going to just read over all the things that we're grateful for from this year why we like it in the end of the hall is


we always pass it we're always in and out of the office so it's a constant visual reminder


um one to be grateful and two to write something in and put in the box so um that's a practice that we have as


well yeah I love that we started that I know me


too it's fun an excuse it's a fun little uh thing that we can do at the end of the year


too a little tradition you know you know what's what's really interesting uh something that you talked about there I


just want to touch on we can all practice gratitude in so many areas of


our life but we might not practice in all areas of our life and while I might


have started gratitude prior I didn't allow it and give that Grace to all


areas of my life and it wasn't until I saw you actually start that for yourself while you were


on your weight loss Journey that I actually started doing that for myself and my body as I've gone through my own


Transformations because I'm big on working out but I always used to look at it as you know


I'm doing this to be better I'm doing this to get a version of myself down the road that I don't have right now and I


always looked at myself as lacking in that moment not big enough I'm not strong enough I'm not good enough and


after watching you go through that my entire idea on how I I talked about my body changed because all of a sudden I


realized that I was also viewing my body if through lenses of lack or lenses of


not being good enough and carrying those judgments forward and watching you do


that it was almost like I was doing it in every other area of my life but I wasn't


granting the grace and gratitude towards myself does that ever happen to anybody because I


I was the last person that I was giving the Gratitude to and


me starting that completely changed how I showed up for myself I mean you could


you're you can attest to it the last 10 months my relationship with my body has not been one of trying to get to some


perfect version of myself it's been one of just appreciating the fact that I get to move in a way that I feel I feel good


about myself and that's it yeah it's interesting you and I have had these conversations about you know


manifestation about abundance about all of these things about going after our


goals and I think what we really honed in on this


year was that when it comes to manifestation it comes first with visualizing what it


is that you want right what is it that we want to go out and do receive abundantly make an impact do for our


clients uh want for ourselves Etc et cetera et cetera there's that


then you know that's the first start or first part visualizing it making it so crystal clear that it becomes so


ingrained in our subconscious the second uh part is is that once it's so ingrained in our subconscious it


becomes almost reality where that every action that you take


is towards that because it's in our subconscious right because we're living breathing eating walking acting in that


Accord but most people stop right there I think the third and the most key


important part about manifesting the life of your dreams is being so freaking grateful


for what you have right now because if you aren't grateful for what you have right now you're acting in a mindset of


lack of just like you said with with working out right if you're working out and the whole time you're beating


yourself up of I'm not enough I don't have enough I'm gonna you know you're working against yourself the whole time


right but if you are saying I am enough this is enough I am great


but I can be just a little bit better let's do this together it's a whole different ball game right yeah it's


basically getting flies with honey as opposed to vinegar because you're you're


pulling your ego you're pulling yourself con you're subconscious along with you on this journey and it's a lot easier to


pull your subconscious and your ego when it's feeling good about itself it's it's


it's not so fun to show up when you're beating yourself up and you're telling yourself a story of lack or that you're


not good enough uh because while it might be good for one maybe two


instances of Me versus the world eventually that motivation in that


moment is going to run out and what people don't realize is that I love motivation but what I love more than


motivation is discipline inconsistency because when I'm consistent and when I'm disciplined I


see the result of that consistency and discipline and I get motivated in the moment to continue


yeah as opposed to let me get some motivation to just get this one thing


done and then I'm spent because I went to a negative place to get it done yeah


and then then you're almost setting yourself back because you you kind of don't like yourself that much afterwards


you know because you beat yourself up the whole way you know yeah let's take a


quick break and then I want to come back and to be cognizant of time um I want to go through some of the


benefits of gratitude that are are research based um because it is so transformative


um but let's take a quick break and we'll be right back if you're ready for a transformation and


you're not sure where to start we suggest looking at where your money comes from your career funds the rest of your life if you're feeling burnt out


unfulfilled stagnant or unfulfilled in your career that can easily bleed over to the rest of your life most high


Achievers and leaders are great at what they do but when it comes to finding that next level or a company that aligns with their values attempting a job


search can be frustrating at least and demoralizing at most the traditional job search of submitting your resume to job


boards only yields about a two percent ROI when it comes to interviews and it can leave job Seekers feeling anxious


rejected and with feelings of imposter syndrome and low self-worth at optimized career Solutions we want to help


transform your job search we help by giving you the branding on your resume and Linkedin profile that sets you apart


as the industry leader or professional you are but we don't stop there we give you the proven strategies that Empower


you to be the leader you are in your career within your job search by getting directly connected to decision makers


and teaching you how to tell your impactful story to leaders at companies you're excited to work with book your


free consultation either with myself or Jack at get started.optimizecareersolutions.com on


this free call we're going to dive deeper into your career goals show you how we can support you in achieving them without the frustration and rejection


most job Seekers feel and help you transform your mindset and gain invaluable skills you'll use throughout


the rest of your career the first step to the next chapter of your career is just a couple clicks away book your free


consultation with us now at get started.optimizecareersolutions.com


all right welcome back so when we were researching the benefits of gratitude what was really interesting is that


there is a piece from positivesychology.com that split the benefits into five different groups and


I thought this was really kind of cool um the five different groups were emotional benefits social benefits


personality benefits career benefits and health benefits which do you want to tackle first


uh well let's talk about health benefits okay so


uh health benefits are fascinating so


starting in 2005 and I'm going to try and go through these pretty quickly


um and then I'll let you take some of the other ones like the um the ones that you found like emotional and things like


that but um the physical health benefits


okay a study in 2005 showed that gratitude actually reduced depression in


participants by 35 over several weeks


um by practicing gratitude journaling that's a huge deal 35 wow isn't that


well um another one with uh blood pressure so those of you who are feeling a little


bit uh pressure hypertension um patience and this is a study from 1977 but there's a follow-up one from I


believe 2006. uh those with hypertension who counted Their Blessings or were


grateful at least once a week experience a significant decrease in blood pressure resulting in better overall health


that's pretty awesome um improving your sleep I don't know anyone who doesn't need more sleep


uh two-week gratitude intervention in a study in 2016 increased Sleep Quality


and reduced blood pressure in participants leading to enhanced well-being so if you're having trouble


sleeping or waking up feeling fatigued try uh gratitude journaling right before


bed it also shows that you are able to improve your overall physical health and


potentially your frequency of exercise and it can help in recovery so in 2017


there was a research research study that showed that researchers and addiction


programs alike have noticed that gratitude can play a key role in recovering from substance misuse or


abuse as well as it can enhance recovery from coronary health events so that um


or in this study it showed that Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital found that acute coronary


syndrome patients experience greater improvements in health related quality of life and then Also it talks about uh


depression there was another study that also talks about a specific woman with depression


um revealed that Buddhist teachings and with a strong emphasis and gratitude


helped her to heal her depression so those are some of the health benefits which were


I mean incredible in and of itself yeah that that is crazy and and the fact


that I saw you had mentioned about the aspects on the heart recovery


that's gotta do something with the nervous system and really probably has something to do with gratitude just


affecting the nervous system and kind of giving like a almost like a a


Tranquility shot to the nervous system well speaking of let's talk about the


Gratitude and the emotional benefits right so in a study in 2005 this is


actually by the same people who did the eq6 uh quiz that we did at the beginning simply journaling for five minutes a day


about what we're grateful for can enhance our long-term Happiness by over 10 long term and there was another study


in another uh Journal let me scroll scroll scroll scroll scroll uh talks about how


there was this whole study they did where uh


they had people write gratitude letters right and this is from greater good in


Berkeley uh I believe did the study where they wrote about negative


experiences right this this group of people and half the group received counseling


and half the group wrote gratitude letters after writing about the negative


experiences is what I believe happened and what they found were four really incredible things right gratitude


unshackles us from toxic emotions uh the people who wrote about the negative uh


things and didn't write about the positive stuff had a lot


um more toxic emotions the ones who didn't write about gratitude and then the other ones who did were able to uh


release ruminations about negative experiences what they also found is that it helps


even if you don't share the letters with the people that you wrote to right so you could just write a letter to the


person that you're grateful for without even sharing it to but I mean it feels nice when you share it right


um it also uh has lasting effects on the brain right so they the people who wrote the


Gratitude letters had an MRI on their brain three months after the study and


it found that it had lasting effects on the brain after the effect right so uh


the activation has showed greater activation in the medial prefrontal cortex when they experience gratitude so


I thought that was really really fascinating too so they only did this study for 12 weeks and then 12 Weeks


Later did the MRI and there were still benefits so I thought that was pretty cool that medial cortex is is where the


Learning Happens so that that shows that by doing the the Gratitude practice


they're actually parts of the brain are firing that learned this Behavior


you want to know what else is kind of cool about the emotional benefits is that it has also shown this is a study


in 2014. it reduces Envy and I can see that too because the more


I was grateful for um things that I liked about myself the


less I cared about other people right unless I was jealous about other people unless I compared myself to other


people um and the next thing is that it uh reports Greater Life satisfaction and


self-esteem I would say my confidence has also gone up yeah I'd agree with that yeah it also


decreases depression like we talked about and suicidal ideation


which is a huge thing um do you have this document up do you


want to go over some of the social benefits yeah I have it up as well and uh I mean the social benefits are huge I


mean it shows that people who practice gratitude tend to have people liking them more and they have a greater access


to a wider social network more friends and this is just because of the effect


that being grateful has on being trustworthy and being appreciative of how others see us you know people want


to be around people who are appreciative of things I could also see that with the next one talking about the Romantic


relationships the fact that you are grateful and you're showing gratitude to loved ones and your point picking out


the things that you really appreciate regardless of whether you're sharing it


with your spouse or not I mean that's only gonna make you lean harder in right


because you're seeing more of the things that make you feel good and that you


appreciate as opposed to picking out the things that need to be worked on and yeah I could going a step further


I mean talking about friendship social support right people are going to get behind you more when they see the fact


that you're an individual who really cares about others that also


wants to practice this and uplift others and you're always trying to see the good


in things people are going to get behind you they're not going to be adverse and or against you when those types of


things it's also going to help you in times of stress because things are going to happen in life bad


things are going to happen we can't control that but we can control how we react to those things and uh that's that


famous quote uh by um Gandhi really that where he talks about you can be the


change you want to see in the world and you can only control your thoughts and emotions as to something when something


happens and I mean it's also going to have effects on who you are as a person it's going to


Inc make you more optimistic you're not going to be as pessimistic when you're focusing on the positives or the things


that you're grateful for as opposed to the negatives and that's kind of cool too a five to fifteen percent increase


in optimism that's so cool and and it's funny that that they say that but it what are we


doing when we're focusing on gratitude we're reducing negatives yeah negativity and one of the biggest ways is probably


going to be a future episode is is ways to increase positivity it's really just reducing the negative output yeah and


I mean I could keep going but the the one of the things that I I noticed most


on this list it's reduced materialism enhanced optimism


and makes us more giving I think the world needs more of that right now I think really if we can be more giving if


we can be able to view things from others perspectives it's going to make things a lot uh smoother as we go ahead


and progress in our future um there are just so many benefits to this gratitude practice I want to


quickly just go over the career benefits and then we'll just wrap it up I know we're a little um a little longer today


but I think this is important but we love this topic I love this we're grateful for it


um so when it comes to career benefits gratitude makes us more effective leaders uh the Gratitude research has


shown that practicing gratitude enhances managerial skills enhances praise giving motivating abilities it reduces


impatience improves decision making meaning that you'll be less impatient during economic decision making leading


to better decisions and less pressure for the desire for short-term gratification helps us to find that


meaning in our work the study from 2015 shows that those who Find meaning and


purpose in their work are often more effective and more fulfilled throughout their career gratitude is one factor that can help people find meaning in


their job it contributes to reduced turnover researchers found that gratitude and respect in the workplace


can help employees feel embedded in their organization which means that they're welcomed and valued and it


improves work-related mental health and reduces stress so what we're finding


over here is that when you are in a practice of gratitude not only does it


show others that you're a more it seems well-rounded healthier positive


optimistic um person but it actually gives you health


and career benefits too right it makes you a better leader it helps you feel


more fulfilled not only in your life in your relationships in your marriage in your family Dynamics but in your work


Dynamics as well and from what we've noticed in our lives it's changed not


only our relationship to each other our relationships to our team members to our clients and with ourselves in our


thought patterns right our relationship to ourselves how we see ourselves our


thought patterns um and they overwhelmingly has in my


opinion these things given me these things it has made me more optimistic it


has made me more confident it has decreased my depression depressive symptoms and uh thought patterns I feel


it has made me a better leader I have gotten more sleep because it's decreased my anxiety


um do you feel like some of these benefits for you jack have yeah I I think for me uh really allowed me to


um work on a lot of different areas in terms of for one reduced materialism I was always one who always needed that


shiny new thing right just just see that another another piece of equipment that new apparel oh my God you know it it


it's it's a sign for how others view me so I need to have the newest thing and I


noticed that when I really do practice my gratitude I don't have a need for


really anything my materialism reduces to very minimal if any


um the other thing is it does make me more giving it makes me being willing to


uh just throw that ridiculous tip when we go out there on a date night for that server or when we're just going to get


coffee and we surprise uh the young person who's working the the uh the cash


register at the coffee place with a very nice tip for somebody who's just picking


up two cups of coffee but also really the the biggest things that I've noticed


it's how I view myself my own my own self-esteem but my also my own


psychological well-being the thoughts and the environment and and the tracks that play in my head daily that has


completely changed where now it's a supportive environment it's not one coming from lack or feeling that I'm


behind the eight ball or I need to do something uh or I'm a failure it's now a


collaborative type of environment in my head through my thoughts actions and


it's so much more enjoyable to be myself on The Daily when I'm practicing


gratitude no we would love to hear from you either


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like and follow us on Facebook or on Instagram which is uh the Denison


download on Instagram or we even have an email it's the denizin download


gmail.com tell us Have you listened to our previous past uh previous episodes


rather or this episode how has a gratitude affected your life drop a


comment on either of those we would love a five-star review especially on Apple


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you're watching us say it um and give us a quick shout out love to


hear what you're grateful for this year for Thanksgiving or for 2022 in general


um and from our family to yours Happy Thanksgiving and have a great rest of your week Happy Thanksgiving