Epsiode #5
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In Episode #5 of Visualise You, we talk about the Why Gratitude is Important for Your Life and why it’s so much more than just saying thank you. I discuss the real lesson people need to hear; which is that the use of gratitude, appreciation, and positivity is most needed when things are at its most challenging.
Such as when we’re going through a pandemic. when we’ve lost a loved one, when our child has just been in an accident, when we’re going through a divorce; those are the times when we really need to be able to practice gratitude.
That whatever you are going through today, however, big, or small - really try to find those small positives. Seek them out if they are not apparent because when we do this, we attract even more things to be grateful for.
I cover, why if this isn’t immediately obvious, you might need to master the art of resilience and the art of visualising a different reality. Right there and in that instant when you truly need gratitude the most.
Join me as I talk about my plans for my gratitude journey challenge and how you can get involved.
Enjoy the show.
Mentioned in the Show
Gratitude Journey Challenge https://visualiseyou.com/gratitude
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Full Show Transcript
[00:00:00] Beth: Hey everybody, welcome to episode number five of the Visualise You Show. Now, today is a solo show. I've got some amazing guest interviews coming up over the next couple of weeks. But today I wanted to talk about gratitude, what it is, why it's important [00:01:00] and why its more than important right now? So, this year has been crazy, difficult, hard for so many people.
[00:01:10] But one of the things that I have actually enjoyed about this year has been the ability to reset, regroup our thoughts. Think about what it is that we want to be doing in the future. Thinking about, do we want to be working on this particular job? Do we actually be working on this element of my business?
[00:01:31] All kinds of different things while I've got this time to be at home, spending more time with family. And that is my default button. I naturally fall towards optimism and gratitude, optimism and positivity are my default button, but it hasn't always been that way. In fact, when I was a child, when I was very small, I was very sad all the time.
[00:01:57] As a very small child, I [00:02:00] found it very difficult in reception and early years school to be happy. I always had a sad face. My mum and dad didn't really know what the matter with me was, but I was always very deep and distant. I remember being in a classroom where other girls were playing with dolls, playing mums and dads like in the kitchen playing with the kettle and the cups and saucers.
[00:02:27] And I had this deep-rooted fear, that I didn't want to do that with the other girls because it made me feel incredibly sad. And to this day, I don't really know what was going on, but I do feel like it felt like grief and it felt like loss. It felt as though I had lost someone very close to me or a child, maybe in a previous life, if you want to go that deep.
[00:02:53] But I couldn't play mum. I couldn't play in house. And so, I was incredibly, incredibly, incredibly sad. [00:03:00] I don't know at what point, my attitude towards life changed and when my default button switched, but I certainly started to see the positive in every possible situation. Things like, you hear the terms such as.
[00:03:18] Everything happens for a reason. Be grateful for what you have. Challenges are opportunities in disguise. All of these things through reading lots of books through meditating every day through really spending a lot of time on personal development. Have allowed me to live, not just with gratitude, but with awe and wonder.
[00:03:41] And I think that's probably one of the reason why I have changed my job so many times, because when I start a job and when I have absolved all of the knowledge and information, when I've met all the personality types, when I feel like I have accomplished that role, [00:04:00] I'm looking for my next adventure. And so, when you come and live from a place of awe, you want to be hit by wonder all of the time. Wanting to be thrust into a new world all the time.
[00:04:13] We all have the ability to live in wonder, but gratitude is I think the first steppingstone to be able to live in that way and to live with a sense of joy.
[00:04:24] So I think gratitude gets talked about on a very superficial level sometimes. Where you need to get into the habit of writing three things that you're grateful for every day, which is easier said than done.
[00:04:40] I don't know about you, but I've got an incredibly busy life and sometimes it's not easy to sit down and write three things to be grateful for. The real lesson that I want to teach people is that you need to be able to switch on gratitude and appreciation and positivity; when things are [00:05:00] really hard when you're going through a pandemic, when you've lost a loved one, when your child's just been in an accident, when you're going through a divorce, those are the times that we need to be able to practice gratitude.
[00:05:11] And so to be able to do that, you need to be able to master the art of resilience, a master, the art of visioning and master the art of being able to Visualise a different reality - right there in the instant.
[00:05:25] Gratitude isn't just saying thank you. It is way more than that.
[00:05:31] It is been in awe of the situation you are in, even when it's the darkest and craziest of times, I want to share with you something that I wrote after my daughter was in an accident in 2016, she was in an accident with a horse. We still to this day don't know what exactly happened, but we think the horse got spooked and it literally just flipped.
[00:05:59] Knocked [00:06:00] Leigha who was 10 years old at the time. Oh, she just turned 11. It hit her and she, it knocked her immediately unconscious and she fell onto her head onto an old brick floor I don't want to get too graphic about it, but it was a serious accident where she'd lacerated her lips in three different places. She lost, she lost 7 teeth. She damaged her jaw and we were we were airlifted to.
[00:06:33] Leeds General Infirmary here in the UK. And, she had surgery, and she couldn't speak, she couldn't eat, and it was an incredibly difficult time for all of us.
[00:06:47] And I remember just a few hours after it happened. People saying, how is she going to play the violin? So Leigha plays violin. She's been fortunate [00:07:00] enough to play at the Royal Albert Hall. She plays for her local youth orchestra. She plays for her school. Music has been and incredible path, her life.
[00:07:10] And. obviously, when you have damaged your jaw, you can't rest a violin under your chin or rest it on your shoulder anymore? And, also into musical theater. She's very theatrical and she wants to be an actress. And one of the things that was very important for her at that time, where she was leaving primary school and going up to secondary school.
[00:07:27] And one of the things that she had been waiting for, for the last five years was to get into that final year of school and to do with their final year of production, where they do a big play. And this was so it was so important to her to be able to do that. And this accident happened on the 4th of May 2016.
[00:07:45] And obviously the leave school, in July. So, this recovery period was at exactly the wrong time, for her to be able to do that. It was also.
[00:07:57] It was also right at the point in time in the UK [00:08:00] where they do with their SATs. So, they do an assessment when they are 11 years old, and those. I think its key stage two, maybe three, I get mixed up. But SATs so used throughout their continued education. So, the attainment grades that they get for their GCSEs when they're like 16 years of age, have actually come from these SATs.
[00:08:21] So these SATs are incredibly important and they're important for the school, but there's a lot of controversy around actually, whether they put too much pressure on our kids, but Leigha who likes to achieve. Really wanted to do her best in these SATs. And she also wanted to do her best in her end of year school play. So, this was an incredibly difficult time. And I remember somebody saying to me, how she going to play a violin? And my initial reaction was well, I'm not sure why this is happening right now.
[00:08:50] I don't have all the answers, I know that it's happening for a reason. maybe this has happened so that she can teach others how to be resilient, [00:09:00] or maybe this is happening so that she can learn to play piano, or maybe this is happening.
[00:09:06]to help medical science or maybe this is happening to teach us all the lesson. I don't know what the reason is by trust in the universe. And. he just looked at me and was like, how can you say that your child's going through, but how can he say this?
[00:09:21] But I believed with all my heart, that was what was happening for a reason. And that we would get through it. I never had a single doubt in my mind that things were not going to get better. And I used visualisation to Visualise her beautiful smile. And I used visualisation to Visualise, her standing on a stage and saying her lines and I visualised her playing piano and playing violin again.
[00:09:45] I want to share with you what I wrote on my Facebook page on. the 9th of May. So, this is five days after I'd been in hospital for four days sleep deprived on those [00:10:00] horrible. Okay. By it's on a couple of nights, I just slept on, I just slept on some chairs.
[00:10:10] This is what I wrote as the darkest week of my life draws to a close and a new week begins again. I choose to look and find gratitude in everything I can. I choose to regain control of this devastating situation. When my faith in the universe has been tested beyond comprehension, I surrender and put my complete faith in what I have always believed.
[00:10:33] That our thoughts create a reality. Now, knowing that sometimes we will all have our faith tested in unfathomable in comprehensible, ways and situations, events where innocent people are presented with the hardest of situations. I believe this is our sacred contract with the universe, a contract we made before we entered this realm.
[00:10:56] And it is how we react and cope and deal with these trials and tribulations [00:11:00] that will determine our success and ascension in life and beyond. And so, I give thanks to the wonderful skills of the Yorkshire Air Ambulance. To the many nurses and doctors and surgeons and specialists we have seen in the last week. I'm grateful for, Leigha’s determination and humor to get stronger every day. She never ceases to amaze me how strong and wonderful a human being she is now and will continue to become. I am overwhelmed that she repeatedly says thank you to the people that keep caring for her. I'm grateful for the joy in her face when she drank chocolate milk for the first time.
[00:11:36]I'm grateful that when faced with the thought of not being able to play a violin in the coming weeks and month, she has asked if she can learn piano, I'm grateful for the way she wants to be involved in her end of year school play and how in some way, with our school's continued support, we'll figure out a way. I'm grateful for all the love and support of mine and Tony's family and friends who will shower us with love [00:12:00] every day,
[00:12:00] making it easier for all three of us to keep moving forward. Whatever you are going through today, however, big, or small, please really try it to have gratitude. For all the small positives you can. Seek them out if they are not obvious, because when we do this, we attract even more things to be grateful for.
[00:12:19] And even though I believe this to be true before I now believe it with more conviction than I ever thought possible.
[00:12:26] That was quite difficult to read. I have not looked at that since the accident.
[00:12:33] I really want people to understand that gratitude is so much more than saying thank you. It's the ability to give gratitude in our deepest and darkest moments. Sometimes in those deep and dark moments, we're actually in those breakthrough movements. Think of being a baby in the birth canal in this dark [00:13:00] area.
[00:13:00] We’re not in our fatality. We're actually in the midst of our beginning. Think of a Caterpillar in that dark chrysalis. We are actually in our breakthrough moment to become a beautiful butterfly. We are so close to new and wonderous things. I know it can take a while to get there, know that it will come.
[00:13:25] So I know that this podcast is usually about pivoting in our careers and changing direction or starting a business. And that is all still really true, but the power of gratitude and visualisation can be used not just in our career, in our business, but in all facets of our life and that is a reason why I wanted to share today, the message around gratitude.
[00:13:47]So that if you're going through a difficult time in your business, or you're going through a difficult time in your career, know that you can change no, that you can change direction at any point in time, just by visualising and being grateful for that place that you're [00:14:00] currently in right now for seeking out some of the positives that you can find and that really is more important right now, more than ever.
[00:14:09] So this year has been crazy. People have died, people have lost, loved ones. People have lost their jobs. People have lost incomes. People have lost their families and relationships that we have known people have lost a sense of stability. People have lost a sense of solidarity.
[00:14:29] But in all of those horrible situations, we have the ability to stand fast in our conviction and know that we can Visualise a new reality. So, I'd like you to join me in the upcoming weeks. I'm going to be putting together a I don't want to call it challenge because there are so many challenges and it just feels more than a challenge.
[00:14:55] But for the purposes of trying to explain what I mean right now, [00:15:00] I want to create a challenge or a gratitude journey where we will not only start to understand gratitude. And what it truly is, but we will also start to look at how we can implement that. Not so that it becomes a habit in the sense that you have to do something at the same time every day, because I think that's impossible, but I want to do it so that we build the muscles that allow you to be not just grateful, but resilient in our darkest hours of need.
[00:15:35]And that you will have a default switch for positivity and optimism. So I'm going to be putting that together over the next couple of week and my aim is that I will be launching that, to the world, probably around October with a view to start that on the 1st of December and the reason I want to do it on the 1st of December is that it is the [00:16:00] end.
[00:16:00]Of the year, it's the darkest time of the year in terms of the weather and the seasons. It's heavier because it's festivities and spending time with family. And we, we just don't know what, where we're going to be in December. Are we going to be in lockdown again? Is it going to be dark and dreary? Who knows, but I really want to set.
[00:16:26]a time for people to be able to really appreciate and feel what gratitude is and build those resilience muscles and the details of all of that will come shortly. So that will happen in December. And then what I'm thinking is that in January we continue on that journey. So then as January, as we rebirth into the new year and let's hope 2021.
[00:16:53] It's a heck of a lot better than 2020, but as we rebirth from that darkness, we [00:17:00] can set into motion our intentions for the rest of 2021. And I know there is a lot of people that do this every single year. We say our new year's resolutions. We set our intentions for the year ahead, but I want to do it from this place of really.
[00:17:20] looking holistically at everything that has happened in 2020, almost like having a closing ceremony and an opening ceremony, a phasing out ceremony and a rebirthing ceremony. So, I want to do this over two months. I want to set. The grounding for what we can achieve in December, set out the tools set out the skills set out the mindset set out.
[00:17:44] the things that we can do to create are on wonder and gratitude in all situations. And then in January, I want to be able to help people implement that really with pure intention, with visions [00:18:00] and values, and just. Set out as they need to go on. And whatever comes up for us in 2021, we can be ready with our positive mindset and we can quickly nip it in the bud.
[00:18:12] I really hope you'll join me on that. I'll leave some links in the show notes for where you can find out more about that. If you want to get on the waitlist for the gratitude journey challenge. Might change the words a little bit. if you go to visualiseyou.com/gratitude, there is a waitlist page for you simply enter your name and email.
[00:18:33] And I will let you know, as soon as we are ready to start launching that. And I really hope you'll come on that journey with me over the course of the next few months, it's been a pleasure to do this solo show with you today. I didn't really know where I was. What I was going to say and where I was going to head today, but I hope that has been useful to you.
[00:18:55] Please check the show notes for all of the links for today's show. And I [00:19:00] can't wait to bring you more information on that as well as bringing you some really great guest interviews in the next few weeks, have a great day. Speak to you soon.
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