This week is the Thanksgiving Holiday week for those of us in the United States. Many will join with family and friends to celebrate and give thanks for the many blessings in our lives. The question, “What are you grateful for?” will be asked at dinner tables, church services, and classrooms. Social media will be full of gratitude posts this holiday week and TV channels will run many beloved Thanksgiving shows and specials.

Thanksgiving week is focused on gratitude, but what would it be like if we lived every week practicing daily gratitude?

The word gratitude has many definitions, depending on the context. Sansone and Sansone, 2010, define gratitude as “the appreciation of what is valuable and meaningful to oneself. It represents a general state of thankfulness and/or appreciation”. They and other researchers are finding that developing a daily gratitude practice allows us to pause and appreciate the many things we may take for granted in others, our surroundings, and in ourselves. It allows for a greater connection with the world around us as we become more mindful and aware of our surroundings. Distant beams of sunlight shining through the clouds on a stormy day, a glistening dewdrop on the flower petal as we walk by…. we begin to see and appreciate the beauty that is around us instead of going about our busy day inner focused and distracted.

Practicing gratitude also helps us to realize there is a larger context around which our own personal story is unfolding. Positive psychology researcher, Richard Emmons, (2003) defines these two stages of gratitude as first being the acknowledgment of the good in our lives and the second being the recognition that the sources of this goodness lie outside of our self. This shift in focus away from our own individual situation, struggles, and suffering elevates our energy and invites positivity and hope into our lives.

Studies on the effects of gratitude on our brain show that this elevation of energy is due to a enhancement of both serotonin and dopamine, the neurotransmitters responsible for happiness, along with an increase in cognitive restructuring due to evoking positive thinking (Zahn, et al 2014). Building the capacity to experience these elevated emotions takes us out of patterns of lower survival emotions, like fear and anxiety, and helps us to live happier, healthier, more joyful lives with increased connection to others and ourselves.

When beginning to establish any type of desired, sustainable behavior change habit, it’s best to start small when developing your own gratitude practice. One way to begin is to take a few moments during the day to reflect on two or three things you are grateful for. Incorporate this reflection during a time in which you do something daily, such as brushing your teeth or when sitting down to a meal. I find that doing this right before I fall asleep at night and then again when I wake up and before I get out of bed in the morning is a great way to end my day and begin the next. Allow yourself to feel the feeling of the gratitude as you reflect as it’s this felt quality of gratitude that floods your brain and heart with that elevated emotion. Daily practice of this feeling state along with your gratitude reflections will start to rewire your brain to be naturally more happy and grateful in less than three months.
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Happy practicing and best wishes to you all for a joyous and gratitude filled Thanksgiving week,
Coach Augusta
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References:
Sansone, R. A., & Sansone, L. A. (2010). Gratitude and well being: The benefits of appreciation. Psychiatry, 7(11), 18–24
Zahn R., Garrido G., Moll J., Grafman J. (2014). Individual differences in posterior cortical volume correlate with proneness to pride and gratitude. Soc. Cogn. Affect. Neurosci. 9, 1676– 1683. 10.1093/scan/nst158
Emmons R., McCullough M. (2003). Counting blessings versus burdens: an experimental investigation of gratitude and subjective well-being in daily life. J. Pers. Soc. Psychol. 84, 377– 389. 10.1037/0022-3514.84.2.377

What is Virtual Coaching?
Virtual Coaching means you and your Coach will meet by phone (or in some cases, Zoom or Skype) for your coaching session.

6 reasons why Virtual Coaching can be better than meeting in-person:

1. 1. You’ll be less stressed. Remember the last time you tried to navigate traffic to get to an appointment on time? With Virtual Coaching, you can use those 10-15 minutes beforehand to meditate, do some journaling, get a snack, or whatever you need to do to ground yourself. No more showing up feeling frazzled! Not insignificantly, people tend to feel more comfortable in their own space, which often leads to better productivity and work-life balance.
   2. You’ll get the most out of your time. Coaching is a serious investment and you’ll want to get the most out of every minute. Virtual Coaching enables your Coach to jump right into the session with you and cuts out the time it takes to get settled into the space.
   3. You can get coached from anywhere! It doesn’t matter if you’re traveling or if you only have an hour to spare, you can still benefit from high-impact coaching. Worried about getting too comfortable or distracted by your location? We have suggestions for you.
   4. It only requires a phone. No fancy technology needed. Call your Coach at the designated time and you’re on your way!
   5. Better listening. Listening, the core skill of coaching, is enhanced when visual cues are absent. New research from Yale School of Management suggests that “our sense of hearing may be even stronger than our sight when it comes to accurately detecting emotions.” Our finely-tuned listening skills are able to pick up on the nuances and patterns in your voice. We listen for your energy, passion, discouragement, hesitation, happiness, and frustration to get to the heart of the issues.
   6. You’ll be learning in your everyday environment. During sessions, clients are often in an environment where they will be working on our action items and holding themselves accountable. Being in your own environment inspires pragmatic and detailed solutions for how you will work on your goals and you become skilled at helping yourself in your everyday life.
      

Making the Most of Virtual Coaching
Here are some tips on how our Clients can make the most out of their virtual coaching sessions.

Location matters. When deciding where to be during your coaching call, ask yourself these questions:

• Does the change I want to make require a place I feel comfortable? Or a place that is new and inspiring to me?
• Where can I go that is private and free of distractions?

Location ideas: Go for a walk (movement inspires new ideas), your home office, a conference room at work, or in your favorite chair.

Use the 5-10 minutes before your call to ground yourself. The luxury of virtual coaching is that you don’t have to travel. Even if you have 5 minutes, use them to take a few deep breaths. Do a body scan to tune into how you’re feeling. You may even want to jot down some goals for the call.

Write your notes. If you’re easily distracted by being on your computer, think about writing them by hand instead.

​Record your session. If you’re able to, use speaker phone and record the session to replay later.