If you've been wanting to feel more grateful, but you haven't quite figured out how to do it yet, this episode is for you. Today I'll be sharing five of my favorite gratitude practices that help shift gratitude from something you do into something you make. So whether you're listening on your morning walk, you're communicated, or like meeting on this to be copied before the sun comes up, take a break, settle in, and let's explore what it means to truly cultivate gravitate. Welcome to Roots of the Rise with me, Sarah Hope, where spiritual wisdom needs practical tools in short episodes. Each one is a taster, not a deep dive, meant to spark curiosity and guide you toward authentic alignment. Right now, as I record this episode, I'm sitting in my office with just a single light on. The windows are open, the leaves are rustling outside. Hopefully you can't hear that. And there is a steaming cup of coffee beside me. It's 4 a.m., so it's dark, and it looks like it's going to be one of those dreary days that makes you want to stay in your comfy pajamas, sip something warm, throw a meal in the crock pot that makes the whole house smell amazing, and curl up with a good book. Or in my case, get some podcast episodes recorded. As I sat down to do this, I had this wave of gratitude rise up out of nowhere. So much gratitude in such an ordinary moment. I am on a timeline. I'm trying to get this done before the family wakes up. And in the past, I probably would have blown right by that gratitude feeling. I've got stuff to do. But over the last few years, I've learned that one of the most important things I can do for my mental health is to actually stop and soak these moments in. This episode is about doing exactly that. We're going to go over a few more gratitude practices, one of which is simply learning to be fully present when those unexpected, unprompted moments of appreciation appear. And taking the time when they do, to ask yourself, why? Why am I feeling so grateful right now? As I ask myself that, a flood of little things come to mind. I'm grateful that my husband is so supportive of my work. I'm grateful that even though my son and I had a really rough start yesterday, we were able to talk it out in the car and find understanding and repair, something that never would have happened in my childhood. I'm grateful for my big fluffy dog who just gave a dramatic sigh about being up this early and then promptly went back to sleep on the couch next to my desk. Grateful for this desk itself, the photos above it of my loved ones, my mentors, my dear friends, the artwork that inspires me every time I look up. And honestly, I'm grateful for this really good cup of coffee. You know, it's funny, even as I list all that out, I have a moment of discomfort. There's a part of me that cringes a little bit, that goes, ugh, that's so insipid, too sickly sweet. Combination of things. You know, my mother was very emotional in a very unsafe way for me. And every time she got all lovey and seemingly happy, it was almost always followed by an outburst of some sort. I also still have a little bit of that foreboding joy problem, like I talked about in episode 77. That sense that, oh no, things are too good, a shoe is about to drop. It's not there all the time, but it does come up occasionally still. And also, I have a recognition that if you're listening to this, you might be really struggling with finding gratitude. And you might get the ick listening to me list out all of my things I'm grateful about. But here's what I want you to know. While all of that is going on in the background of my emotional body right now, all of that discomfort and, you know, the foreboding joy and the deep felt recognition and remembrance of what it was like with my mom. What 99% of me is experiencing is bliss. It feels good to feel good. It feels good to be in appreciation and in gratitude of my life. And I know if I can allow myself to sink into that more than the rest of it, I will experience deep joy. And I want that. I want to be there. And I want you to be there with me, which is why I'm also grateful. I get to share a few more gratitude practices with you this morning. So you can begin to cultivate gratitude in your own life until it becomes a trait rather than a state you have to consciously reach for, so that you can develop the ability to have gratitude be where you naturally go. And you just kind of have to occasionally fend off those last few vestiges of old patterning and programming, as opposed to being stuck in the negative place and having to constantly reach for the positive. I'm always a fan of a multifaceted approach. We've gone over, you know, story gratitude and listing out three things you're grateful for, practices. Uh, and today I'm actually going to give you five. I'm going to give you five more because I think it's good to have a whole bunch of different tools in your toolbox because they're going to be appropriate in different ways. So the first one I want to share is something I call a touchstone. It's really simple. All it means is choosing an item or an action that you intentionally connect with something you're grateful for every time you encounter it. Mine, it's it's my engagement ring. I always wear my wedding band, but I take my engagement ring off every night. And every morning when I put it back on, even if just for a second, I take that moment to feel grateful for my husband. He designed the ring himself and he got it perfect. I love it so much. Not just because it's beautiful, but because it represents really the care and the thoughtfulness that he brings to our marriage, most of the time. Maybe for you, it's when you sit down at your desk each morning, you know, taking a breath to feel grateful that you're one of the lucky ones who truly loves what you do. Or maybe it's every time you pack your kiddo's lunch, pausing for a second to remember how grateful you are that they are your kid. The point is to tie gratitude to something you already do regularly. Something that each time you see it or touch it brings you back to a feeling of appreciation. It could even be a picture you keep visible somewhere, like something that, you know, is a picture of your extended family, you know, the people you love most, or a picture of the view from your favorite vacation spot that you go to every year. And you can uh tap into that gratitude of being able to go there. One important piece of this though is to not just give it lip service. Don't see the picture and just think to yourself, oh yeah, that's nice. No, like if you really want a touchstone practice to work, you need to pause and really allow yourself to feel that bubble of gratitude present within yourself. You've got to feel it if you want it to be effective. The next practice is another really simple one, and it pairs beautifully actually with the three things practice we talked about in episode 114. At the end of each day, as you are lying in bed, think of the last good moment you had that day. Even if it happened at 8 a.m. and everything kind of went downhill after that, it still counts. You can absolutely acknowledge everything that went wrong, and honestly, it's important that you do. Doing that helps close out the open tabs in your mental browser, so to speak. Uh, psychologists call it cognitive offloading. And I'll go into more detail about that another time because it's it's a good practice. But once you've acknowledged the hard stuff, this gratitude practice reminds you that the day wasn't all bad. Maybe it was just that perfect cup of coffee you had on your way to work, or a funny text from a friend, or a few quiet minutes to yourself in the car before heading inside for the evening chaos. Whatever it was, let that one good moment be what you end the day with. Along those same lines, another powerful practice is looking for silver linings. Now, this one can be tricky because we do not want to slip into spiritual bypassing and pretend that everything's fine when it's not. Yes, from a higher spiritual perspective, everything might ultimately have purpose and meaning, but that doesn't mean we downplay pain or hardship. That said, there is always some good to be found, even in the hardest experience. Take my house fire, for example, the one I talked about uh in episode whatever it was, 112, I think. You know, I lost most of my possessions. Both of my dogs died. It was deeply traumatizing. Absolutely. But can gratitude also be found there? Absolutely. Gratitude that no human lives were lost, gratitude that the fire didn't spread to the neighbors, gratitude for the outpouring of community support, for my boss's understanding and the ability to take time off to deal with everything, you know, and even gratitude that it led me to live lakefront for a year and a half, a time that, in its own way, was very restorative, also ruined me for life because now I can't imagine not living on a lake. Someday I will get back to that. Anyway, it's important to be clear, you know, finding gratitude and hardship doesn't mean ignoring the pain or pretending everything's okay. It's not about saying, I'm not upset at all, look at everything I have to be grateful for. That's not real. And pretending to feel something you don't doesn't help anyone, least of all you. But when gratitude becomes a natural trait rather than a practice, you start to see the good with the same depth you see the bad. You begin to automatically feel how even painful experiences might serve you in the long run, rather than only seeing the ways they've served they've hurt you. A similar practice is something called a gratitude chain. This is where you take one simple thing, anything at all, and trace it backward, noticing all the people, circumstances, and forces that made that one thing possible. Start small. Let's talk about coffee again. It is very early in the morning. I really am enjoying this coffee. Okay, so let's let's talk about coffee. Um, you can feel gratitude for the coffee itself. If you're at a coffee shop, you could give gratitude for the barista who made it just the way you like it, for the person who packaged the beans, for the farmer who harvested them, for the person who planted the seeds, for the rain that nourished the plants and the earth that grew them, even for whoever first discovered that coffee could be roasted, brewed, and turned into this magical thing we get to enjoy every day. It's such a simple practice, but again, it's a it expands your awareness in this really beautiful way. It reminds you how deeply connected we all are and how much had to align just for you to experience even the smallest joys in your life. And finally, the last one I want to talk about is to remind you that you don't have to wait for joy or gratitude to find you. You can create the moments that prompt those feelings. What experiences or activities naturally spark joy for you, naturally bring you to a place of gratitude? It doesn't have to be anything big or extravagant, no trip to Europe required. Maybe it's spending an afternoon at the zoo, or going out for dinner with friends, or setting aside a few hours to dive into a creative project you love. You can plan those things intentionally, knowing that they will become moments to feel grateful for. Grateful that you live close enough to visit the zoo whenever you want, grateful for those amazing friends who love the same pizza place you do. Grateful that you have the time and space to lose yourself in a hobby that brings you peace. The key is to feel gratitude while you're doing it, to be present in the joy as it's happening, not just in hindsight. So go make your plans right now. Create something to look forward to. Text that friend, set up that play date for yourself. And when it happens, let yourself soak it in fully. So to recap, we started with touchstones, those small everyday moments or objects that anchor you back into gratitude. Then we talked about ending your day with the last good moment, letting that memory kind of soften the edges of whatever was hard. We explored silver linings, finding the good that can coexist with the painful without pretending the pain isn't there. We built a gratitude chain, tracing one's small joy all the way back through every hand and circumstance that helped bring it to you. And finally, we remembered that you can create moments of gratitude by choosing to do the things that bring you joy and being fully present when you do them. Each of these practices is simple, but together they start to shift the way you move through life. Gratitude stops being something you have to reach for, and it becomes the lens you naturally see through. So this week, try choosing one of these practices to focus on, see how it feels, and notice what changes when you start looking for gratitude in unexpected places. And before we close, just a quick note: there won't be an episode this Thursday because it is Thanksgiving. Happy Thanksgiving to all those who celebrate. I am wishing you a day filled with good food, rest, maybe a little football, and moments to reflect on where gratitude can be found in your life today, tomorrow, and in all the days that follow. I'll be back on December 1st. Until then, remember, know who you are, love who you've been, and be willing to do the work to become who you're meant to be. Just a quick reminder this podcast is for educational and entertainment purposes only. I am not a licensed therapist, and nothing shared here is meant to replace the guidance of a physician, therapist, or any other qualified provider. That said, I hope it inspires you to grow, heal, and seek the support you need to thrive.