Learn more about the two forms of gratitude, and how gratitude impacts every area of your life. Discover why it's important to prioritize your life on a daily basis to increase your gratitude. Walk away with empowering questions to ask yourself to help you be more inspired, enthused, centered, and grateful.
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We always think we're victims of history by looking out there thinking
Speaker:something's happened to us, but it's our perception of what's out there.
Speaker:And we can take whatever's out there in our world and find out how it serves
Speaker:what's valuable to us. And that increases our gratitude.
Speaker:First I'm gonna say that there a superficial gratitude
Speaker:a distinction.
Speaker:A superficial gratitude is when things happen to be supporting what you value
Speaker:and seems to be going easy and it seems like things are happening in the way
Speaker:that you want and you go, 'Thank you. Thank you.
Speaker:Thank you.' And it's kinda like a superficial,
Speaker:easy dynamic and you don't really feel like there's anything going on that's
Speaker:really testing you.
Speaker:And then there's a gratitude that occurs when you've actually been challenged in
Speaker:what you value, you feel like there's hindrances,
Speaker:but then you found out how to perceived it differently or take actions on it
Speaker:and actually came through it and had a deep gratitude. And you felt a deep,
Speaker:absolutely feeling almost tears of gratitude for the realization that 'Wow,
Speaker:I thought there was some sort of apparent chaos,
Speaker:but there's actually a hidden order to what's happening.'
Speaker:And you got a deep fulfillment coming out of that and a gratitude that came from
Speaker:the challenge, not just from the support.
Speaker:And both of those forms of gratitude are useful.
Speaker:But the one that is actually able to take the challenges and turn 'em into
Speaker:gratitudes,
Speaker:those are the ones that are most empowering because
Speaker:happens in your life, you can turn it into an opportunity.
Speaker:But let's look at what gratitude does.
Speaker:And then I'll talk about the distinction to those again.
Speaker:Gratitude has an impact in your mind. Actually
Speaker:the prefrontal cortex,
Speaker:the medial prefrontal cortex in the forebrain is not only called the executive
Speaker:center, but it's also called the gratitude center.
Speaker:Because whenever you're doing something that's deeply meaningful,
Speaker:truly inspiring, highest in value,
Speaker:things that are really highest in priority in your life,
Speaker:the thing you feel is meaningful and purposeful in your life,
Speaker:that's when you end up having the highest degree of gratitude.
Speaker:And you have the most resilience, most adaptability to whatever happens.
Speaker:And you're able to see whatever you think is on the way, not in the way.
Speaker:So you're able to see how whatever challenges you
Speaker:what you want. You're able to see under, go through it, underneath it, around,
Speaker:over above it, to get the outcome you want.
Speaker:And that type of gratitude is very profound.
Speaker:And that's occurring whenever you feel that anything is connected to what you
Speaker:value most. And let me just go off on a little tangent here.
Speaker:You have three things you have control of in your life, your perception,
Speaker:decisions, and actions.
Speaker:If you take command of your actions and prioritize your actions to the very
Speaker:highest priorities,
Speaker:you're going to have the highest probability of having the most gratitude.
Speaker:Cause whenever you're living by highest priorities, the blood glucose,
Speaker:oxygen goes in the forebrain, activates the medial prefrontal cortex,
Speaker:the gratitude center, and you easily see gratitude.
Speaker:You know when you've done a day,
Speaker:when you've got the highest priorities knocked out,
Speaker:you're more resilient and adaptable, you're more fulfilled, more grateful,
Speaker:you can handle almost anything.
Speaker:But when you're putting fires out and you're doing lower priority things and
Speaker:feel like you're trapped and overwhelmed by extrinsic, you know,
Speaker:fires you feel whoa, and you're a bear and you're ungrateful. So,
Speaker:if you're not living by high priorities, you're going to be less grateful.
Speaker:And so you can take command of that.
Speaker:You can sit down and decide what is the highest priority action I can do today
Speaker:to help me fulfill my mission on earth, to help me serve the most people,
Speaker:to be able to fulfill my life? But you can also do that on your perceptions.
Speaker:And the perceptions are you can ask;
Speaker:how is no matter what's happened in my life today,
Speaker:how's it helping me get what I really want to do?
Speaker:How's it helping me fulfill my mission? My priorities,
Speaker:my most important things in life, what I feel is most fulfilling?
Speaker:Asking yourself, how specifically is whatever's happening,
Speaker:helping me fulfill what's most meaningful to me, what's most inspiring,
Speaker:my purpose, the thing that I want to do that serves the world?
Speaker:If you ask that question and answer it, not sit down and go, 'I don't know.
Speaker:I can't see it.
Speaker:It's in my way.' But be accountable and find out how it's linked.
Speaker:The moment you link it,
Speaker:you neuroplastically reopen up your brain back into the frontal cortex and back
Speaker:in the gratitude center. And then you see the hidden order in the chaos,
Speaker:and then you're in command and you're not a victim of history,
Speaker:you now master of your destiny. By asking;
Speaker:how specifically is whatever's happening,
Speaker:helping me fulfill what's most important to me, my highest priority?
Speaker:You master both of 'em. You can master your motor actions.
Speaker:You can master your sensory perceptions.
Speaker:And then knowing when to make the decisions on which one you're gonna do.
Speaker:Am I either gonna go prioritize my actions or am I prioritize my perceptions?
Speaker:Either go do what you love through delegating or love what you do through
Speaker:linking I call it.
Speaker:Linking means asking how specifically is this action gonna help me fulfill my
Speaker:mission and linking that action with that experience,
Speaker:that sensory perception to what's most important. If you do that,
Speaker:you have command and you increase your gratitude. Now gratitude, what that does,
Speaker:when you're in that prefrontal cortex, you have less noise in the brain.
Speaker:You're more creative, you're more solution oriented.
Speaker:You actually feel purposeful. You have meaning in life.
Speaker:You have more fulfillment, you're more inspired. You're more leader oriented.
Speaker:You're living by design, not duty.
Speaker:And your mental capacities are more heightened.
Speaker:You wake up more of a genius. And in your business,
Speaker:when you're in gratitude like that,
Speaker:you're more resilient and adaptable to whatever happens.
Speaker:You're also more in fair exchange. You're more objective.
Speaker:So you're more likely to think about your customer in a fair way.
Speaker:Because if you look down in your customer, not meet their needs,
Speaker:you learn a lesson, you get humbled.
Speaker:And if you look up and sacrifice your profits, you get, it doesn't work.
Speaker:You learn to have objectivity in a balanced state.
Speaker:When you're living by your highest values you're more objective and more neutral
Speaker:about that, and more fair in your exchange. So from a business perspective,
Speaker:you're gonna grow your business, you know, less noise in the brain, more genius.
Speaker:And in your finances, when you're able to manage your emotions,
Speaker:when you're living by your highest values, you're less volatile, less emotional,
Speaker:less blood supply down into the amygdala, less predator prey oriented,
Speaker:less impulse instinct oriented, less distracted, you're more focused.
Speaker:When I asked in the 1980s,
Speaker:what was the most common thing people were facing in their life? It was,
Speaker:they were having hard time staying focused on what it is that was important to
Speaker:them, they're easily getting distracted.
Speaker:If you're not prioritizing your life and sticking to highest priority things,
Speaker:you're gonna be inundated with other things. In fact,
Speaker:if you don't fill your day with high priority actions that inspire you,
Speaker:that brings gratitude to you,
Speaker:your day's gonna fill up with low priority distractions that bring ingratitude.
Speaker:So that's how important it is. And that's the way it is when it comes to money.
Speaker:People who can't manage their money,
Speaker:it's because they can't manage their emotions because they're in their amygdala
Speaker:and they're not in their executive function.
Speaker:So if you prioritize your actions and prioritize the actions that help build
Speaker:wealth, automatic, your savings and investments,
Speaker:and automatically serve people in ever greater numbers,
Speaker:you'll grow your finances. And relationship, if you ask the question,
Speaker:how specifically what they're dedicated to is helping you fulfill what you're
Speaker:dedicated to?
Speaker:You'll be able to take no matter what they've done and turn into something to be
Speaker:grateful for. It's not what they do that makes it,
Speaker:if you're waiting for people to support your values,
Speaker:that's the amygdala function.
Speaker:The amygdala is always wanting a pleasure and avoiding a pain,
Speaker:an ease and avoiding difficulties. And that's where you, you don't grow there.
Speaker:You grow by having challenges and innovating and creating.
Speaker:And so a relationship is not meant for you to be always supported.
Speaker:The relationship is there to make you authentic.
Speaker:And you're not authentic if you're being juvenilely dependent on that thing,
Speaker:that you're infatuated with them. You want the challenges in life.
Speaker:And the challenges are one that make you learning how to make sure that you turn
Speaker:those challenges into something to be grateful for is the mastery of the
Speaker:relationship game. So ask; how specifically is what they're dedicated to,
Speaker:what they do every day and what they love doing,
Speaker:how's it helping you fulfill your highest values? If you do that,
Speaker:you're gonna end up with more resilient, more adaptability,
Speaker:and you'll be more appreciative of them,
Speaker:and you'll be able to say with integrity, 'I'm thankful to you,
Speaker:thank you for what you're doing. I didn't see it,
Speaker:but now I see it.' We always think we're victims of history by looking out there
Speaker:thinking something's happened to us,
Speaker:but it's our perception of what's out there.
Speaker:And we can take whatever's out there in our world and find out how it serves
Speaker:what's valuable to us. And that increases our gratitude.
Speaker:And the same thing socially,
Speaker:when we're being really inspired and living by our highest value,
Speaker:we're more social leaders and we're more impactful.
Speaker:And instead of following a culture, we create a culture.
Speaker:We create and lead the pathway.
Speaker:And your job is not to sit there and subordinate to the world out there and
Speaker:conform and be part of the herd,
Speaker:it's going out and getting heard and giving yourself permission to make a
Speaker:difference. We all wanna make a difference.
Speaker:You're not gonna make a difference fitting in.
Speaker:You're gonna make a difference standing out.
Speaker:And when you go into take priority actions and take your perceptions and turn
Speaker:'em into how it's helping you get what you want, and you're more grateful,
Speaker:you're more of a leader and you're more likely to be a leader in society that
Speaker:way. And also your physiology. I wrote a book many years ago,
Speaker:Count Your Blessings, The Healing Power of Gratitude and Love.
Speaker:There's no doubt that gratitude is one of the keys that opens up the gateway of
Speaker:the heart and inside the heart is love and love opens up
Speaker:and radiates light you might say from our heart and allows us to physiologically
Speaker:be more balanced in health, in healing.
Speaker:I think that gratitude and love are still the greatest healers of on the planet.
Speaker:So we get more vitality and more energy when we're grateful and when we're in
Speaker:feeling of love. And from an inspirational level, a spiritual level, you know,
Speaker:what more spiritual can be except the grateful heart and a loving heart
Speaker:and a grateful mind?
Speaker:Those are the two things that represent spirituality as far as I'm concerned.
Speaker:If you're not grateful for your life, your life is hell.
Speaker:And if you're not in grace, you know, you're in disgrace.
Speaker:And I'm a firm believer that all areas of life, all seven areas of life,
Speaker:your spiritual path, your intellectual pursuits, your business, your finances,
Speaker:your family, your social, your health, all of them are empowered by gratitude.
Speaker:Gratitude is the a thing I mean, my mom was,
Speaker:told me when I was four years old to count my blessings before I went to bed,
Speaker:cuz people who are grateful for what they have they get more to be grateful for.
Speaker:And I was born on Thanksgiving day in America.
Speaker:My birthday's coming up on Thanksgiving this year.
Speaker:And I'm a firm believer that if you take the time to stop and reflect and look
Speaker:at what you are grateful for on a daily basis,
Speaker:which I have the largest list of gratitudes and opportunistic things,
Speaker:I go through and add 'had the opportunity to do this today,
Speaker:had the opportunity to meet this individual,
Speaker:had the opportunity to film this program,
Speaker:had the opportunity to be interviewed by this,
Speaker:had the opportunity to write this article.' And I
Speaker:on a daily basis.
Speaker:And in the process of doing my gratitude then filters out and I get way more
Speaker:done. And I have more fulfillment in life and less resistance in life.
Speaker:And I don't age as much.
Speaker:I really believe that when you're grateful and you have love in your heart,
Speaker:you don't age as much.
Speaker:So there's a tremendous amount of value in the gratitude attitude.
Speaker:And I really believe that that's the key.
Speaker:If you sit down and prioritize your life, your actions,
Speaker:and prioritize your perceptions and do that on a daily basis,
Speaker:you're gonna have more gratitude. The forebrain is the gratitude center.
Speaker:And every time you're living by priority, you activate that area.
Speaker:And every time you're not,
Speaker:and you're letting the world run your life and you become victims of the outer
Speaker:world and victims of your history, you won't become master of your destiny.
Speaker:So don't allow the, you know, when you get up in the morning,
Speaker:if you don't design your day, if you don't fill it the way you want it,
Speaker:it's gonna fill up with how you don't.
Speaker:And if you don't empower all areas of your life,
Speaker:people are gonna overpower you in those areas.
Speaker:And they're gonna fill up that day with all kind of trivial stuff.
Speaker:And you're gonna say, well,
Speaker:I've never got anything that I wanted to get done today.
Speaker:And then you feel crap about life. You don't feel inspired by your life.
Speaker:Take the time to prioritize your life, prioritize your perceptions,
Speaker:your decisions. If you haven't gone on my website to do Dr.
Speaker:Demartini's Value Determination process, do that.
Speaker:That'll help you determine what really is important to you,
Speaker:so you can prioritize according to what's meaningful and not prioritize
Speaker:according to what you think it should be according to some outside source.
Speaker:You want the inner voice and inner vision to be directing what's priority.
Speaker:You wanna be able to do something that's deeply meaningful because when you do
Speaker:that, you have a yearning to want to go and be of service to other people.
Speaker:When you're empowered, you wanna be of service. When you're disempowered,
Speaker:you get focused on your own problems. When you get empowered,
Speaker:you want to go out and make a contribution.
Speaker:So gratitude is the key that opens up the gateway of the heart allows love to
Speaker:come out, radio washes the brain and the mind,
Speaker:allows it to be more inspired, more enthused, more centered, more present.
Speaker:And those are healing capacities, healing of not just a physiology,
Speaker:but the whole body, whole life. So take the time to prioritize your life.
Speaker:Take the time to activate your executive center and realize if you do,
Speaker:you'll have more time in your life. You'll have more gratitude too,
Speaker:and document what you're grateful for on a daily basis.
Speaker:It does make a difference.
Speaker:I have the largest collection of gratitudes of anybody I've ever met.
Speaker:And I do it every single day and I don't miss a day on it.
Speaker:And I guarantee you it makes a difference in your life if you take the time to
Speaker:actually stop and reflect on the things you're grateful for,
Speaker:how is everything is on the way, not in the way?
Speaker:I remember a teacher when I was 23 years old, I had a 35 year old guy,
Speaker:he had six PhDs, he was a brilliant man, he says,
Speaker:'Don't go to bed at night until you can look back at your life and see
Speaker:gratitude. If you can't see anything in gratitude,
Speaker:there's something that is not grateful for,
Speaker:stop and look at it again before you go to bed.',
Speaker:Anything you can't say thank you for and gratitude for is baggage.
Speaker:Anything you can say thank you for is fuel.
Speaker:So let's use both the superficial and the deep form of gratitude,
Speaker:and let's go move forward on there and get life on the way, not in the way.
Speaker:And if you do that, you'll say thank you even more. So this is Dr. Demartini,
Speaker:until our next little presentation, stop, reflect,
Speaker:and prioritize your life and say, thank you.