How Can Gratitude Change Your Life?

Dear beloved yogi!

Welcome to this moment of reflection and celebration of gratitude. Amidst life's hustle and bustle, it's easy to overlook the precious gems scattered along our path. We get frustrated at lagging internet speeds and overlook the incredible ability of accessing vast amounts of information and connecting with people worldwide instantly. We feel annoyed that a train/flight is late instead of eclipsing the momentary inconvenience by remembering how epic it is that we have these forms of transportation at all. At times, we focus on the clouds rather than the vast blue sky behind them and we often miss the profound beauty hidden within life's everyday hiccups. Yet, by becoming aware of our emotional state, in just one breath, we can shift our perspective and unveil a world brimming with blessings.

In this issue, we look at the impact of focusing more attention on that beautiful blue sky and how a shift in focus can illuminate your life with newfound radiance, making gratitude an integral part of every waking moment. 🤸🏼‍♂️😊 

Why is it that sometimes we struggle to hold onto feelings of gratitude, even when we know that most of us are statistically more fortunate than many others?* In fact, the way our brains adapt to good fortune or misfortune is actually our mind trying to help us out, even if it doesn’t seem like it sometimes. It adapts to ‘good’ and ‘bad’ events more or less the same way in order to maintain stability and ensure our survival. Our brains reset to a new ‘base level’ to incorporate the new conditions we find ourselves in. This is also why people whom have won a lottery usually default back to their pre-win level of happiness in a relatively short time frame afterwards 🤯

🙏 What is gratitude and why is it so important? 🙏

Gratitude can be defined as a sense of happiness and thankfulness. It can be both a state and a trait. You can experience gratitude for someone or something at a certain moment in time, and having a more grateful outlook more long-term becomes a character trait.

Paying attention to what we feel grateful for puts us in a positive frame of mind as it connects us deeper to ourselves and to the world around us. It allows us to build a more positive narrative about our life. The first thing we consume in the morning is a clear glass of water and before we drink it, we look at the water and repeat the mantra “Thank you, I love you, I’m so grateful.” It’s such a simple act of gratitude for water that sustains life but it goes so far knowing that 1 in 4 people don’t have access to clean water. Flo’s Empowered Mornings Meditation Program also helps to frame each day with a window into possibility and gratitude for the infinite opportunities it represents. Nurturing this mindset helps us connect with others and make us more eager to be kind and proactive in our interactions and endeavors.

It’s also been found that practicing gratitude helps to lower blood pressure, improves immune function, lessens depression, anxiety and substance abuse disorders and aids better sleep. So, sounds like a no brainer, huh?

Yogis know that gratitude isn't merely an emotion but a spiritual practice that deepens our connection to ourselves, others, and the divine. It is integral to finding Santosha - the second of the Niyamas of Patanjali's Eight Limbs of Yoga - which roughly translates as contentment. It's a practice that cultivates inner peace by acknowledging the abundance and beauty in each moment, fostering unity and compassion. Having the drive to grow and expand our minds is positive, but it becomes detrimental when we solely base our happiness on it; Santosha entails appreciating what we have while still striving for progress. This special Santosha focused meditation reminds us to give thanks for our life, exactly as it is. 

💝 The gift of sharing gratitude 💝

Did a friend call to check in with you this week? Did a teacher go out of their way to tell you a positive moment from your child’s day? Did your partner leave you leftovers for your lunch to save you time in the morning? Tell the person how it made you feel and why you are so grateful. Verbalizing gratitude feels good for the giver and the receiver. Don’t focus on how you are saying it or the ‘right’ way to say it - just say it. People often remember things like this for years to come.

Gratitude can start from a very young age. We tell each other ‘thank you’ dozens of times everyday and this equated to our 2-year-old son saying the phrase for everything when he was just 18 months old - even ‘tank tuu’ for handing him his toothbrush, unbuckling him from the car seat, or giving him a banana. It isn’t something we have to tell him “say thank you,” he picked it up on his own because he heard us say it so much.

To show our gratitude for being here in our newsletter, please enjoy this special access to our Wolfpack Membership Platform below. This FREE FIVE VIDEO BUNDLE is your exclusive pass to dive to dive deeper into the Wolfpack universe and try out some of the juicy membership-only content! We have brand new movement classes, guided meditations as well as a special gratitude breathing class in our Empowered Mornings meditation program. See you there! 🚀❤️

Thank you for being a part of the Breathe and Flow Wolfpack family. Let's continue to cultivate gratitude and raise the vibrations across this beautiful planet. 🐺🙏💙

All aboard the gratitude train, 

Other cool stuff we use, buy and recommend can all be found here in the Breathe and Flow Kit here! From books and to business tools, to travel items and yoga props - we’ve got you covered!

*In relation to income, education, living in a democratic country, to have lived to older than 35 and have overall good health. Source: Hidden Brain 

Thanks for being a ‘read to the end’ kind of person. We appreciate your attention and presence. We are grateful every day that we can connect with wonderful people like you, who choose love over fear and spread the message of gratitude and love across the world.

Thank you for being here. 🙏