Gratitude: Your Next Level Practice

Season 2: Episode 8: Gratitude: Your Next Level Practice

In this heart-centered episode, Kristin Svets invites you to move beyond surface-level thankfulness and explore gratitude as an energetic frequency, one that can transform how you think, feel, and live.

As we enter the season of gratitude, Kristin breaks down six layers of next-level gratitude practices that go far beyond writing a quick list. She shares how appreciation can reshape your relationships, your mindset, and even your physical health, helping you tune into abundance right where you are.

This is more than a November ritual, it’s a daily way of being.

In This Episode, You’ll Learn:

💫 The science behind gratitude and why it literally rewires your brain and body

💫 The difference between gratitude and appreciation and how to move from thought to embodiment

💫 Six practices to deepen your gratitude:

1. Appreciate the little things — slow down and savor the simple moments

2. Appreciate loved ones — express gratitude directly and specifically

3. Show kindness — use gratitude to create ripple effects in your day

4. Reflect on experiences — find meaning in both the joyful and the hard

5. Appreciate yourself — honor your body, resilience, and growth

6. The Golden Thread of Gratitude — trace the moments and choices that led you to now

   
   

💫 How gratitude connects to abundance, alignment, and emotional well-being

💫 Why this practice can strengthen relationships, lower stress, and even improve your health

Powerful Takeaway:

When gratitude moves from something you do to something you live, everything changes. Your happiness expands .Your relationships deepen. Your energy rises. Your abundance grows.

Journal Prompts:

🪶 What simple moment from today can I pause to fully appreciate?

🪶 Who in my life can I express gratitude to — and how can I make it specific?

🪶 What challenging experience am I ready to view through the lens of appreciation?

🪶 What’s the “golden thread” that connects the moments that brought me here?

Connect with Kristin:

✨ Book a Soul Purpose Session or Mini Retreat Day to deepen your connection with your purpose and energy.

💻 Visit ⁠Kristin’s website⁠ or connect via Instagram ⁠@kristinsvetscoaching⁠

🎧 Subscribe to the Abundant By Design Podcast for weekly inspiration and energetic alignment tools.

If this episode resonated with you, share it with a friend who’s ready to live in gratitude and abundance and tag Kristin to join the conversation. 💛

⁠⁠⁠Music credit to Chris Collins at indiemusicbox.com.

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Subscribe to the Abundant By Design podcast for more insights and inspiration. Share your thoughts and connect with Kristin at hello@KristinSvets.com.

Kristin's Book!

"Designed to Shine" by Kristin Svets - Learn More Here!

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Transcript

Season 2: Episode 8- Gratitude: Your Next Level Practice

Hello, my friend. Welcome back to the Abundant By Design podcast. As I say every week, I'm so grateful that you're here with me today. And actually, that word grateful is the theme of the podcast today. I mean it when I say it. And I want to explore it in depth because we are officially in the season of gratitude.

November is here. And by the end of the month, Thanksgiving will be here. So because of that, you kind of see in the month of November that everywhere you look, people are starting to talk about what they are thankful for. And I have even hosted gratitude challenges in the past, which cracks me up because I don't feel like challenge is the right word with something as high vibe as gratitude, but I don't know, I never found a better word for it. And if you have been with me and you've done those know that I'm adding something new into the mix in this episode and this is my invitation to you whether you're new to what my gratitude challenges are or you've done them before That reviewing these methods is so powerful and if you're listening to this episode not in the month of November, but sometime in the future. Great, because gratitude should not be a seasonal thing. You know, what if gratitude can be more than just this nice thing that everybody decides to do and talk about in November? What if it could be a practice and a way of living that transforms, you know, not just how we feel, but how we experience life itself.

And that, my friends, is next level gratitude. That is when we truly tune into this higher vibe practice of appreciation. So today we're gonna dive into these six layers of gratitude practices. And again, if you've done my challenge in the past, I invite you to stay until the very end because this new practice that I am sharing and adding on has been new to me since I did the practices in the past and I think it's the most powerful one. So yes, I'm saving the best for last, but they're all amazing. And really what I think this does is it turns a gratitude practice from this surface level, just nice to talk about.

Thankfulness, is lovely anti-vibe. That is a great start. But what if we move into this? You know deep in our soul level appreciation Before we dive into that I wanted to share some research with you because the science on gratitude is Incredible. I actually wrote a whole chapter in my book on gratitude

My book is available on Amazon and anywhere you buy books, there's a link on my website, so be sure to check that out if you have not already. And of course, there's entire books on gratitude. There's entire businesses on gratitude, right? But what we know from the research is that studies consistently show that gratitude and...

And so here's what we know from the research is that studies consistently show that gratitude is strongly associated with greater happiness. Gratitude helps people feel more positive emotions and it helps you relish good experiences, good relationships. It helps you build those strong relationships and that helps you deal with anxiety and then in the end that improves your health. So there's actually like the fun selfish reason to have a gratitude practice. There was one study done by Dr. Robert Emmons and Dr. Michael McCullough, who are leaders in positive psychology research, and they studied gratitude by having participants write weekly about what they were grateful for. Versus the things that they encountered that annoyed them that were like irritating things. That's what the other half of the people did. So after 10 weeks, those who wrote about gratitude were more hopeful about the future. They had fewer medical appointments and they exercised more because they were in this good mindset and had motivation to take care of themselves. In another study,

Dr. Martin Siegelman, he's also known as like the father of positive psychology. He has incredible books out there. So Martin Siegelman, you are not familiar with him, look him up. And he tested a variety of positive psychology interventions on over 400 people. And when those participants wrote and then personally delivered a letter of gratitude to someone who had never been properly thanked, they immediately exhibited a huge increase in happiness scores greater than any other intervention with benefits lasting for almost a month. So being the one who writes the note of gratitude is what increased their happiness at this exponential level.

The study that I just love, this like just gets me, is that this is newer research because it was a long-term nurses' health study. And it involved 50,000 women and it showed that gratitude may actually extend lives. The study found that those with higher levels of gratitude had better emotional and social well-being, better sleep quality, my friends, all of us in our 40s, 50s, 60s that are having trouble with sleep, improved their sleep, lowered depression risk, and it created favorable markers in cardiovascular health. Like that is wild. It's wild that it can do that much. Another stat I love, over 90 % of American teens and adults indicated... that expressing gratitude made them extremely happy or somewhat happy. Right? So it's just proof. Like the research is clear, but it's also just proof in how you feel. But the gratitude isn't just a nice feeling. That's what gives us the proof. But it's a practice that literally changes your brain. But it's a practice that literally changes your brain, your body, your relationships, and therefore your life. And here's what I also wanna add to that that we already touched on a little bit. There's a little nuance to me between gratitude and appreciation. you know, gratitude is typically defined as thankfulness. It's the recognition of something good that has happened.

And often with a sense that it came from outside of you, like I'm grateful for this gift or I'm thankful for this opportunity. But appreciation lets you take that gratitude to a layer deeper. or I like to think of it the other way of like a higher vibe level of gratitude because it's not, just recognizing something good, it's recognizing the value of it. It's seeing the worth and the beauty and the significance. It's savoring it. It's letting it land in your body and in your heart.

So an easy way to kind of differentiate this too is gratitude can be the practice of saying thank you, but appreciation is feeling it. And here's why this nuance matters to me is because I get it that we're all busy people and adding these kind of positive psychology practices into our life can feel like checking the box. And so you can say I'm grateful all day long and you still might not. Actually feel it, but...you can make gratitude lists that actually feel hollow or checking that box. It was an obligation, it was performative. You wanted to say that you had a gratitude practice. But when you take it a little more seriously, you take it from your heart and soul, and you move into appreciation, when you really see the value, when you savor the moment, when you let it fill you up. That's when the transformation happens. And so today, as we move through these six ideas of really impactful gratitude practices, I just invite you to think about how you can move from surface level thankfulness to soul level appreciation. This is from just like a recognition, which is a great start, but to a savoring.

So it's not just like listing, it's actually embracing the feelings. So all right, let's dive into these six different ways. And I actually invite you to take notes on this episode because what might be really great for you to do in the month of November is to take these six different practices and make it a six day challenge for yourself. And each day, you're gonna do one of these practices and see how it makes you feel.

So, number one is appreciating the little things. And this is where most gratitude practices start, and it's beautiful. But again, I want to challenge you to go deeper than just listing the things. Instead of just saying, I'm grateful for my morning coffee, which I do that. I literally do that every day. But when you pause and really appreciate. Appreciate it when you feel the warmth of the mug in your hands and you smell I love coffee. So I think coffee smells amazing and you taste that first sip and you notice How it makes you feel the comfort and the ritual and just this moment of pause before your day begins That's appreciation. That's savoring The little things are everywhere right? It's the way the sunlight comes through your window in the morning. It's the sound of the rain on the roof. It's the first day of those clean sheets on your bed, right? It's a text from a friend that made you smile. It's the first bite of a really amazing meal or your favorite song coming on the radio or even a stranger holding the door for you, right? These moments are abundant and they are all around us. They're happening all day. Every day, but most of the time, we just rush past them. So that is step one, is slowing down, savoring, noticing the small, beautiful, simple things that make life really rich. And then I invite you to take that even to its own next level. So if you have time to really savor that moment with that cup of coffee, you can then appreciate everything deeper than the coffee, right? So appreciate the farmers that grew the coffee beans. Appreciate the truck drivers or the pilots that flew those coffee beans to you. Appreciate the scientists or the inventors that created the coffee machine or the Nespresso machine that you're using. Or appreciation for the barista who's making your coffee for you.

There's so many ways that you can take that little thing and just make it a little bit deeper. So play with that. Have so much fun.

So the next form of appreciation, number two, is appreciation for loved ones. And this one seems obvious, of course. We are grateful for the people we love. But when is the last time that you really told them that? When's the last time you really looked someone that you love in the eyes and said,

I appreciate you and here is why. And so again, going back to that study about writing a letter and then hand delivering it, it's so impactful to both parties. There's other research that shows that when individuals take the time to express gratitude for their partner, they not only felt more positive towards the other person, but they also felt more comfortable expressing concerns or frustrations. So it actually creates a better relationship. Gratitude strengthens your relationship because it deepens the connection. It makes people feel seen and valued. And so in that example,

It's good to be specific, you know, like not just saying, I'm so grateful for you, that you want to say like, I appreciate the way you always check in on me when you know that I've had a hard day and it makes me feel so loved and seen and supported. Or, you know, not just like thanks for being a good friend, but saying like, I appreciate how you always make me laugh, even when I'm taking myself too seriously.

Like you bring so much lightness into my life. And it's that specificity that makes appreciation really land. It makes it real. It makes the other person feel truly seen. And the beautiful thing of course is that when you express that appreciation for someone, you feel it more deeply too. It's a gift you give yourself and them at the same time. So a great super fun practice to do for this week with this topic is to pick three people that you love and to write them a text or an email or even better that handwritten note if you can deliver it in person and tell them specifically what you appreciate about them and allow yourself to be vulnerable, be real, and watch what happens. It's so fun to send those texts to friends and to just say, you know, like, I love you so much because of X, Y, and Z, and you are gonna make their day, and you are gonna be so much happier too. So have so much fun sending those texts. If you actually write and deliver the handwritten note, please tell me about it, I wanna hear.

Okay, moving into the gratitude practice number three is showing kindness. And now this might seem like it's switching gears, like we're talking about giving instead of receiving, but stay with me. One of the most powerful ways to cultivate gratitude is to give it away. Again, research shows that managers who remember to say thank you to the people who work for them may find that those employees feel more motivated to work harder. And there was another study at the University of Pennsylvania where fundraisers who received a message of gratitude from their director made 50 % more fundraising calls than those who did not.

And it's so simple. It's when you express appreciation to others, when you show kindness, when you acknowledge someone's effort or presence, you're creating a ripple effect. And so here's how you can make it just more fun in your everyday life is that you can look for things to be grateful for and show extra kindness around those things. So again, it's like thanking the barista who makes your coffee. It's

Leaving a generous tip with a kind note. It's complimenting that stranger, right? Like how many times do you walk by someone you're like, I love her outfit or her hair looks so pretty and you don't say it just say it say it out loud Again in a work scenario or even at home. It's acknowledging someone's hard work. It's holding space for someone who's struggling It's doing something thoughtful without being asked, right? It's always the fun coffee situation. I keep bringing up coffee in this episode, I must need some today. But you know, we all are familiar with that in the drive-through lines at Starbucks that somebody pays for the order behind them and then you get up there and then you're like, I gotta pay for the next order behind me. And so it creates this like fun, funny train of kindness and gratitude. So yeah, just think about where you can hold the door open for people or if you want to start the Starbucks train and just spend an extra seven bucks and make a few people's day. When you actively look for ways to appreciate others, you're training your brain to see the good. You train your heart to stay open. And so your practice for this one is that look for these moments. Find one person, a stranger, to genuinely thank or compliment, to make eye contact and smile and mean it and watch how it shifts both of you. Or whatever one of those examples resonates with you. I invite you to jump into that. Again, let me know. I think it's so fun. right,

Gratitude practice number four is more of a reflection, a more typical gratitude practice. But I like to focus this one on gratitude for experiences. So you get to start to go deeper here because then it's not just about appreciating things or people. It's about appreciating the moments and the memories and the experiences that have shaped you. So think about the experiences in your life that have brought you joy. So if you're married, hopefully it's your wedding day. If you're a parent, it's bringing your children into the world. Maybe it's a trip that opened up your mind and exposed you to such beautiful nature and cultures. Maybe it's a concert or a play that moved you to tears. Maybe it's that conversation that really blew your mind. changed your perspective. Maybe it's a moment of laughter with friends that you'll never forget. Just one of those amazing moments that sticks out. And maybe it's just a quiet morning that felt like peace that you haven't had in so long.

And so there is the flip side to that as well that can also be really powerful is can you appreciate the hard experiences? So, and it's not about being grateful for pain or trauma, but it's more about can you appreciate the strength that you built? Can you appreciate what you learned? Can you appreciate the support around you. Can you appreciate the clarity that came through? And some of these really transformative experiences of our lives are the ones that we wouldn't wish on other people, but we also wouldn't trade because of who we became because we went through them. So I think all of us can relate to breakups, right? That, you know, when we were younger or if you're listening to this and you are younger, when you go through those, the first breakup, the first couple of breakups, it changes who you are. And it is a coming of age story that really gives us an opportunity to redefine who we are.

And it's important to honor both of those. just gratitude and appreciation for experiences, both the joyful ones and the challenging ones, allows you to see your life as a whole, complete, sacred experience. It's not just these highlight reels, but that it's... all of it, that it can be messy and beautiful, that it can be complicated and sacred. So the practice for this one would be to journal about three experiences that shaped you. Or just one, if you want to. If you want to just pick one joyful one. Or you want to really reflect on one challenging one. Or maybe it something really unexpected. And now,

Looking back, what do you appreciate about those experiences? And really give yourself love and compassion around who you became through those experiences you moving into gratitude practice number five. This is a deep one too, and it is appreciation for yourself. And I know this is the one that so many people skip. We are so good at appreciating others, at being grateful for what we have or the great experiences that we've had, but when it comes to appreciating ourselves, it's easy to skip. We freeze up. We walk away. But here is the thing is that in order to live in true abundance, you do want to learn how to appreciate who you are. And this is not about arrogance. This is not about ego. This is just genuine appreciation for yourself, starting with your body.

And I know for us women, that might be a hard one, but our body carries us through every single day. Appreciation for our feet and our legs. They have walked us around this entire lifetime. And when do we ever like think about that and say, thank you body, thank you legs, thank you feet. For your heart, your heart that keeps beating, literally keeping you alive.

And it also keeps loving, even when it's been hurt. There's also a level of appreciation that I invite you to recognize in yourself for your resilience, for the way that you've gotten through things that were hard that maybe you didn't think that you could. Invite in appreciation for your kindness, for your creativity, your courage, for your humor, for your wisdom, for your intuition, for the growth you've done, for your...for the growth you've done and for the choices that you've made to show up for yourself. You are worthy of your own appreciation.

When you start appreciating yourself and really seeing your own value, everything shifts. So I invite you to really think about the gift of your body and your mind and your heart, all working in tandem for you each day. It is our vessel for this life, right? So think about the activities that you're able to do, that your body lets you do. Think about the talents that you have and allow yourself to just sit in a feeling of appreciation and gratitude for those. And then the practice would be to list a few of those out and statewide you're grateful for them. This really allows you to expand your capacity to receive love from others because as you appreciate yourself, you are opening your heart.

And I know it's gonna feel awkward at first, but do it anyways. This is a good one. Don't skip this one. All right. And I saved the best for last. This was not in the challenge I have run in the past. Layer six is the golden thread of gratitude. And I had heard about this a little bit over the past year. And then I actually just saw a think in the New York Times or the Washington Post there was an article about this and this is a practice that takes your gratitude to the next level. This is where gratitude becomes a lens for understanding your entire life which is why I called it the golden thread of gratitude. So here is the practice is that you're going to think about one of these other things that you've had gratitude for and you're going to create a timeline around it. So it could actually, you you could do it as a timeline of your whole life, but I think it's easier to start off picking something. And so for example, let's start off with something about where you are in this moment of your life. So maybe it's your career, maybe it's your relationship, maybe it's your home, maybe it is your sense of self, but wherever you are right now, trace it back.

How did you get here? And what seemingly random thing led to the next thing, which led to the next thing? So like maybe you didn't get the job you wanted and you took a different one and that's where you met your best friend. Or maybe a relationship ended and in that heartbreak, you discovered a new hobby that you love or a

Creative outlet that is now this big passion for you Or maybe you moved to a new city because of a circumstance you didn't choose and that's where your whole life opened up You know, I can think about that for me if you are not familiar with my personal story is we moved across the country when our boys were four and two and So in theory, I didn't choose it because it was my husband's work that moved us

But I did choose it because I loved my husband and I wanted to stay married to him and so I moved with him. And you know, now my boys are 20 and 22, I raised them here, this is their life. And so it isn't the path that I thought we were gonna go down, but I even think about my house. Like if we were to move, I would be so sad to give up my house because I raised my boys here, right?

And the example, let's actually use the house example. think that is a cool way to look at the thread of there are so many people to thank in the house, right? Like I've had contractors in here who have remodeled it and done work. So I can express gratitude for them. I can express gratitude for the families who lived here before us and took care of this home. I can thank the original builder of the home from way back when.

And then you can think about all the things that go into a house, the wood and the countertops and the brick and the electrics, like all of it. There are so many people to be thankful for in a home. And that is a golden thread of gratitude. And then looking at it from more of a timeline perspective for yourself, and we can use the same example of moving and say it was for my husband's job. And so there's gratitude for the guy who wanted to hire him for that position at the time. And there is gratitude for the experience of working where he worked before that. you get the gist, right? Like it is opening up another level with the lens of gratitude. When you look back, you start to see this golden thread. It's a through line. It's the way everything, even the hard things, even the things that didn't make sense at the time, they led you to right now.

And when you can see that golden thread, you also start to trust the future more because you realize that it's all unfolding in a beautiful, soulful path, even when you can't see it yet.

So the practice that I invite you to do for this one is to get a journal or just a piece of paper and draw a timeline. Pick something from where you are now or something that comes up in the other practices that you're truly grateful for and trace back the other major events, decisions, turning points, people that led you here. And then for each one, you can write what you appreciate about it now, even if it was hard at the time. And then you get to see that golden thread. I just love that concept. I think it's so powerful. Again, I would love to hear from you if you do it and the impact that it had on you.

So in summary, what I want to leave you with is again, that gratitude is fun to do in November, but it isn't just something you do in November. It's not just a list that you make when you're supposed to, like just writing the three things that I'm grateful for at night. Like that is a great start. I'm all for it. But it's not just that. Gratitude, like real embodied, soul deep appreciation is a practice.

It is a way of seeing your world and it's a frequency that you can tune into at any moment. And when you live in that frequency, everything changes. Your happiness increases, your relationships deepen, your health improves, and your abundance expands. You start to see that your life is already so full and so rich and so beautiful.

Now, if you are feeling called to go deeper, if you want support in uncovering what you're truly here for, what lights you up, what your soul is calling you towards, I'd love to invite you to work with me. I offer soul purpose sessions that are an hour long. We dive deep into your unique gifts, your calling, the next aligned steps on your path. This is a powerful transformative session. Really beautiful. We get clear on your purpose on your gifts, your soul gives messages to me that I share with you of like how to step into your highest path. And I just love being able to be that mirror and reflect back to you these gorgeous messages from your soul. So that's an hour long session. I also just started offering mini retreat days. So those are three hour containers.

And they can be done on Zoom. So if you are not local, we could do it in a three hour afternoon or we could split it into two 90 minute sessions. If you are local, we can do it in person. And this is just a beautiful thing that I wanted to create after coming back from retreats to go deeper, to have a true breathwork sound bath meditation session. And within that have time to do a full oracle card pull to get these beautiful soul purpose messages from your soul, from your angels, and then also talk through it and create next steps and how to integrate. And so I see this as a great way to get that retreat energy that we talked about in the last episode and really just have a reset button for your life without having to get on an airplane, right? You're gonna get to leave with clarity and direction and most importantly a deep sense of inner peace. So if either of those are calling to you, head to my website, book your session. I can't wait to support you. Thank you again for being here with me today. Thank you for your willingness, your interest to practice gratitude, not just as a task, but as a way of life because I do think that we can change the world this way.

Remember that you are abundant by design. And one of the most powerful ways to step into that abundance is to appreciate what's already here. I appreciate you so much. I'm so grateful you're here. And I'll see you next week for another episode. Until then, have a great week practicing appreciation and gratitude.