This post is a transcript from our series Mindful Mindsets with WonderLight Jewelry. You can listen wherever you listen to podcasts. To watch the video, click here!
Cat: Hello and welcome to our Mindful Mindset series by WonderLight Jewelry. I am Cat and this is Kati. We are going to be talking today about gratitude as one of our affirmations that you can focus on. So, we have pieces of jewelry represented by the Rhodonite stone. Do you want to kick us off, Kati, just talking about Rhodonite and why we chose that to represent gratitude in the jewelry pieces we make?
Kati: Yeah! Every piece that we have that has a Rhodonite stone has a little gemstone affirmation card that comes with it. This just helps you remember why you're choosing this stone, and why we've chosen this stone. Rhodonite is a stone of gratitude, reflecting a similar pink color found just before the dawn. The stone serves as a gentle reminder to notice the beauty and the gifts all around you. Rhodonite's energetic coloring is meant to stir up the pleasures of your heart and welcome a grateful acceptance that can bring peace and joy.
Cat: Awesome, love it. So you can see, Kati and I have our Rhodonite on today and we're going to be focusing on this attribute throughout the week. So what are some of the ways that you incorporate gratitude into your daily routine, Kati?
Kati: Yeah, I think gratitude is a really powerful tool. I actually start my day off with gratitude. I have a little journal that when I first wake up in the morning, I just write down three things that I'm grateful for every day.
Cat: Every day?
Kati: Well, I try every day.
Cat: Do they have to be different things?
Kati: I try to make them different things, yeah.
Cat: Why is that important?
Kati: I just think finding variety is really helpful and that way I'm not just stuck in the same things every day. I think it's really easy to say oh, I'm grateful for sunshine, I'm grateful for my bed, I'm grateful for whatever...
Cat: But to be fair, those are really good things.
Kati: They are! I think that it's important to recognize those things. But, if you're always looking for something else and more to be grateful for, it's going to just broaden that horizon of the things that are meaningful in your life.
Cat: So you wake up in the morning, first thing you do like reach over, it's in your nightstand and that's like you write down the three things?
Kati: Yeah!
Cat: I really like that. I should do that. I've heard of gratitude journals! Let us know if you're keeping one in the comments, but yeah, but I definitely know that that is a mindfulness practice that a lot of people use. How do you feel like that has helped you with feeling gratitude, throughout your day, your week?
Kati: Well, I think that the very first thing, the very first mindset that you put yourself in in the morning, is how you're presenting yourself the rest of the day. And if I wake up and I'm just like, oh, I don't want to, I don't want to get out of bed, I don't want to do this and I'm just really grumpy and negative, I'm going to feel more grumpy and negative throughout the rest of my day. But, when I wake up and I'm trying to just feel refreshed and happy to be alive and these are the things that I'm grateful for, these are the things that I see value in in my life, that is just going to set me up for a better day.
Cat: Yeah, there's also kind of like this concept I've been learning about, really interested in. Have you ever heard of the law of attraction? Okay, so it's kind of like where the things that we think about or focus on seem to kind of show up more in our lives, and so I do think, like hearing you talk about the gratitude journal, I could see why, when we are recognizing those good things, why that would be so imperative to also again attracting those things into our lives.
Kati: For sure!
Cat: Let's see what else. How does practicing gratitude affect your mental health and overall well-being? Like how do you think those two things are kind of tied together?
Kati: I think it’s kind of along the same lines. It's like what I'm putting out there, I am searching for the good and I will, you find what you're looking for. So, for my overall well-being, if I'm always looking for the negative, or if I'm thinking about all the negative and all the bad and what's hard today, then that just feels icky, and when you're looking for the good, you'll feel good.
Cat: Okay, I'm going to throw a curveball at you that I've been thinking about. This is kind of where I always seem to kind of ponder a little bit. So I'm kind of naturally an optimistic person in some regards. I was actually just talking to my therapist about this and the trouble that I have feeling negative emotions and how that sometimes actually inhibits me in my life. It's really hard. I'm really trying to bridge that gap and they're like okay, feel your emotions like where the body awareness piece, like where do you feel this in your body? You know and she was joking with me. She's like just hang up, happy Cat, like just take that coat off and just hang it up for a second. Really really hard! So there is this concept. So, yes, gratitude is super important. But then there's also been kind of like this talk around, they call it toxic positivity. So everything is awesome, like where is that line between just being like oh, I'm just so grateful and everything is good all the time? Like what are your thoughts around that piece of gratitude?
Kati: Well, the first thing that comes to my mind is that I am not like that!
Cat: Okay! What do you mean, not like what?
Kati: I am not naturally an optimistic person. Naturally, I tend to be a little bit more on the negative side. It's really really easy for my brain to just instantly pick out what could go wrong, what is bad, what is this negative feeling?
Cat: Interesting! That's so hard for me. It's so hard I'm like I don't feel anything.
Kati: Yes, but like along with the toxic positivity thing. I think it's just finding the balance for you and what feels good, and maybe you just need to be grateful for the harder things. It's not just I'm grateful for all these happy things that feel so good but, being grateful for the difficulties and how you can grow in those struggles and those challenges.
Cat: Ooh, I like that. That's good. All right, you passed Good answer. What else? How can we practice gratitude during difficult or stressful times?
Kati: Same thing. Pointing those out and realizing, “What can I learn from this? How is this challenge going to help me grow and better myself?” And yes, it's hard and it's not fun to be in a time of growth and trials.
Cat: I only like fun things.
Kati: I know! If only life was that easy. But I think, taking the time to process, through those hard times and still being grateful, and even if you're just looking at that one little thing and it's hard to say, oh, I'm grateful for this really big thing - just find really tiny things that you can be grateful for. You don't have to find this big, magical moment of gratitude. It's just this one little thing, one breath. I'm grateful for it this time. I'm grateful for being here, I'm grateful for being able to learn from this experience.
Cat: Can you think of a personal experience, and it's okay if you can't. Again, we're doing this, we're not editing these videos because nobody got time for that. Was there a time in your personal life where you kind of experienced that, maybe when something was harder, but you were able to kind of grasp onto gratitude in some form to kind of get through that?
Kati: Yeah, that's a great question. I think there's a lot. There's a lot of times I can pull from again being a more pessimistic person haha. It's really easy to find those times in my life when it takes a lot more effort to try to be more grateful and be more optimistic and positive. But over the last few years I've had a lot of skin issues and a lot of just really hard times trying to figure out what's going on with my body, trying to figure out doctors and medicine and different holistic practices to try. I oftentimes will get overwhelmed and get just really frustrated about not having any answers. I remember there was one night where I was just up all night just crying and I just could not imagine functioning the next day… like I have to do this again tomorrow. My husband actually was staying up with me just trying to calm me down and get me through the night.
Cat: Oh I bet! He’s probably like, oh it’s okay!!
Kati: Yes, he's amazing at that. But in the morning the sun was shining and I was starting to finally just feel tired enough that I could actually sleep. And I remember he was just like, oh my goodness, like you made it through the night, you're starting to feel tired, just go to bed. Like, I'm grateful you can just go to bed. And I thought you're right! Yes, it was a hard night and I don't feel good, but I am tired right now. I can go to sleep right now. It seems really silly and there was so much hard happening that seems a lot bigger, but just this little moment of yes, I am grateful that I can sleep when I'm able to.
Cat: Yeah, I love it. Thank you so much for sharing that, Kati. That was a good one. I got to be careful. She's not going to want to do these anymore! Cat, that was the worst, just kidding!
Kati: No, ask away, I'm happy to talk about it.
Cat: All right, let's go ahead and close with our final -we kind of have an affirmation that goes with the Rhodonite stone. So, again, when you wear that piece of jewelry, that's kind of like what you're trying to channel focus on. What is our Rhodonite affirmation that we can leave everyone with?
Kati: This is one of my favorite ones. Rhodonite is my favorite. Gratitude is my favorite. So, on the back of the card the affirmation is, “I invite gratitude into my heart daily.” I just try to remember this one all the time. How I like to use these affirmations is I just like to take a moment to breathe. Just take a deep breath and remember this affirmation and repeat it a few times, however often as you need. I invite gratitude into my life daily.
Cat: Awesome. Thank you so much. Alright, this has been Kati and Cat with WonderLight Jewelry doing our mindful mindset series. We hope to see you next week when we talk about another affirmation that you can incorporate into your life through our jewelry.
Kati and Cat: Bye!
To get your own Rhodonite gratitude reminders, visit: https://www.wonderlightjewelry.com/collections/rhodonite-gratitude
