Welcome, welcome back. It is Slowdown Sunday here on the sweet spot where science, soul, and success come together. Welcome back to Gratitude Unlocked. So, we've been delving in all week to this book by Dr. Robert Emmons, the world's foremost clinical researcher on gratitude. And we've been pulling out all of the pearls, the wisdom, all the benefits of gratitude so you could incorporate them into your life and become a bit of a gratitude master. That in the moments that life challenges you, or the moments that life offers an obstacle, you have a tool. You have something that of a bit of a skill that you can use called gratitude. Something it's not taught in schools, but should be. Every step we've taken has been about clarity, action, confidence, resilience, and recovery. This week showed us something simple but powerful. Remember Monday, we talked about gratitude sharpening what you see, steadying how you move, quieting the noise that competes for your attention, rebuilding the trust that you have in yourself, and helping your body find the strength to finish what it started. That was the Monday to Friday journey. Every day we pull back another layer, not to change who you are, but to help you, my friend, return to the truest parts of yourself, a reminder, a gift for you. Today we're going to land the plane safely, together, with a clearer sense of who we are and what gratitude actually gives us. So, yes, this is Slowdown Sunday. This is where we blend a little astrophysics with a little bit of science and soul, and we become a little bit more ethereal, we become a little bit more, some people call us spooky. Because we tend to relax, we tend to breathe, we just try to find ourselves. And you know, this idea of being still, of being silent, of finding some solitude, of surrendering to the moment is so powerful. Because the work that Dr. Emmons did in this book, thanks, points to a truth. That gratitude isn't an emotion, it's a way of being well. And when you practice it, especially in stillness, you can experience higher happiness, better sleep, a stronger immune system, lower stress, deeper relationships, healing, improved energy, greater resilience, and a more meaningful life. And those are some of the key things that the research from this book, from this scientist, Dr. Robert Emmons, showed us. And when he talks about gratitude being more about wanting what you have than obsessing on what you don't have, he's pointing to something deeper than attitude. He's pointing to contentment, to being sufficient, having peace, having inner alignment, making what we have enough and more. And this is where the stillness piece comes in on Slowdown Sunday. Stillness, finding a moment to just slow down, to just get still. I don't know about you, but we keep rushing and going from task to task. We never get a chance to just sit. Have you had a chance to sit this week? Where you just sat for five minutes and did nothing? You were just totally still, and you allowed that stillness to help you recover. I don't know about you, but I think I had to struggle to do that. Stillness is a space where all of what you want to understand becomes visible. And stillness is what lets gratitude in. It gives us a chance to remember the things that we can be grateful for. What you already have, who you already are, who's with you, what's already working, why your life matters, and what's steady, what's unchanging, what's grounding beneath all the noise in life. You see, when we get still, we're not losing anything there. Stillness is not the absence of life, it's the space where meaning of the meaning of life actually can uh finally reveal itself. It's when we get still, and so many of us just don't do it because we're so busy. The world competes for your stillness, the world wants you active, and I get it, but you know, when we get still, life can catch up with us and reveal itself, and gratitude is the lens that will make it clear. This is what Dr. Emmons meant when he said that gratitude increases happiness not by adding more to your life, but by helping you see that the fullness of your life is already there, helping us appreciate that we have a full life already. And why does this work? Because it synthesizes for me the science and soul thing. Remember the default mode network, the DM, and remember we talked about that this week. This is a part of the brain that um just like an autopilot, it's like a mental autopilot. It finally sort of uh brings together all your stories, and it's what story you walk around with about yourself. And it can replay these old stories, they can be very stressful, they can be very uh accusatory, they don't always great stories. It's trying to survive, it's trying to help you. This DMN, this default mode network in the brain. It believe me, you have one, we all have one. And what it does is it tells us stories about what's not working, what might not work, and it kind of keeps us in line, but it can be quite fearful at times. You know what gets rid of some of that or dampens it? It's stillness and gratitude. When you get still, you soften this default mode network. When you start practicing gratitude, it anchors it. And when you get still and you say thank you, you unlock clarity, calm, you get more meaning out of life, you get more emotional stability, you even get long-term wellness. Your heart, your mind, your body responds. And what Dr. Emmons called that in the book was practicing habitual appreciation. When you do this, you get still and you say, I appreciate something. This is the biology of success. This is the biology of happiness, this is the physiology of longevity. People who are grateful live longer. People who are grateful are happier. This is the psychology of a life that feels lived and not rushed. So today, my friend, on Slowdown Sunday, this is your reset. If you take nothing else from this week, take this. Gratitude. Gratitude gives you the ability to experience your life, not just survive it. It reconnects you to what's steady, it reconnects you to what's true, and it reconnects you to what's already working for your good. It's a consciousness that you're gonna take on. And my friend, when you slow down long enough to just feel it, to appreciate it, gratitude becomes a source of happiness, health, meaning, and peace. Please try it. This week, my friend, was not about learning seven tricks for the seven days that we've talked about gratitude. That's not what we do here on the sweet spot. This was about unlocking a new way to move through the world with gratitude, with more gratitude. Remember, we said a couple of weeks ago that you should wake up in the morning and look at your ten fingers and and for every finger that you have, be grateful for something. Maybe you don't have ten fingers, or maybe you have seven. Well, be grateful for seven. And if you whatever it is, you don't have to look around the room and be grateful for everything you can see. If you are in a position where you're not seeing, what can you hear? If you're not hearing, what can you feel? That's the idea. Gratitude is always looking for a place to land in your life. We've just got to be conscious. No matter what danger, obstacle, no matter what challenge we face, gratitude can ground us and get us out of the negative pathway and into a positive way of thinking. So close your eyes if you can right now. Just let your shoulders drop. Notice how you're breathing, and just ask yourself gently what is the one moment from this week that I felt gratitude? See the moment, try to feel the moment, and notice how it helps you. And if you don't have a moment, think about one thing you're grateful for right now. And take one slow inhale and then let it out slowly. A long exhale is always good, and then just say thank you. That's how stillness carries gratitude into your life. That simple act, my friend, will help your brain and your body reset. And here's the affirmation: Today I let gratitude slow me down so I can see clearly and walk in peace. Today I let gratitude slow me down so I can see clearly and walk in peace. Alright now, thank you so much for joining me on this week-long journey through gratitude unlocked, for spending some time with the book Thanks, written by Dr. Robert Emmons, and for giving me the space and the time to connect with you. I want you to practice gratitude all day today. Just find a way to be grateful. Did you have an argument with someone? Be grateful that you did. It means you're alive, it means that there's something that you both care about passionately, you can see things differently, but you can still be grateful for it. Start today. You can do it. And thank you. Thank you so much. If this helped you this week, please share the episodes with anyone that you care about or that you think could use it. And I look forward to seeing you next week as we close out gratitude unlocked here at the sweet spot. Many thanks, blessings, and much love. This is Dr. Derek Sweet.