Living Lucky® Podcast with Jason and Jana Banana

How Do I Cultivate GRATITUDE

• Jana and Jason Shelfer • Season 8 • Episode 17

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How are YOU Living Lucky®?

Unlocking Abundance: The Transformative Power of Gratitude

Feeling stuck in a rut? Tired of the constant hustle and the feeling that something is always missing? This episode of the Living Lucky® Podcast with Jason & Jana Banana explores the profound impact of gratitude on your life.

We delve deep into the science of gratitude, uncovering how this simple yet powerful practice can:

  • Shift your perspective: Learn to see the good in every situation, even the challenging ones.
  • Enhance your mental and emotional well-being: Reduce stress, boost mood, and cultivate inner peace.
  • Strengthen your relationships: Deepen your connections with loved ones and build stronger bonds.
  • Improve your physical health: Experience the surprising link between gratitude and improved physical well-being.
  • Unlock your true potential: Discover how gratitude can help you achieve your goals and live a more fulfilling life.

We share personal anecdotes, explore the science behind gratitude, and provide practical tips for cultivating a daily gratitude practice. You'll learn how to overcome the "yabbits" – those pesky "yeah, but" thoughts that derail your positive momentum.

This episode is for you if:

  • You're feeling stuck in a rut and need a fresh perspective.
  • You want to improve your overall well-being and happiness.
  • You're ready to unlock your full potential and live a life of abundance.
  • You're looking for simple yet powerful tools to transform your life.

Press play and discover the life-changing power of gratitude!

Keywords: gratitude, self-help, personal development, mindset, positive thinking, happiness, well-being, relationships, success, abundance, mindfulness, mental health, emotional health, physical health, motivation, inspiration, life coaching, Best Podcast 2025

How to Cultivate Gratitude, Benefits of Gratitude, Gratitude Journaling Tips, Increase Happiness with Gratitude, Gratitude for Self-Improvement, Overcome Negativity with Gratitude, Living Lucky Podcast: Gratitude

#happiness #wellbeing #relationships #success #abundance #mindfulness #mentalhealth #emotionalhealth #physicalhealth #motivation #BestPodcast

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The 4 pillars of Living Lucky
Believe in yourself
Believe in the people around you
Believe in your circumstances and
Believe that God is working through you, for you, and always conspiring in your favor.

*Previously Recorded

Jana Shelfer:

Are you ready to create a life you crave? Let's spin that doom loop of negativity into an upward success cycle and start Living Lucky®.

Jason Shelfer:

Good morning.

Jana Shelfer:

I'm Jana and we are Living Lucky®. Today is your lucky day because we are doing a series on how to change your life and we're going through the 14 most important questions in order to change your life. If you haven't been listening to the last seven podcasts, jason, what are they?

Jason Shelfer:

So we've gone through the questions that will help you define your why with laser precision. Identify your core values, uncover your limiting beliefs, design your ideal day, define your ideal relationships. Identify your strengths and weaknesses, help you set smart goals to reach those and then develop a daily routine. So that's eight day, eight podcast.

Jana Shelfer:

And I highly suggest going back and listening to those over and over and over, because I have been a lifelong learner of self-development. I have been investing in myself heavily for the last decade. I, my family like I feel like this has been my destiny to be in this field. And yet just going back to the basics of these 14 questions has been such a good brush up for me. It's almost like polishing up on some of the basics.

Jason Shelfer:

Yeah, that just gave me goosebumps, because it's very true and sometimes we need to check ourselves at the new level that we're in. Now, today's question is Well, today's question is going to help us cultivate gratitude. What are you grateful for in your life?

Jana Shelfer:

What are you grateful for? Now, every time I speak, on any stage, it comes down to how lucky am I, how lucky am I, which puts me in a state of gratitude, absolutely, and, if you ask me, I feel that gratitude is the highest frequency, it is the highest vibration and that is the energy in which we create our luck. That is our whole platform, that Jason and I speak.

Jason Shelfer:

We create our luck, we create our reality. We create our reality.

Jana Shelfer:

We create relationships.

Jason Shelfer:

It's taking inventory of all the wonderful blessings, all the abundance in the world, recognizing that it's available for yourself and is there currently for yourself, instead of what we often do is focus on why we can't, what we don't have, what's missing.

Jana Shelfer:

And it's also changing our perspective, our perception for those times when we face adversity or we face challenges because sometimes we can get stuck. We can get stuck in life is happening to me instead of realizing this is all happening in my favor.

Jason Shelfer:

Yeah, too often we find ourselves in this crap storm of life and when we're in the crap storm it feels like all we can see is crap, all we smell is crap, all we taste is crap, like everything is bad. It's a doom loop.

Jana Shelfer:

Can you tell we've had crap smoothies? Yeah, it's a dune loop. Can you tell we've had crap smoothies?

Jason Shelfer:

When we get into this practice of finding gratitude and cultivating gratitude, it's a quick awareness of am I only seeing the crap, or am I finding what's good here and what the lesson I can learn?

Jana Shelfer:

Now, we've done so many podcasts about gratitude, we have spoken so many times about gratitude, we've had our morning coffees about gratitude, gratitude, gratitude, gratitude. And I know sometimes when people see this topic it goes in one ear and out the other and it's not until you are at the right place at the right time and the universe speaks to you where you go.

Jason Shelfer:

Oh, I get it, I get it.

Jana Shelfer:

now I get it. And, if you ask me, the biggest hack in life is when you appreciate what you already have.

Jason Shelfer:

That is when you realize you're there, you're there and the beautiful thing is so many people say, oh, you're just a Pollyanna, right? But it's not about ignoring problems. It's not about ignoring things that are circumstances that are happening because things are going to happen. It's like life is just going to happen around you. But when you cultivate that gratitude and when you have that constant practice of gratitude, you don't focus in and get narrow vision on the problems. You start finding major solutions.

Jana Shelfer:

And you realize that those challenges I don't even want to call them problems. Those challenges are blessings and they are helping you grow and become a better version of yourself.

Jason Shelfer:

Yeah, and I think sometimes it turns a mountain of a challenge into a little speed bump of a challenge.

Jana Shelfer:

So I want to just start. I started gratitude journaling.

Jason Shelfer:

No, call it gratituding.

Jana Shelfer:

Gratituding. I started gratituding and it changed my life. I started seeing differences in the way I looked, in the way I felt. I started seeing differences in the way I was showing up. I started seeing differences in my relationships. I started seeing differences in every aspect of my life and I also realized that if I had a fire in my house, aside my dog, my dog would be the first thing. I mean my husband.

Jason Shelfer:

I'll be, I'll be.

Jana Shelfer:

I'll be waiting in the yard for you, my husband my dog, and then the very first item or object that I would go for Is my closet full. Now I've got shelves full of gratitude journals. Now some of them you would read through them and you would go is this really a gratitude journal? Because it kind of sounds like you are. It sounds a little more like a diary. And yeah, sometimes I vomit my emotions and then I put a little spin on it and I will vomit my emotions and what I'm really feeling so that I can authentically be me. And then I say how is this working in my favor? What is this teaching me? How is this helping me grow?

Jason Shelfer:

What's a more empowered story here?

Jana Shelfer:

What is the empowerment? Because sometimes it feels when we're living in that lower frequency it can feel very disempowering and I don't like that feeling. So gratitude has really been the number one thing in helping me find my power.

Jason Shelfer:

Yeah, it's huge. Gratitude has so many benefits and it goes from health to mental wellbeing, to achieving goals, to how you view life relationships. So many different benefits and so many people say I understand it intellectually, but I'm never going to embrace it as a part of my beingness.

Jana Shelfer:

In fact, sometimes my gratitude journals have become almost pieces of art. Oh, 100% on lower frequency emotions and it has helped me transmute that energy and use that energy into something more valuable.

Jason Shelfer:

That moves you towards your goal, like it's more on the vibrational frequency that resonates with where you want to go, your goal and who you want to be where the lower frequencies are kind of a repulsion to moving, like they create stagnation, they create wallowing, you know, and that repulses where you want to go, what you want to be or who you want to be and the goals that you have in life.

Jana Shelfer:

Yes, yes, yes, okay. So I just want to be clear, because we've actually printed some research, so that we're not just talking from our own experience. We actually have some scientific research of how gratituding that I mean gratituding is our word.

Jason Shelfer:

It changed my life when you had me start a gratitude journal.

Jana Shelfer:

Yes.

Jason Shelfer:

It changed my life completely, like I thought I was the most positive and optimistic guy in the world. We all do.

Jana Shelfer:

We all think we're the most positive, optimistic people, enthusiastic people, until we start a gratitude journal, yeah. And then, after day five, we're like, okay, I've run out of things to say.

Jason Shelfer:

Ran out of things to be grateful for.

Jana Shelfer:

And then we realize, wow, I am only operating on the surface. Oh, that's so big. I am only operating on the surface.

Jason Shelfer:

Oh, that's so big.

Jana Shelfer:

I am only operating on the surface. And only on occasion as we drink our coffee and we speak to the world through a little microphone in our office studio. That's right, looking out at a lake, but now because of cultivating gratitude.

Jana Shelfer:

I'm thankful for the people that picked the beans, or the equipment that picked the beans, the grinding of the beans, the fact that it showed up at our house so I could brew it or the people that made the cement, that made the pool that is looking out over this beautiful lake, with with the birds and the trees, and the dock and the, the ski equipment, and I mean there's. I could go on for for you could.

Jason Shelfer:

You could literally here. You can go on your entire life with the amount of abundance, the amount of beauty, the amount of awe in the world when you take notice of it and when you cultivate that sense of gratitude.

Jana Shelfer:

You could go on for your lifetime as I'm looking at the man who brings me love and joy Over here, over here, and gives me laughter and like that. There's just so many little things every single day to be grateful for that we just start taking for granted because we get in habits. We get in habits.

Jason Shelfer:

You know what? It just occurred to me that somebody out there listening right now is saying yeah, but you don't know my life.

Jana Shelfer:

It's a yabbit. It's a yabbit. It's a yabbit you know my, my English teacher back in seventh grade said what's a yabbit, jana? She put me on the spot. She was like what's a yabbit? And I'm like are you saying rabbit, rabbit? You know. And then I tried to. I tried to divert the conversation saying you know, uh, I, I once had a rabbit, a pet rabbit.

Jason Shelfer:

She's like no, I'm not saying rabbit, I'm saying what's a?

Jana Shelfer:

yabbit, a yabbit, a yabbit, what's a yabbit? You just said yabbit and I said I did. And we went into this long argument about yabbits and I've never forgotten that discussion because a yabbit just stop, sticks everything.

Jason Shelfer:

Yeah, but.

Jana Shelfer:

Yeah, but it's yeah but.

Jason Shelfer:

And what it is a stop stick for your goals, your dreams and a beautiful life.

Jana Shelfer:

Yes, is what it is.

Jason Shelfer:

Yes, so going through the list, the scientific list of Scientific research. What gratitude will do for you?

Jana Shelfer:

Okay, so people don't realize this, but if you and I guarantee you you will start noticing a difference within, within seven days. If you take this seriously in the first seven days, you will start seeing differences in your life. If you take seven days and just start being grateful and it's not about just writing down.

Jason Shelfer:

It's about the feeling. It's about being in touch with gratitude and you will see a noticeable difference in your whole life. So one is enhanced mental and emotional well-being. I'm just going to go through the list. Stronger relationships.

Jana Shelfer:

Okay. So I want to start right there. Stronger relationships. You know, I found myself kind of having resentment and a little bit of bitterness toward a few people in my circle Sorry, no, it wasn't you, okay, it wasn't you. And then I started making a gratitude journal and I started realizing, oh, you know what I feel like if I am to have I don't want to call them villains, but you know, villains help us grow and become better people in this world, and so, if these are the people who are to be my antagonists in this lifetime, I would choose them.

Jason Shelfer:

Oh, that's pretty cool.

Jana Shelfer:

Right yeah.

Jason Shelfer:

That's like would you rather have someone worse or would you rather have this person?

Jana Shelfer:

This person has been a really good antagonist for me. I love it, and they know exactly how to poke my buttons. And why is that? Well, part of it is because I want to be like them. Well, part of it is because I want to be like them, or part of it is because I see qualities in them that you know I also see in myself. Or you know, there's reasons there. There's reasons.

Jason Shelfer:

That's so big.

Jana Shelfer:

Okay, go ahead.

Jason Shelfer:

So improved physical health is the next one, and who doesn't want to feel better Like who doesn't want their body to feel better? I mean, when you get both of us you just leveled up to 50. I've been in the 50s for a while.

Jana Shelfer:

Who doesn't want their body to feel better and have better physical health? And the minute that we start really becoming grateful or appreciate everything in our life, we do see physical responses. And here's why Because there's a physiological response. It it makes a difference in our hormones it starts it starts in the cells, we start releasing chemicals in our body.

Jason Shelfer:

They're feel-good chemicals and when you start releasing feel-good chemicals, everything is connected to everything else yeah, it makes me, um, come back to the thought of I heard someone say when they saw someone, oh, it looks like they've had a hard life, you know, and when, when you say it looks like someone had a hard life, that's been that's one of those. It's a hard knock life that person is finding the hardness of life it's making them harder.

Jason Shelfer:

It's weathering them, like their leather skin, like their faces falling off all those things. And the people that are in this higher frequency seem to look younger. They act younger, they feel younger. They have that energetic youth in them.

Jana Shelfer:

They laugh, they have joy, they find peace. Energetic youth in them. They laugh, they have joy, they find peace within. So we recognize this on people.

Jason Shelfer:

They have light, so we recognize the hardness of life. We don't take huge appreciation for and embracing of the people that are living life to the fullest and gratitude and really having the love in them and how, why their skin looks so good, why they seem so energetic and athletic and have better relations.

Jana Shelfer:

They're not. They're not afraid to be themselves.

Jason Shelfer:

They're self-deprecating right Then America wants to tear them down oh my gosh, we get envious because why not me? Well, it can be. You Cultivate gratitude.

Jana Shelfer:

It is you, if you, if you just allow it to be, yeah, it's in there, so let's go on to the next.

Jason Shelfer:

Greater self-esteem, enhanced mindfulness oh my gosh.

Jana Shelfer:

So these are obvious. If you need help understanding them, please email us. Text us.

Jason Shelfer:

Yeah, shoot me an email at jasonatlivingluckycom. Okay, increased optimism, improved sleep quality.

Jana Shelfer:

Oh hello. And not only improved sleep quality, you will have better dreams. Or I could just go buy a $25,000 mattress. Jason has this little trick where he actually says something that he's grateful for right before he goes to bed. And it does. It speaks to your sub on the subconscious level.

Jason Shelfer:

I do three gratitude entries before I go to sleep and then I do two in the morning, so my brain knows overnight I need to be finding something to be grateful for right when I wake up, cause it has a chore to do and that took a while, but it trained my brain to like literally 24 hours a day. Now I am looking for gratitude.

Jana Shelfer:

And it's almost a form of lucid dreaming, because you start training your brain to to find the dreams that make you happy.

Jason Shelfer:

Yeah, I'm like in Mary Poppins land or Charlie and the Chocolate Factory land it's. It's a really cool experience. So improve Okay, we did that one. Greater generosity and compassion, that's big Increased goal attainment. Who doesn't want? To hit their goals. Yeah, I mean, that's just the top 10 things.

Jana Shelfer:

Some people are sabotaging, but that's a lot to unpack. Well, gratitude will bring you around that corner Did you just say bratitude.

Jason Shelfer:

Bratitude, yeah.

Jana Shelfer:

The people who sabotage.

Jason Shelfer:

I thought I saw Brad Pitt walk by.

Jana Shelfer:

They're Braditudes.

Jason Shelfer:

Staring in the window. They're just Braditudes.

Jana Shelfer:

We don't want to mess with them, those brats.

Jason Shelfer:

So gratitude takes a few minutes a day, it will turn into a lifestyle like a beingness which isn't any extra work, it's freaking free. Why wouldn't we be doing this? I mean, that's the question is are you avoiding gratitude because you think you're so busy with life? Figure out a way to just incorporate that gratitude, cultivate it and start Living Lucky®.

Jana Shelfer:

I think people are just stuck in their habits and they're not aware of how negative it. Like you said before, we all think we are the most optimistic person and we're doing the, and the other part of that is we're doing the absolute best we can, and a lot, of, a lot of us like I, felt exhausted when I was going through that. We're busy being busy.

Jason Shelfer:

Exactly, thank you. So I was doing the best that I possibly could. I was running on the wheel of life and just trying to get through it and get to it. And when I slowed down and just started thinking about all my blessings, all the gratitude that I have, my world changed and the world around me changed.

Jana Shelfer:

We don't take time to connect the dots of how this one little secret will make our dreams come true.

Jason Shelfer:

Yeah, it's the secret. That's not a secret. It's the secret that we just ignore and we throw to the back of our minds.

Jana Shelfer:

Thank you for joining us. I am so grateful for all of you, yes, keep living, lucky, we'll see you next time. If the idea of Living Lucky® appeals to you, visit us at www. LivingLucky. com.