In this segment on WKMG channel 6 news, Dr. Brooke Stuart, a holistic and functional medicine doctor, emphasizes the importance of gratitude as an everyday practice and shares insights on how it can lead to improved health outcomes. For the full segment, you can check out the video above or visit the link here!
Throughout the segment, discussion primarily revolves around the importance of gratitude and its positive impact on health and well-being and here are the key takeaways:
- Gratitude is an everyday practice: When it becomes a habit, it can have a profound impact on health, leading to happiness and success.
- Verbally expressing gratitude: Openly talking about and giving thanks can shift focus onto positive aspects of life and create a more mobile and connected state.
- Gratitude positive health impacts: Research shows that gratitude has numerous health benefits, including lower blood pressure, decreased inflammation, improved psychological well-being, increased energy, and better sleep.
- Suggestions for cultivating gratitude: Ways include keeping reminders of gratitude or appreciation around, verbally giving thanks, and shifting attention and focus onto positive aspects of life.
- Gratitude combats holiday sickness: Gratitude can be especially beneficial for those experiencing seasonal affective disorder or depression during the holidays, as it allows individuals to take ownership, focus on what they can do, and shift their perspective to see circumstances as opportunities for growth and creative agency.
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Full Transcript Here
Louis: Well, the holiday season is a time to reflect and share the things we are grateful for. Chances are, you may have said what you’re thankful for around the Thanksgiving dinner table yesterday.
Kirstin: I know we always do rose and thorn. The things you’re grateful for, that’s your rose, your thorn is something that’s kind of bothering you, that way you can open up and talk about it with your family. Well that’s a tradition for us. And having gratitude can really have a profound impact on your health that leads to happiness and success. So how can we cultivate more of it? To help with that, we’d like to welcome back Dr. Brooke Stuart of holistic counseling, acupuncture, and functional medicine. Thank you so much Dr. Stuart for being with us.
Brooke: Thank you so much for having me. I love that we’re actually not doing this on Thanksgiving. Because of course it’s in the month of November which is absolutely perfect but gratitude is such an everyday practice that we can actually implement at any moment in time. It’s 24/7 medicine that we have access to and it’s available for us at any moment in time. So I think it’s so fun that we’re doing it today on Black Friday.
Louis: I was telling Kirstin earlier that at one point in my life, I kept a gratitude journal. And so when I woke up in the morning, the first thing I did was wrote down three things that I was grateful for. And they weren’t always big things. Sometimes it’s just, I’m grateful I got a good night’s rest last night which was not last night.
Kirstin: I’m with you there. Absolutely. How, what do you think about that? A journal? I mean, I love the idea of a journal.
Brooke: I love the idea of counting your blessings out loud. The roses and thorns, it’s absolutely perfect because it kind of just opens up the conversation. It shifts our focus onto all that we have, all that we are, all that we can do, putting us in a really mobile state where we’re capable, we’re feeling better about ourselves, and we’re able to more readily interact with others and kind of a way that feels true to us, where we’re more at ease, calm and connected.
And if we actually look at the health benefits of gratitude, I mean the research is robust. It’s absolutely incredible and ever growing. And we look at things and we look at outcomes like lower blood pressure. We see decreases in inflammation. We see, a more of a psychological tendency to connect. We see more energy, better sleep. And we may wonder why is gratitude so powerful? But if we can look at the mind and body as one, it makes a lot of sense how we can begin to rewire our nervous system from a state of distress into one that’s more calm and connected and at ease, where we’re able to, you know, be able to shift that state and connect more readily with others.
And so we all know how good it feels to be around someone who is grateful. And to kind of be able to embody that and know we have the choice to access that at any time is kind of incredible.
Kirstin: What are some suggestions that you have that are kind of like the gratitude journal, um, that, we can implement today?
Brooke: Absolutely. So I think one of the things that I like to think a lot about is keeping words in our ecosystem. I love the gratitude journal because you’re actually writing it down, but even if you have the word gratitude around, right? Or appreciation or just remember to actually verbally give thanks. But to have those reminders around that is so key and so powerful. And really at the root of what that’s doing is it’s actually shifting our attention and our focus onto all that we have. But when we shift our attention and focus, we actually begin to concentrate that and create more of that. And so it becomes more of a habit. So we’re kind of opting out of autopilot in that norm and into a state where we can feel more like ourselves.
Louis: You know, some people have seasonal affective disorder. And some people actually get depressed around the holidays. So if someone says, you know, my life is not great right now, how do you start where you are?
Brooke: Absolutely. So I think there is that piece of acknowledging, you know, okay, this doesn’t feel right. But equally knowing that if you can tap into your ability to take ownership and to keep focusing on what you can do, that’s really key because that creates a mobility and moving forward. And now you’re not helpless and a victim to circumstance. Now you actually have creative agency, which makes life a lot more interesting when it’s not always to us, but we’re able to shift and see it as for us and enter into it in that way. And that’s one of the reasons why I love the quality of gratitude. Because it’s just available to everyone. It’s free medicine, you know?
Louis: You Know what I’m grateful for right now? That you’re here.
Kirstin: Yes. Thank you so much, Dr Stuart We appreciate you so much, and you make so many appearances on News 6 and 9 and definitely improve all of our moods. So thank you for coming in. Thank you so much for joining us. We appreciate it. Thank you.
More Resources
- Gratitude
- Making a Monday Mindset | WKMG Channel 6 News
- Distress, Eustress, Contraction And Expansion
- The Posture of Thank You
- The Health Benefits of Journaling
- Sign up for our Fullscript dispensary here to receive 15% off all physician-grade supplements + protocols
More From Dr. Brooke
Dr. Brooke Stuart is the Founder of Let Go & Grow®, Co-Founder of Lead Lab, and a holistic doctor in private practice, where she works with a unique combination of holistic counseling and functional medicine to personalize treatment plans for her patients as she partners with them to unlock their own, intrinsic ability to heal! She works with patients locally in Orlando, FL, and virtually worldwide. She also works with groups, families, couples and children upon request to address the root cause of a wide range of health issues including but not limited to: stress-related disorders, thyroid and hormonal imbalances, blood sugar dysregulation, compromised detoxification, gastrointestinal and cardiometabolic issues, and more.
- For more on her private practice, check here.
- To book Dr. Brooke to speak or work with your team or organization, check here.
- To read more about Dr. Brooke Stuart’s journey into holistic medicine, professional and functional medicine training, affiliations, and credentials, check here.