Most of us treat gratitude like a list.
Three things. Maybe five. Journal it, check the box, move on with your day.
And then something actually hard happens, a diagnosis, a loss, a relationship ending, and we reach for that practice and find out it was never really there.
In this episode, I sit down with Jamie Hess, author of The Gratitude Shift, host of the Gratitudeology Podcast, for a conversation about what gratitude actually is, what it actually takes, and why the muscle has to be built before the crisis arrives.
Her mom Joan London received a cancer diagnosis and called it "an opportunity." Jamie once walked out of her apartment wearing the costume of someone who had everything together, satin shirt, high heels, flip phone, and knew before she hit the subway that something had to change.
Tune in!
Key insights:
Why your list of three things isn't a gratitude practice it's a starting point
Gratitude as a muscle: you build it in the ordinary moments so you have it in the impossible ones
Jamie's recovery story: 23+ years, what the flip phone call looked like, and why she still attends AA
Joan London's "rock star reframe" — what it looks like to not just find silver linings but create a new mission from them
Service as the antidote: when Jamie was struggling in early recovery, her sponsor said "go set up for the 8pm meeting" and it worked every time
Recovery is "we, we, we" while addiction is "me, me, me"
The Harvard happiness study: across five generations, #1 predictor of happiness is relationships, not money, not success, not fame
Jamie's burnout this year: book due, workouts deprioritized, AA meetings skipped and what it cost her
Why she still goes to AA after 23 years: "I forget this stuff in 24 hours"
The daily gratitude circle with her kids every morning
"Rock bottom is a great teacher. But it's a very expensive one."
The Gratitude Shift: 26 chapters, A to Z, each anchored by a story from the Gratitudeology Podcast — from Ali Webb (sold Dry Bar for $250M) to Brandon Novak (Jackass) to Teddy Mellencamp's cancer story
Dive deeper with us!
The conversations don’t end here, they ripple into real life.
Ways to be Supported:
Follow @jamiehess on Instagram
Explore Jamie's work + book at meetjamiehess.com
Text gratitude to 55444 for The Gratitude Shift book link
Ways to Support the Show:
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Connect at @weshinewell
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