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you can tell your "feel-good story." Any new choice you make leads to a new story. Nelson Mandela once said, "Change one thing, and you can change everything." Change one thing by composing your new life story filled with significant, routine, and even minor moments of appreciation and gratitude. Research substantiates that gratitude allows a person to celebrate the present, block toxic emotions (envy, resentment, regret, depression), be more stress-resilient, and strengthen social ties and self-worth. 2 Martin Seligman, a pioneer in the field of positive psychology, asserts that, "If a person could do only one thing to increase their health and happiness, expressing gratitude might be it." Regularly expressing gratitude reduces stress, increases optimism, increases dopamine, and changes your brain. Gratitude Journal Studies show a regular gratitude journaling practice can "have a significant, positive impact on well-being, affect, and depression." A gratitude journal is, quite simply, a tool to keep track of all the good things in life. No matter how difficult, defeating, frustrating, or scary life can feel, there is always something you can find to feel grateful for: You helped someone feel better. Journal it! Made someone smile or laugh? Journal it! You made it to a yoga class, you made a delicious dinner, you made up a new technique? Journal it! You got out of bed today, you got your children safely to school, you work with people who care about caring? Journal it all! Experiment for one week, for five minutes each day, listing all you are thankful for, all that makes you happy, all that adds value to your life. The best part is to notice the results of your efforts after one week, one month, maybe one year . . . wow. Strengthening your gratitude muscles fuels a new writing style that has the power to change your life. L i s te n to T h e A B M P Po d c a s t a t a b m p.co m /p o d c a s t s o r w h e reve r yo u a cce s s yo u r favo r i te p o d c a s t s 83 Storytelling from the End In our Leadership and Transformation coaching program, we received the gift of a question that has changed, and continues to evolve, the course of our lives. 3 The decision to answer this one question has helped us turn toward a life filled with blessings, happiness, and wealth. Now, we offer you the same gift with the intention you will use its power to create and live into the story of your life fulfilled. Now imagine: You are on your deathbed and a loved one asks you, "What are five things you did in your lifetime that let you know your life was a success?" We answer that question with some of the following stories: • I enjoyed a long-lasting, loving relationship with my best friend. • I traveled and met with healers all over the world. • I created a happy family of frequency. • I enjoyed financial freedom and security. • I thrived in my healthy, moving body. Our list continues, as might yours. Now, it's your turn. List five stories you imagine you'd be most proud of telling from the vantage of your deathbed. AFFIRMING YOUR SUCCESS STORIES Now for the fun part! Start transforming your life successes into wishes or affirmations. Make sure they are written in the present tense so you can use them to create the life story of your dreams in the here and now. For example, rewrite "I thrived" to retell your story as "I thrive," like "I thrive in my healthy, moving body." And then begin to tell your new stories to as many people and in as many forms (collages, vision boards, doodles, songs, poems, sticky notes, etc.) as possible. You don't have to wait until the end of your life to tell your conscious story. Transform the stories you tell everyone into living, breathing expressions of your dreams, wishes, and affirmations for what's to come. Massage them, revise them, continually edit them as you continue to evolve, grow, and heal. But most of all, use them as navigational tools to guide and inspire your life's story. Uncovering your end goal opens pathways for you to author the story of your life today. Rather than allowing the past to recreate what already happened, magnetize the future to you now. Allow your authoring to draw you, choice by choice, to the life story you love to tell and you love to live. Notes 1. Sadie F. Dingfelder, "Our Stories, Ourselves," Monitor on Psychology 42, no. 1 (January 2011): www.apa.org/monitor/2011/01/stories. 2. Robert Emmons, "Why Gratitude is Good," Greater Good Magazine (November 16, 2020): https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/ article/item/why_gratitude_is_good. 3. Gay Hendricks, Five Wishes: How Answering One Simple Question Can Make Your Dreams Come True (San Francisco: New World Library, 2010). Heath and Nicole Reed are co-founders of Living Metta (living "loving kindness"), a continuing education company now offering touch therapy tools and self-care practices in their online community. They also lead workshops and retreats across the country and overseas and have been team-teaching touch and movement therapy for over 20 years. In addition to live classes, Heath and Nicole are life coaches offering home study, bodywork, self-care videos, and online courses that nourish you. Try their community free for 30 days at livingmetta.com/trial. TAKEAWAY: Research shows that the stories we tell about ourselves are key to our well-being.