Exploring Gratitude with Anna

In this episode of Exploring Ways to Wellness, host Sarah engages in an enlightening conversation with Anna, an empowerment coach for mums and the host of the Unstoppable Mama podcast. Discover how becoming a mother deepened Anna's understanding of gratitude as not just appreciation, but a practice that reduces stress, boosts happiness, and improves physical wellbeing.

Anna shares practical techniques from her daily routine, including morning journalling and mindfulness exercises anyone can try. Learn how finding gratitude in even the smallest things—like appreciating your pillow or counting your steps—can transform your perspective, especially on difficult days. The conversation explores the fascinating connection between gratitude and manifestation, plus the crucial importance of self-care for mothers.

Perfect for anyone seeking accessible wellness practices that don't require extra time or resources. Whether you're a busy parent or simply looking to incorporate more positivity into your life, this episode offers valuable insights to help you start your own gratitude journey.

Resources mentioned in this episode:

Hear more from Anna including her wonderful podcast

Spotify

Apple 

Instagram

Facebook

Books (affiliate links): 

The Secret: https://amzn.to/4kHPGKs

The Magic: https://amzn.to/43zOu5S

Timestamps:

00:00 Introduction to Gratitude with Anna

01:16 Meet Anna: Empowerment Coach for Mums

02:26 Discovering the Deeper Meaning of Gratitude

03:40 Gratitude as a Daily Practice

04:51 Combining Gratitude with Mindfulness and EFT

07:06 Journaling and Morning Gratitude Routines

09:13 Overcoming Challenges in Gratitude Practice

10:38 The Power of Small Gratitudes

13:06 Inspiration from 'The Secret' and 'Magic'

16:47 Manifestation and Gratitude

24:06 Self-Care and Gratitude for Mums

27:56 Anna's Unstoppable Mama Podcast

30:40 Conclusion and Final Thoughts

Thanks for listening.

Transcript

Gratitude with Anna

​[00:00:00] 

Sarah (2): Welcome to Exploring Ways to Wellness. I'm your host, Sarah, and today we're diving in to the transformative power of gratitude with Anna, an empowerment coach for mums, who recently launched her own podcast called Unstoppable Mama. In our conversation, Anna shares how becoming a mother deepened her understanding of gratitude.

Not just as a way to appreciate what we have, but as a practice that genuinely shifts our energy and perspective. She explains how she incorporates gratitude into her daily routine, from morning journaling to simple, mindful moments. And how these practices have helped her to navigate the challenges of motherhood.

Whether you're looking to start your own gratitude practice, or simply [00:01:00] curious about how gratitude can enhance your well being, this conversation offers practical insights that anyone can apply. Let's dive in.  

 welcome Anna, thank you so much for being with us today. 

Thank you so much for your invite and it's so lovely to see you, Sarah. 

 Could we start by just giving a little bit of background, what brought you here today and what it is that you'd like to talk about? 

Anna: So, hello, good afternoon. Good morning, everybody. It's so lovely to be here. My name is Anna and I'm new mom, well, mom for three years now.

I'm empowerment and motivation coach for mums, for new mums, for existing mums. And I actually am on social media trying to empower and inspire mums to be the best themselves, to find a purpose and live the life they always wanted to dream. [00:02:00] And that's me today. 

Sarah (2): Fantastic. We know each other, um, from a podcasting course, actually.

We've both been launching our podcasts and, Anna uses some interesting techniques in terms of, gratitude. And so I invited her along today to talk about how she uses gratitude as part of her wellness practices. So how did you find gratitude? 

Anna: First of all, I became more grateful when I become a mom because I always, I always been grateful, but that was something different.

That was the appreciating things. However, the very deep meaning of grateful came actually after my daughter was born, because now gratitude for me, it's not about the appreciating what I have, but it's actually shifting an energy and perspective. And of course I [00:03:00] can see, because of that, I can see more abundance and I can see more things to be grateful for.

And that's. expanding so drastically because before I was quite, yes, I'm a kind person. I, I love people. I love things. And I, I love everything around me, but the small things in our life, like Waking up or walking or see a child is the most beautiful thing and then we can see more and more of it. So for me, gratitudes is, is kind of magic 

Sarah (2): in 

Anna: life.

Yeah. 

Sarah (2): Yeah. That's beautiful. You've touched on a really important point there. There's a difference between. Gratitude just being able to say, actually, I'm really grateful for the life I've got or for certain things that have happened in my life, to it becoming more of a structured practice.

What would you say is the difference there that you've moved from one to the other? 

Anna: I think it's [00:04:00] the awareness that I am aware of that I am grateful. It's not like, Oh, it's fine. It's lovely weather. And my daughter is next to me, but actually being in the moment, look deeply in her eyes and seeing that, Oh my God, this is the moment that it will never happen again.

She will never be three years and five days, you know, it's of course, it's going to be different, beautiful moments, but the thing that we are here right now, like having a conversation with you, it may never happen again, the same one. So it's so beautiful that we have that experience. We have that chance to, to be in a moment.

And I think that's what makes the huge difference, feeling gratitude. And be just appreciate about things. 

Sarah (2): So in a way, it sounds like it links a little bit to mindfulness in terms of being in the moment and appreciating the moment that you're [00:05:00] having, as well as, as the recognition of in that moment, being grateful for.

Absolutely. 

Anna: Absolutely. Yes. I love what you said because it's, it's kind of thing that you are aware you are in the moment and you, of course, you know, with your clients, with your beautiful practice, you know, that the moment when you're tapping is, is just. It's the moment that you're catching and you are practicing that.

And it's so beautiful. Do you have the same experience with, with EFT? 

Sarah (2): Yeah, definitely. I mean tapping with gratitude is, is a wonderful thing to do, particularly at the end. So if you're not doing it necessarily for therapy, but to, to kind of appreciate the journey that you've been on or the situation that you've had and what you've learned from situations, it can be.

It can be really empowering. So I really love that about, combining EFT [00:06:00] with other things, but do you find that with gratitude you write things down or is there any kind of structure or course you followed or anything like that, or it's just something that intuitively comes to you on a daily basis and you've.

Recognize that more as you've kind of gone along. 

Anna: It was on a beginning. It was really difficult for me to be that aware of that gratitude because I was, of course, Oh, I'm so grateful. You can say, I'm so grateful. I have my daughter, I have my husband, family, but actually feeling it because once you feel in it and it's, it's a proven because the gratitude reduce stress.

Boost your happiness and improve even, you know, physical health because you are boosting that endorphin in your body and you feel grateful because your body will, will feel it that you are grateful. You, you are not stressing about, you are [00:07:00] relaxed and it will feel so differently. And even. Then another tool that I'm doing, I'm journaling, write gratitude.

So I'm trying to whatever, have a time in the morning, write down even three small things that I'm grateful for. And then I just realised, wow, it's helped a lot. So it's actually boosting my energy for the day because I'm starting with something positive. I'm not checking my phone and checking news that, you know, it will destroy my feelings of the night, but it's actually boosting my energy.

And it's so wonderful because you can, I don't know, it's something in your body that you can feel it. So gratitude with journaling, it's definitely helping a lot. 

Sarah (2): And I can imagine that in the morning, and I have a gratitude practice in the morning. It can really change your outlook on the day as well, because you feel it in your body and it feels [00:08:00] good.

You then go forward, almost looking for things to be grateful for. And with that mindset of focusing on the positive. As opposed to kind of waking up with the news and hearing the world is going crazy. And then having that negative mindset that goes forward looking for bad and it becoming one of those days and that kind of thing.

So I love that. I love the, you know, doing it in the morning to make sure that you're setting out your day correctly. And also on courses that I've been to, they've also said it's a great idea to do gratitude practices last thing at night as well. So it's another way to close off the day on a positive note and also lead you then into sleep and in a much calmer way and appreciating the day that you've just had.

I know that [00:09:00] sometimes, you know, days can be difficult. You know, it's easy to say, Oh yeah, I'm really grateful for all the wonderful, amazing things happening to me or for the wonderful situation that I'm in at the time. Have you had situations where you haven't had a great day, or it's been difficult to find things to be grateful for?

And how have you found that practice has helped? Have you always managed to find something or have you ended up kind of giving up and saying well there's nothing, it's been a bad day, there's nothing to be grateful for, because I know that can kind of turn people off as well if they're thinking well it's all right for her she's having a great time, but I, I couldn't do that because I'm not having a great time.

Anna: I love this question because it's, the answer is going to be, relatable for mums especially, right? Yes. We are [00:10:00] overwhelmed, we are stressed, we are exhausted, we are a whole bunch of things that everything is on our shoulders and it's crazy hard to find things. To be grateful for and let's be honest.

It's it's not I don't have to know rainbows and unicorns around me all the time that I can be grateful for them because it's it's life and it's a real human experience that you are trying to find your way for the things and of course I had a days when I was exhausted I said how can I be grateful for something if the day gone so wrong?

on every single second. But I've trained myself to that level that even if day is just, you know, dark, clouds and it's horrible, I found, I'm trying to find something very small. Even um, on those days, when I'm in a bed the first thing [00:11:00] I appreciate my pillow. It's soft, it's warm, and it's like, you know, like a cloud for me.

And then, something magical happens to my body, because it's the tense and the pressure, it's just lowering and then I found out once and then I'm practicing it that you know my pillow is the number one thing I'm grateful for and then I'm, you know, looking at my husband, my daughter and then everything is just, you know, calming and I'm back into myself.

So, on the hardest days, I think it's important to find just a very tiny thing. Not like a huge, I've got a house, I've got money for bills. No, just one tiny thing. I'm not starving. I've drink water. I have my pyjama. I have my, [00:12:00] you know, clothes. Something very small. Even, you know, I have fingers. I have hands that I can hug my baby.

I can see, I've got the eyes, I've got the ears, something very, maybe small for us, but super, super important that some people don't have. So I think I will start from one small thing to, to start. 

Sarah (2): I absolutely love that. That's such good advice. We all tend to strive, don't we, for that big thing. And actually we should be grateful for even the smallest, the fact that we woke up in the morning.

Absolutely. Is enough to start us off and then, from there you can find other things that give you joy that you maybe hadn't noticed before in amongst the things that were not going on so well. Absolutely. There's always those little nuggets that it, [00:13:00] as you say, training yourself almost to look.

for those things instead. And we had a brief chat before we came on for the recording and you were mentioning the book The Secret that you'd read and then a follow on book that's also inspired your gratitude practice. 

Anna: Yes. So, um, the secret I've read like a, I don't know how old I am, but it was like a 20 years ago.

The very first book of Rhonda Burns and I, uh, at the time it was life changing for me, of course but then my awareness changed and I'm on, you know, different level. However, I find out about the one of her books called Magic and this particular books can be a life changing because it's a practical.

It makes gratitude an everyday experience. So it's kind of like a bunch of 28 exercises you can practice each month. And I've done that, I believe [00:14:00] twice, that book. And it gave me even more boosts of gratitude because it's turned something to turn upside down that I didn't even realize that I can be grateful for.

So there's so many practical tips. You can choose everything. You can choose every exercise from that book. However, you can just select whatever is good for you. It's. It's beautiful because after that you feel like, I'm growing even more. And I remember one of the, um, one of the exercises that you can count steps.

You are, you are waking up and you walk into your, whatever, bathroom and you are walking steps. One, two, three. I'm so grateful. I'm so grateful. I don't remember all of the exercises, but the, uh, particular one with the rock as well, that you are holding your rock in the morning and in the evening.

And [00:15:00] it reminds you of what you are grateful for. If someone don't like journaling, you can hold the rock and says, I'm so grateful for my hands because I can squeeze that rock. And, and it will evolve into different things that you are grateful. And then it's going to be natural because on the beginning.

gratitude. It's like, yes, okay, I have to do it because I want to shift my energy. 

Sarah (2): Yeah. And you hate anything that becomes a chore. You just don't want to do, do you? So that's lovely. It kind of starts as a, almost a little ritual and then it becomes part natural part of your day. 

Anna: Absolutely. Absolutely. And even in, one of the days, there is a small exercise with a cheque that you are putting, you can, I think you can print it from her website.

There is a cheque that you are putting. I'm so grateful for that amount of money from [00:16:00] the universe. It's a cheque from the universe for you. So you can only just write it down, your name, date, and then wait to receive. Of course, it's, you know, it's practice and you, you need to believe in that you need to work.

You need to take action for everything, but it's some kind of exercise that shift your energy in everything what you do. And it's, it's beautiful. And, and I guess over 

Sarah (2): 28 days, like, as you say, even if there's One of the techniques doesn't quite ring true to you or doesn't feel great for you, then there's another 27.

There's something is going to resonate and make that difference for you. So that sounds fantastic. I'll make sure I put a link in the show notes. You also mentioned there with the cheque, I, I guess gratitude could also then potentially lead into manifestation and that kind of thing.

Anna: [00:17:00] Absolutely. And of course, we, we talk many occasions and we have similar feelings and, and awareness that the manifestation is the next level, right? It's something that We all do every day, every single human being, but we are not aware of that. I know bad things happen to us all the time, but we can change that into good things if we are aware, if we practice gratitude.

So I will give you like a very simple, um, thing about the parking spots. Before I remember like ages ago, I was like, I couldn't find any. I was parking there and I was waiting and I couldn't even find a parking spot. But one day, like years ago, something changed in my, you know, in my mind saying, no, you actually, you can do that.

And I've just really started with a small, simple parking space. And now [00:18:00] I train myself to that, that every time I'm walking around, going around. And I'm saying thank you and then a couple of seconds later or minutes, I can see beautiful parking space, especially for mums with a lot of space on the both sides.

The first time I was like, Oh my God, this is working. So even small things. As a parking spot make feel so different and make a massive difference and it's beautiful because you can actually control that. You are grateful, but at the same time you can be grateful for the things that you want. Right.

Sarah (2): Yeah. So sometimes 

Anna: I'm grateful for something before I receive that. And that's. It's something that people may realize, Oh, why, why you should be grateful for the things you [00:19:00] already have, but that's another level thinking, Oh, maybe I will be grateful for what I don't have right now. And then it will come at some point.

Sarah (2): Yeah. Yeah. I love that. And I love, again, it repeats the, it can start small. You don't have to be trying to manifest you're going to be a millionaire tomorrow, something like that, you know, start small. And as you say, if you feel grateful for what you have, that's, that's kind of close to that already, or is the thing that you want, then, then it's more likely to.

To happen. And I know we both, we both follow Cathy Heller as well. 

Anna: Yes. 

Sarah (2): And her wise words about the fact that you're often not trying to manifest a physical thing, but you're trying to access the feelings that that thing gives you. And actually, [00:20:00] often you can choose to feel that way now. So tying those feelings to a physical thing that this kind of you're giving yourself a gap, you're giving yourself a delay to receive what you could actually receive now and feel grateful for now.

 And I love the idea of finding a parking spot by manifesting one. 

Anna: Yes, every single time. Thank you. It's already done. Yeah, 

Sarah (2): so there you go. Next time you go into a car park and the person in front of you gets that last spot, they've been the one manifesting 

Anna: I've tried, well, I've started with something smaller because in motherhood That would be a dream if that could work every single time. Thank you for my child to be calm or eating what I want and sleep, exactly. Because in the motherhood it's like crazy bunch of [00:21:00] Everything, every emotions, and I absolutely, I resonate with all of the mums.

And, it's hard, sometimes it's very hard to be grateful for, to be, find positive things. And, you know, mums can hear me and say, yeah, your life is easy. It's not because we are in this together, every single of us is having a hard times and we all started in the same place where we felt exhausted, overwhelmed, and without knowing of what we are even doing, unworthy, not enough, I can feel it and I can see it in the whole world around me that mothers are still, you know, that set positions such 

Sarah (2): moments of life too.

Isn't that Absolutely. To be doing it right and doing it perfectly and doing it social media worthy I remember when we first brought [00:22:00] my eldest home and he was in the little car seat on the floor in front of us. Me and my husband just looked at each other. Okay, what do we do now? Who knew, you know, like 17 years later, we're still looking at each other like, okay, what do we do now?

Anna: Exactly. It's just, the years are more and more and more experience, but it's like, we're all in this together. 

Sarah (2): It's all new challenges. Even with the second child, actually, we're still like, okay, so this one's different to the last one. What's this one doing? Yeah. Nobody gives you a manual. I mean, there's plenty of books out there, but they don't know your child.

And you have to go at your pace, your child's pace. And, um, yeah, it can bring about so many challenges. And I really hope actually through this [00:23:00] podcast that some mums will get some inspiration that a lot of the techniques that we're talking about, they don't need to take hours and hours out of your day.

They don't need you to have. millions of pounds to send to therapists or, you know, experts in something that somebody on the internet has told you how to do, you know, all of this, exactly as you said, start small, just try something that's small and speaks to you. And if that doesn't work, try something else.

But, you know, start, start with something that makes you feel good. That's all we need to do. And again, as we were saying with the manifestation, you're striving to feel good and to feel calm and peaceful, and that you're possibly in control, which in parenthood is unlikely, but you could certainly aim for it.

 Are there any other [00:24:00] things that you use that, that bring that calm and peace to your day or to your week? 

Anna: I would say self care. Mama, take care of yourself because you are the only human being will be to the last day with you. You are the closest person to yourself.

I love my family, I love my child till, my heart is expanding every single day with that love. However, we have to think about ourselves as well. Because our mental health is such an important thing, because if we are calm, if we are healthy, we can take care of Everyone around us. 

Sarah (2): Yeah, and that's the thing, isn't it?

It's the whole, you know, put your breathing apparatus on before the rest. Because it's so easy as a mum just to put yourself last on the list. You're trying to do so much to make sure everything's [00:25:00] great for everybody else. But you're completely, until it's too late, if you like, you don't realise. What are you doing chipping away at your own well being?

Anna: Absolutely. And I'm not saying I'm not a selfish person because I learned that every single time to actually think about myself a bit more. Because it's not about selfish at all. It's something that's, it's important, it's because you're taking care of your family and your child and you want to be that the best of yourself.

So to be the best of yourself. You have to think about yourself as well. That's why I love your podcast because you are touching so many different tools, so many different techniques that the mums, women, they can choose. They can choose whatever they want. You are given options because we have to do something to feel better.

We don't need to shout and scream, Oh, I'm the most important [00:26:00] person in the world and my family and my child don't care. No, it's not that because. The most important thing that you are important as well. You are important, your family will be much more happier, much more calmer if you will be your best possible version.

Sarah (2): 100%. It's that ripple, isn't it? As soon as you're feeling good yourself. That's the energy that you're taking out to those around you, and they feed off that energy. If if you're tense and, and cross and going through that cycle of, all the bad things that could or would happen, and you end up reacting rather than responding.

And it takes you into, a whole environment where everybody is not feeling. Good around you. So if you can feel good yourself, not pretend, but actually feel good yourself and then be sending that [00:27:00] energy out to the rest of your family, then it can have such a profound effect. And bringing back to gratitude, I guess, again, that's where we can sometimes be looking externally.

When we're looking for things to be grateful for. So I'm grateful for my husband. I'm grateful for where I live. I'm grateful for my children. But actually, it sounds like it's also important to be grateful for yourself as well. And that's kind of a key point within it. Even if you are only coming up with three things, say, it's probably quite powerful then to make sure at least one of those things is about you, even if it's tiny. I like my hair or, you know, I like the colour of my eyes, I can see how that can link together really well. And you've mentioned a lot about mamas. And Anna, on International Women's [00:28:00] Day, she launched her fantastic Unstoppable Mama podcast.

So would you like to quickly tell us a little bit about this? And I will be sure to put a link in the show notes because I'm sure there's plenty of listeners there would love to hear more from you and from your insights as a mum. 

Anna: Oh, thank you so much. No, my cheeks hurts because I'm smiling all the time.

Listen to you. But yes, yes, I've started two days ago. I started my podcast, which was a huge dream for me. And that's going to be a journey like no others. I've started this because I really wanted to empower and inspire mums to be the best version of themselves, to empower them, to remind of worth, of that something inside.

They have like a fire that I believe it will expand and can be a [00:29:00] light for everyone around and it's so beautiful because mums these are the like a diamonds on a planet because it's, it's just so magical that we create life. Yeah, we, we create life in our body and it's so wonderful that we can.

Give our love to around us. But so many mums, they feel exhausted, stressed, overwhelmed. Because

So I want them to remind of their own beautiful voice and potential, and I can't wait where the journey will, will go with all the beautiful community we are creating right now. So thank you very much for, for your beautiful words, as you're saying about my podcast and my journey too. 

Sarah (2): Oh, it's so beautiful.

And I can see exactly how [00:30:00] your journey with. gratitude and with manifestation got you to launching your podcast. So fantastic. I am so excited for you for your podcast. Thank you for sharing so much today about your journey with gratitude and manifestation. And we look forward to hearing you on your own podcast.

I'll put the link in the show notes, but thank you, Anna. 

Anna: Thank you so much, Sarah. It's so beautiful and wonderful to talk to you and see your beautiful smile and everything, what you do. I admire, and I'll be your fan forever. Thank you so much. 

Sarah (2): Thanks Anna.    

Thank you for joining us for today's exploration of gratitude with Anna. I hope this conversation has inspired you to consider how a gratitude practice might fit into your own wellness journey. If you're interested in learning more about Anna's work, the books she's referred [00:31:00] to, Or, I encourage you to check out her new podcast, Unstoppable Mama.

You'll find all the details in our show notes. Remember, as Anna suggested, starting small is key. Perhaps even just appreciating your pillow in the morning. The most powerful gratitude practices often begin with these simple moments of awareness. Until next time, I'm Sarah, and remember there's many paths to wellness, and sometimes it starts with simply noticing what we already have.