Hello and welcome to Day Two of your Thrive in 2025 Adventure! 

Today is all about countering your primal brain! 

Below is a short video to say hello and explain why today's theme of an attitude of gratitude is so important.  

“Be thankful for what you have, and you’ll end up having more. If you concentrate on what you don’t have, you will never ever have enough.” 

Oprah Winfrey.

Day 2 - An attitude of gratitude 

Here’s the science.  You are not wired for happiness.  Your evolutionary brain has only two primal goals: to survive and reproduce. It doesn’t care if you’re necessarily happy. (And we all know people who survive and are miserable!)

In fact, when you're enjoying life, and having wonderful new experiences, your evolutionary brain is screeching  "noooo!" and slamming on the brakes with fearful thoughts and self-limiting beliefs because it wants you to stay in your safe, little cave.

Anyone who has a cat or dog knows that even when they’re asleep, their ears prick up when they hear something. Their brain is constantly vigilant and alert for danger and so is yours. In fact, it actually wants you to be slightly anxious and paranoid, because when you’re all happy clappy you’re not watching the horizon for danger. Thankfully, most of us now live in a stable environment, and that vigilance isn’t as necessary. However, your brain doesn’t know that!

Your unconscious brain is still fully charged on its mission to help you survive and reproduce. Your ears are picking up messages even when you're not consciously aware of it so somebody will drop a comment or an email will come in, or your teenager will grunt at you, or your partner doesn’t thank you for something you do, which triggers your survival instinct in your brain that this might mean danger, danger danger!  And of course the most dangerous messages women hear today are the ones telling us that a "good girl" does everything for everyone, with a smile on her face and never puts herself first, and of course, under no circumstances must she age!

Your brain scans the situation for the worst case scenario, vigilant for a slight, looking out for the negative, thinking of your lack rather than your abundance.  So, you have to be proactive about happiness and staying connected to yourself, be proactive about understanding many of the messages you get aren't real and balancing the survival with thrival!

How it works 

So, you tend to see the bad, the things that have gone wrong, the things you didn’t do, the failure to meet the expectations you - or that insidious “they” of society - have set you.  For example:

Someone was short with you?

Worst case- scenario - it must be something I’ve done.  (Survival wiring means this could mean expulsion from tribe).

You don’t love your reflection in the mirror?

Worst case scenario - I’m not good enough (Reproduction wiring means I won’t be selected)

So the second step in learning how to thrive, not just survive your days, is to understand the power of gratitude. 

Endless research has proved, that the mere act of intentionally reflecting on the things you are grateful for, increases your happiness. It doesn’t take away the disappointments or fears necessarily, but it puts them in context.  And context is everything.  Anyone who has worked with me knows it is everything!  You will naturally ruminate about the lacks, so being proactive about bringing in the haves helps to counter the loss, and balance out your feelings more.

So we're going to go full gratitude today!

Thought for the day:  Think about what you have in your life not just from your hard work, but also perhaps as a result of hardship, loss, disappointment, fear?

Task: Continue to check in with your mood and what that means for how you need to support yourself today, and keep building that glimmers list.

Now write down in your journal 1-3 things you are grateful for about:

•  You. (yes you. Women have been conditioned not to champion ourselves so this is really important. It could be your eyes, your laugh, your resilience, your decision to take up a new exercise, your dirty sense of humour... whatever, just make it about you). 
•  The past.
•  Today.