SAMIA: Salam, Shalom, Namaste, Sat Sri Akal, Aloha, Holah, Buna, Ciao and  Bonjour! It's really really awesome to be with you today and I'm really happy to have a very special guest with us today Beth Hewitt She is also actually a podcast host at Visualize You and she's also a Spiritual Performance Coach and a Spiritual Entrepreneur I'm so happy to have you with us Beth welcome…

BETH: Thank you thank you for inviting me Samia I'm really excited for our conversation today so yeah thank you so much for having me…

SAMIA: I'm so happy you're here… will you tell us a little bit more about who you are and what you do... before we dig into talking about our primary topic today…

BETH: Sure yes so I mean you captured it at the beginning so I'm a podcast host of the Visualize You Show and that's a show all about sharing those inspirational stories of people who have pivoted and changed direction through life circumstances or through choice and who've had their you know the confidence to take that leap of faith to do what's always been calling them and so I share those stories as well as doing some solo shows around visualization and gratitude and positivity and all of that good stuff and then I'm also a Spiritual Performance Coach... so I mainly work with spiritual entrepreneurs who are really looking to get more laser-focused in achieving their dreams and aspirations their goal… and also to go from feeling unfulfilled to kind of passionately living their life purpose as well so... yeah… 

SAMIA: I love it I absolutely love it and for you what is the connection between the Spiritual Performance Coach work that you do and the Visualize You podcast theme... which is so focused on visualization… what's the connection there…

BETH: I mean the stories on the podcast inspire people to take that leap and then I'm obviously working with people who have taken that leap to help them to fulfill their dreams and you know for me they're very much connected because they're very much about me and my also my journey and my story and me feeling unfulfilled and then finally following my passion and purpose and becoming this Spiritual Entrepreneur myself so I feel it's very holistically kind of tangled together and because I focus on visualization I help people create that vision using all of the senses and really feel into what that looks like when they've achieved their dreams…

SAMIA: That is so cool thank you for sharing that about it and then you also talked a little bit about gratitude… can you tell me more... I think I would love to really focus our conversation today on the idea of gratitude and I know you have a really really deep and wonderful way of thinking about it and understanding it so tell me more…

BETH: So I mean gratitude for me is the basis of being able to manifest and create and have more of the things that you want in your life because if you can't appreciate what you already have, it's very difficult to appreciate what you might have in the future you know if we're not quite there and so I firmly believe t hat if we have this foundation of gratitude that we live in that kind of positive vibration that we're able to attract more of that into our lives and before you even think about you know visualizing or scripting or you know journaling and making that plan we need to have that basis of gratitude so for me it's a very important critical foundation but it's also I think for some people some people do it naturally or some people might do it around maybe thanksgiving if you're in the US for example or the beginning of the year you know when you're setting your new intentions for the year but not everybody does it all of the time or in those times when we need it the most when we're going through some difficult times that's the hardest time to be able to switch that gratitude muscle on but if you've been practicing it and if you've been... you're doing it a little bit more… creating it more of a habit then it does start to become a lot more easier when those things come left field as they do in life you know we get thrown these curveballs or something happens that we just we're not expecting and if we've got that base and grounding of gratitude yes we have to still feel all of those emotions and feelings that we're going through whenever we’re going through bad things but also we can eventually pull ourselves back to that more positive space as well…

SAMIA: Yeah that is such an excellent point and... I mean you actually raised a lot of really excellent points but one of the things that you do mentioned about how sometimes when we're going through the tough times it's more difficult to use our gratitude muscle and yet that is a really really important time at which to use our gratitude muscle… but I can definitely relate to that sense of struggle that we can all experience actually being grateful during our down times… it just made me think about how you know in our Muslim tradition... I'm a Muslim and one of the... I would say most commonly taught ideas and even in the way that we speak to each other... one of the most common expressions that we use is this expression in Arabic we say alhumdulillah and in English it basically translates to thanks be to God you know you're basically thanking God and it's a sort of way to express gratitude for what we have… and the teaching is that no matter what the situation you are in you should be thinking and saying thanks be to God because that… even in difficult times and in fact especially... in difficult times to connect with that sense of gratitude is the key oftentimes to helping you begin to make that shift towards being able to see the solutions and getting back your inner peace and all of that good stuff… so for me I have always seen this practice of tapping into our gratitude as a very spiritual practice and so I really appreciate that in your practice also you see that spiritual aspect of practicing gratitude of the visualization process and so forth… yeah and I think last time you were talking you were sharing with me how there's five different levels at which we can practice gratitude can you tell me more about that…

BETH: Yeah well this I see there's kind of five different blocks and I think you can really stack them in any odd you want but I kind of... when I talk about it I see them in these five different blocks… so the first block for me is when you're first starting out with gratitude is to just look what I call everyday gratitude you know like anything that's in your sphere you know your current circumstances whether it's a pen you know the ability to have a pen and ink and be able to journal your thoughts or make a to-do list whether it's... I don't know tomatoes or something in your fridge so that you can make a simple meal for your family or having petrol or diesel in your car to be able to get your family from A to B… you know these things that we take for granted we just go about our lives and we just do all of these things day in day out and we do appreciate what we already have around us and if you think how far you know through history you only have to look back a few centuries to realize that ancestors were in a very different place and yet they were still able to survive but when you think what we've got today and how much easier we've got it you know it's we it's easily forgotten when we're just going about our day live… 

So the first level for me would be everyday gratitude because I think it's the basis and the level at which we can go actually... I've got a lot around me already that I can be totally grateful for so whatever circumstances you find yourself in it could be I'm happy that I've got a pair of shoes on my feet or that I'm breathing or that I've got somebody to call in an emergency it could be something as simple as that and that for me is the first level of gratitude…

SAMIA: That is really really awesome thank you for pointing that out because I know a lot of people like really struggle with finding what they can be grateful for... I know there's like different gratitude challenges that I've been through… I mean challenges in terms of like exercises and practices to build the gratitude muscle and I know when I first started these kind of practices I had a very hard time coming up with a list of things I could be grateful for qnd I know I wasn't alone in that experience a lot of people struggle and so sometimes just looking around at all the stuff that you have that can be a really easy way to begin that process awesome… 

BETH: It's the start of it isn't it… and so yeah so I run challenges as well and I like to call them journeys I kind of call them gratitude journeys because I feel like it's more of a journey that you go on as you do the days challenge because challenges is negative connotation but I think people know... what people know what challenges are don't they say I don't think it's you know too far removed from what we're doing… 

But the second level for me is then kind of people experiences and opportunities that you've already had in life or you've got currently coming up for you so just recognizing the people that surround you the friendships that you have the networks that you have thinking about the experiences that you've had in the past whether that was to you know gain some qualifications or get a particular job or maybe go on holiday and see some different cultures that kind of thing and it's starting to remember some of those things people experiences and opportunities that we have in life... that again we might take for granted and we might think oh that was just a bit of luck or yeah I'm not that fortunate you know that could have happened to anybody when actually that might actually shape who you are or shape the journey that you continue to go on or something you do in the future or the advice and wisdom you're able to share with somebody else… we don't see it as empowering as it actually is…

SAMIA: My gosh…another another really awesome... awesome point… That reminds me about this one very specific exercise I learned from my happiness coach where she was like just think back and remember the most happy memories that you can and be really grateful for them and she said that is actually one of the fastest way you can get back to feeling happy in your life and feeling more peaceful and empowered... just by thinking of your happy memories from the past… 

BETH: And that's exactly what I say when I do visualization with clients and they're coming up with this new vision that they want to create and it feels so far removed from where they are right now but that feeling that they would have when they have achieved that you know at some point in the future if they can link that to an existing memory like you say from the past where they had that feeling of joy or abundance or whatever that feeling was whatever that feeling is for them in that vision it is like you say easier to connect and go actually I've done that before I've had that feeling before I've achieved that level of joy abundance whatever I can do it again in the future and it becomes a lot more easier to connect those dots and go yes I can have this in my future so yeah...

SAMIA: Yeah

BETH: ..I agree with your happiness coach completely...

SAMIA: Yeah... and it just made me think about how also when I was practicing thinking of my happy memories or even when I think about my happy memories now oftentimes one of the ways it's really helpful is because it'll remind me of someone or something that I can actually use as a resource now to help me move forward or solve whatever current struggle I might be going through…

BETH: Yeah absolutely so we can utilize all of those resources and things from the past can’t we to build a way forward a pathway forward from where we are to where we are right now…

So the third level is actually about those unique... that uniqueness that we have you know our unique voice our superpowers those things that come naturally to us and that might not necessarily come naturally to somebody else so whenever people come on my podcast I always ask them what their superpowers are… and the reason why I ask them that is we forget to pat ourselves on the back you know we just have these things whether it's being calm in chaos or we're intuitive or you know we're good at seeing the bigger picture and helping people solve things… whatever that superpower is for you like listeners... whoever that was listening to this right now… those are amazing things to be grateful for because they are so unique…

SAMIA: What's your superpower Beth…

BETH: I would say my superpower is intuition positivity and calmness…

SAMIA: I love it...intuition positivity…

BETH: What are your superpowers…

SAMIA: …I… well I have lots of superpowers I love to claim...

BETH: Of course…

SAMIA: …I think my favorite superpower that I'm really enjoying these days is just practicing giving and receiving unconditional love and by unconditional love I mean loving myself and loving others just as I am and just as someone else may be… so without you know... but… so loving myself with all of my imperfections and all of the darkness that I might have or any of the shadows that I might see in or around me… to just love myself just as I am and to do that for others as well because... I think that when I am able to receive that kind of love and when I give that kind of love that is most healing for me and it makes me the most happy and feel more more... more at peace so that is the superpower I'm really enjoying practicing these days…

BETH: That's a great superpower… it's also a great superpower to show other people how to do that within themselves… it's like holding a mirror up to people isn't it you know when you're able to love our shadow sides as well as all the good stuff that we've got going on and feel comfortable in who we are and you know holding that up to somebody else and allowing them to do that as well I think that's really that's a really great superpower…

SAMIA: Thank you…

BETH: And so the next level I think we're about level four and I think like level four and three are interchangeable but would be kind of your skills and the things that you've amassed whether that's through training or qualifications or you know you've just been working really hard at your craft and you've developed these amazing skills through sheer dedication and all of that… so I think having sight of what our skills are as well is another way to go actually… I can be grateful for this as well because I can do this pretty good…

SAMIA: And it's interesting that you drew this distinction between the superpowers that we have that are sort of more associated with our natural… nature or our characteristics so to speak versus the skills that we develop that develop more over the course of our education and the training that we receive over time… and so with skills it's like okay I can always learn more and develop other new skills so it's not like so like a static thing and it can always be enhanced more over time so it's a very cool distinction to have made yay…

BETH: Well there's a distinction but I think there's also… they’re interlinked a little bit as well because say your innate superpower was calmness but that may have come from living through some you know lived experiences where you've had to be resilient and so you although you might have been innately calm that's almost been enhanced and your superpowers enhanced because you've been through those experiences or you may have gone on a counseling course for example and you've learnt more about interacting with other people and resolute you know resolutions to conflicts and that kind of thing so they're definitely intertwined… I think sometimes we do find that it is difficult to pull them apart and see them...

SAMIA: Yeah

BETH: …so sometimes they're separate and sometimes they're intertwined a little bit but I think that's what makes us unique and who we are and... 

SAMIA: Yeah… that's too true and it also actually made me think about how sometimes we… a lot of times we're motivated to develop skills that are linked to our superpowers because we realize that ah if we develop these skills they will help us to use our superpowers more and we're excited like it's awesome to use our superpowers it's like when we use our superpowers it's actually one of the keys to how we are able to create and maintain more mental emotional wellness in ourselves… but then it also made me think about how there are times when we develop skills and maybe develop them to a very high degree but they're not related to our superpowers and now I'm thinking about how for example a lot of times in my Indian Pakistani culture you know as part of societal expectations and stuff you're pushed to pursue specific careers… and the most historically popular ones where become a doctor a lawyer an engineer and so you know so many of us you know we would... You know go for those pathways and get like spend years and years studying to become doctors or lawyers and engineers and gain quite a high degree of competency even in those fields and the skills that you know you learn in that process but it... and for so many people it's not their path… it's not what really makes them happy to do so even if they do it really well it's not a bad thing for them to do yeah…

BETH: And that's kind of what... that's kind of been my journey is I always knew there was more to life I always knew that there was a path that I was supposed to be on and I couldn't find where that was supposed to be because having gone through the education system there was nothing spiritual about it you know there was nothing to talk about gratitude there was nothing about visualization there was nothing about you know the more spiritual aspects of life… you don't get taught that school and yeah I was thinking but that's who I am where do I fit into this world and so I would jump from career to career to career trying to find that and that's why today I'm so passionate about helping people who are unfulfilled because they haven't been allowed the space or they haven't had the confidence to do exactly what it is that they want to do… I think you're right there's so many people that have followed a certain path to get certain qualifications because that's what culture tells them or their families all their peers have told them that's the route or teachers that's what they were supposed to do but you'd know inside when you've got that logging that whisper that's telling you that there's something more there's something else that you are supposed to do so I think it's acknowledging that we're on that path sometimes and even though we're not doing the thing that we want to do we can still take a lot of gratitude and appreciation just from being on that journey and what that teaches us about ourselves and that can be empowering it can be flipping things on its head a little bit you know even though you might have not enjoyed this path… maybe you've fallen down into depression down somewhere because you are so miserable at one point but actually that's you can find gratitude and appreciation in that fact that you can share that wisdom with somebody else and allow somebody else not to go down that path…

So it's finding the power in those you know difficult times as well isn't it…

SAMIA: Yeah 

BETH: ...it's a tricky one but it's possible…

SAMIA: It is and definitely by using our gratitude muscle in those contexts it's a great way to sort of find the things that we learned in those challenging times or through whatever that process was… like I'm thinking about for example now so many people that I've talked to who... like especially a lot of the coaches and trainers and healers that have been coming on this podcast and sharing their stories… you know like recently I was talking to a coach who... because of societal expectations and all of that kind of stuff because of her family's insistent that she'd get a job that she'll be able to make good money at… she went and got a corporate job and was working in in that cooperation or over a period of time a number of different corporations… but anyway she was doing corporate jobs for like 10-15 years and then finally she was like enough is enough… this is like so toxic… the environment in the job… and she just couldn't take it anymore and so she finally quit and for a while she was like feeling a little lost about what to do with her life but then she actually got into coaching because she realized that a lot of what she did enjoy while she was doing these corporate jobs and so forth was this kind of coaching things like when she worked with her fellow team members or the people that she was managing and she'd be coaching them and training them and that was something that she really enjoyed… and so then she was like oh why don't I you know begin to use that and become a coach and a trainer now and then she was like okay well who do I coach and who do I train and she tried different people that she tried helping but eventually she realized oh my gosh there are so many people in the corporate world who need help who need coaching and training… and because she already had connections in that world and so and so forth you know she was actually able to begin to specialize in helping people who are still working in the corporate world you know and so even though... by sort of looking at and being grateful for the good things in that experience even though there was a lot of things that were… that made her miserable but by focusing on the good things she was able to find a new direction and a new way to sort of still tap into these resources and skills and tools that she had learned and still be able to get some benefit from even the connection and the relationships that she had built… 

BETH: And I think that's... it's giving ourselves the time to do that you know we don't give ourselves a time to sit down and plot the highs and lows of our journey down and go actually what are the bits…

SAMIA: Yeah… 

BETH: I can take away from that experience… it's a very powerful exercise to do but it's you know if you find yourself in a place where you're looking back and going what was all that about you know how have I ended up here… actually just plotting that out and joining those dots can tell us so much about who we are and where we might be going next…

SAMIA: Yeah and I bet the work you do with visualization is part of what helps people or can help people to connect those dots for themselves…

BETH: Yeah and sometimes so they'll create this vision and it just feels so far away from where they are now and so you have to you know you have to do the action plan you have to do the steps backwards of how we're going to get there but also you might get that's when the self-limiting beliefs might come up or this sounds like a really good vision but how... how is this going to happen you know how am I going to make that happen… and so you know we can work on that side of things as well so yeah it's a very enjoyable and interesting process but when you see people's visions light up and these are things that have always been there but they've not given themselves chance to really articulate to anybody else before or write down on paper… it's quite enlightening I think for everybody when that happens…

SAMIA: Coolness… so what's the fifth way in which we can practice gratitude…

BETH: So the fifth one is really kind of taking all of those different aspects… the everyday the superpowers the talents and experiences the people and opportunities that we've had and being able to flick that switch on in those difficult times… so when you find yourself in a difficult situation or where you're feeling down or something bad happens or somebody says something to you and you feel like your world's falling apart for those moments it's being able to take all of that and stop and recognize actually out of all of that is there something that I can take away from this moment that is positive…

SAMIA: Oh I love it I love it so much… thank you so much for sharing all of that Beth…

BETH: You’re welcome… 

SAMIA: yeah… is there anything else that you would love to share with us right now…

BETH: Well I'm running a visualization… gratitude journey challenge I don't know when this podcast goes out but I do run them at various times in the year so if it's you know if you're listening to it way in the future you know I'm sure there'll be other challenges happening and that's for 28 days really helping people to understand these principles and just thinking a little give themselves time to think about what they can be grateful for and giving gratitude every day for 28 days on three different things… because that's the other thing is we can be grateful for things and then we want to be grateful for the same things as we were grateful for yesterday or the day before that but we need to expand you know our reach around what we can be grateful for... so we do that you know every day for 28 days and it's fun it's enjoyable and it's amazing how much we've got in common as human beings you know I did this this time last year well near the end of near closer to Christmas last year and everybody was around a few days after Christmas day… everybody was really grateful for the new pajamas or the new dressing gown or the you know they knew something that they'd got ever and it just made us all realize that you know underneath it all we like those comforting things or we like a new jumper every now and again you know becoming grateful for that kind of stuff as well so it's just nice to be around people who you know appreciate their own things as well…

SAMIA: Indeed oh my gosh I just absolutely love love… again... oh my gosh the idea of expanding our awareness of all the things that we have to be grateful for and so to do that like in terms of let's do this over a period of 28 days… I absolutely love it… like three new things to be grateful for the next 28 days and to do that in community is… that's really wonderful because I know for me if I said... I would… if I was like oh I love that idea and do it but if I try to do it on my own I'll probably maybe do it for a few days and then fall off… so it's really important that we have this sense of community support and I'm sure anyone who participates in this gratitude journey with you will benefit from it so so so much…

BETH: Yeah and I think you benefit from not just my challenge but you know just gratitude generally you benefit on more levels than you you probably think because I think when we do give gratitude it's a very very solitude activity that we might do we might write it down or we might just say in our head… we don’t really verbalize that… but when you're actually sharing appreciation in a community with other people you also start to share appreciation around your home or where you go into your own local communities or in the shops and you realize that the more appreciation you're giving out more people are giving it back to you when you start to receive it and respond… 

SAMIA: Yeah…

BETH: at the beginning of the show I talked about that being… the gratitude being the basis for being able to manifest and create and receive things into your life and you can see it in action because as you're outwardly appreciating things and talking about it not just in your head but to other people you can see that flow of appreciation and love coming back to you as well… so it's very powerful and you can see it physically happening around you and with you know within your home and your space and the relationships you have... so very powerful…

SAMIA: It is and I know another really wonderful thing that happens when we're sharing things that we're grateful for with other people is that when I hear you share things that you're grateful for it reminds me of even more things that I have to be grateful for because I'm like oh yeah that's right I have that to be grateful for too and so then my awareness like expands even more than if I just focus in on thinking of three things by myself on my own…

BETH: It's so funny… last time everyone started being appreciative for their you know their cats and dogs and by the end of it everybody knew everybody the names of all of the other pets of everybody else in the community so it just expanded out from people to animals...

SAMIA: Yeah…

BETH: ..it was really fun so it's a lovely thing to do and I'm sure people when they get into it will see the real benefits of it… so thank you for giving me the chance to share…

SAMIA: Indeed all right so on that very positive happy note of being grateful and practicing our gratitude we'll go ahead and wrap up for today and I'll encourage everyone to check the show notes because we're going to add Beth's links in there so you can connect with her and if she has a gratitude challenge or a rather gratitude journey happening right now jump in and join it… and yeah until we connect next time I wish you lots and lots of peace and joy…