Interview by Shawna Robins
Published in Authority Magazine
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Jul 12, 2024
Express Gratitude Publicly. Don’t just think it — say it. Write a letter to your favorite teacher to tell them how they positively impacted your life. Thank a first responder or veteran for their service. Give a compliment to the supervisor on a customer service representative’s behalf. Write a list of reasons why you love your partner and share it with them. Send an email to a colleague telling them how much you appreciate their hard work and collaboration. Give flowers or goodies to your nurses, doctors, mail carriers, delivery people, librarians, contractors, or other service providers. By sharing gratitude with others, you are strengthening your connection with them and improving their own sense of well-being.
As we all know, times are tough right now. In our post-COVID world, we are also experiencing what some have called a “mental health pandemic”. What can each of us do to get out of this “Mental and Emotional Funk”? One tool that each of us has access to is the simple power of daily gratitude. As a part of our series about the “How Each Of Us Can Leverage The Power Of Gratitude To Improve Our Overall Mental Wellness” I had the pleasure of interviewing Ann Iñiguez.
Ann Iñiguez is a Licensed Professional Counselor in Richmond, Virginia, where she currently provides online individual therapy with Open Mind Health. She has extensive clinical experience in various mental health settings, including inpatient, outpatient, private practice, and in recovery and correctional facilities. Ann is a Certified Correctional Healthcare Professional, Certified Trauma Tapping Practitioner, and Certified Emotional Freedom Techniques practitioner. She helps clients overcome obstacles, resolve past traumas, and release emotional baggage to live fulfilling and productive lives.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dive into our discussion, our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you share with us the backstory about you and about what brought you to your specific career path?
About ten years ago, I was going through the end of a difficult marriage and realized I needed some guidance to manage the turbulent waves of emotions that came with that experience. I started going to therapy for the first time in my life and with my therapist’s help, I began to look at things through a different lens. I started to understand the catalyst for my own feelings and behaviors and was validated by my therapist. After about 6 months of therapy sessions, I had a pretty huge epiphany that resulted in a complete life transformation. It was at this moment that I thought to myself that I would like to be the person on the other side of that room — a therapist helping people work through their own issues. I made a decision on Monday that I was going to enroll in a graduate program, and by Friday I had applied to Wake Forest and was well on my way.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you started your career?
Having worked in multiple correctional facilities in my mental health career, I can honestly say most days have been quite interesting and hardly boring. I have experienced working with clients in crisis and/or psychosis, severe mental and substance use disorders, the aftermath of a riot, and being caught up in the wafting fumes of OC (pepper spray). Additionally, I worked alongside security and medical staff all throughout the pandemic inside the jail walls — a time when we didn’t know much about COVID-19 or what was going to happen. It was a challenging time, but we persevered.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Why do you think that resonates with you? Do you have a story about how that was relevant in your life?
When I was working at the jail, I had a quote hanging in my office that said, “Broken Crayons Still Color.” Many of the incarcerated citizens seemed to appreciate this quote and often asked for a copy of it, especially given their legal histories. It resonates with me because I used to have a perfectionist mindset and felt like if I wasn’t “perfect,” then I wasn’t good enough. This quote is meaningful because it helps us realize that no matter what we have been through or what we have done, we still have value and are worthy of good things.
Is there a particular book that made a significant impact on you? Can you share a story about why that resonated with you?
I love to read, especially self-improvement books, so it’s not easy to narrow it down to one book that made a significant difference in my life. One that really stands out for me is Infinite Possibilities by Mike Dooley. It opened my eyes to the power we have within to reimagine our circumstances and manifest good into our lives. In my earlier years, I often felt like I had gotten the short end of the stick and maintained more of a victim mindset. This book helped me turn around that way of thinking, and I started to realize I have much more control over my life than I had given myself credit for.
Are you working on any exciting new projects now? How do you think that will help people?
I’m a perpetual student with a never-ending quest for knowledge, so I’m about to start coursework to become a Certified Clinical Trauma Professional (CCTP). This will expand my knowledge of working with individuals who have experienced trauma and will add more tools to my toolbox for helping them resolve those past experiences. I am also working on a couple of presentations to help spread knowledge about the efficacy of the trauma tapping interventions I use in my practice.
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?
There are countless people who have made a significant impact on me and helped me get where I am, but I would be remiss if I didn’t mention my mentor and clinical supervisor, Mandi Hixenbaugh. She hired me in 2017 and became my clinical supervisor for my LPC residency. When she left the company and was no longer my boss, she still continued to work with me as I fulfilled my residency requirements. My journey to LPC took longer than most due to a couple of job changes and delays, but she stood by me the entire time. She has been an incredible mentor, and I wouldn’t have been able to do it without her influence and expertise.
Ok, thank you for all that. Now that we are on the topic of gratitude, let’s move to the main focus of our interview. As you know, the collective mental health of our country is facing extreme pressure. We would like to explore together how every one of us can use gratitude to improve our mental wellness. Let’s start with a basic definition of terms. How do you define the concept of Gratitude? Can you explain what you mean?
The word gratitude originated from the Latin root gratia, which means grace or thankfulness. Gratitude involves giving thanks and appreciation for the things, people, experiences, and goodness we have in our lives. It means being present and acknowledging the positive instead of focusing on the negative and adopting a mindset of scarcity. It’s the idea of seeing the glass as half full rather than half empty.
Why do you think so many people do not feel gratitude? How would you articulate why a simple emotion can be so elusive?
There are studies, such as the 2014 study by Algoe and Way, suggesting that the inclination to practice gratitude may already be wired in our genes and DNA (1). Other studies have shown that the structure of the brain may be different for people who are more likely to express gratitude (2). Additional influencing factors include a person’s overall worldview, often shaped by upbringing, environment, television, magazines, and social media. People who are materialistic or envious may find it more challenging to naturally feel gratitude due to comparisons and feelings of inadequacy. Lastly, many people believe that they will only be happy when they finally have their dream job, hit their goal weight, find their perfect partner, or win the lottery. Gratitude encourages us to accept ourselves where we are right now and appreciate what we have, no matter how small. Chances are, there is someone else on this planet right now who wishes they have what you have and would gladly trade places with you.
This might be intuitive to you but I think it will be constructive to help spell it out. Can you share with us a few ways that increased gratitude can benefit and enhance our life?
Gratitude has a multitude of benefits, including increased happiness, longer lifespan, and greater overall life satisfaction. It reduces depression and stress and improves resilience by helping us process negative events and emotions in a healthy way. These benefits can improve physical and emotional health, leading to greater creativity, collaboration, and success. Remarkably, gratitude has been scientifically shown to rewire the brain, which is neuroplastic and can change its physical structure and function.
The hypothalamus is also influenced by the practice of gratitude, helping to improve stress tolerance, sleep hygiene, and metabolism. A 2003 study conducted by Emmons & McCullough found that participants who regularly expressed gratitude improved optimism and felt better about their lives overall, as well as more connected to the people around them (3). Dr. Paul J. Mills (2015) found that being thankful on a regular basis also reduces inflammation and improves heart health (4).
Let’s talk about mental wellness in particular. Can you share with us a few examples of how gratitude can help improve mental wellness?
Gratitude directly affects the brain by increasing activity in the brain centers that are associated with rewards and empathy. In 2015, researchers from UCLA measured brainwaves using magnetic resonance imaging, while the subjects of the study were asked to imagine receiving certain gifts and encouraged to express gratitude. The results were as expected, showing increased brain activity in the anterior cingulate cortex and the medial prefrontal cortex, parts of the brain linked to compassion and rewards.
In his book The Science of Getting Rich, Wallace D. Wattles wrote, “The grateful mind is constantly fixed upon the best, therefore it will receive the best.” By being thankful on a regular basis, the brain can be reprogrammed to be more positive and optimistic. Signals are sent to the brain’s rewards center to release dopamine, a feel-good hormone that is one of the neurochemicals linked to the brain regions influenced by gratitude. As dopamine increases, anxiety and depression decrease. The good news is, it’s a continuous cycle — the more things you find to be grateful for, the more things you will find to be grateful for!
What are “Five Ways That Each Of Us Can Leverage The Power Of Gratitude To Improve Our Overall Mental Wellness”. Can you please share a story or example for each?
1 . Self-Assess. For starters, it is a good idea to assess where you are on the gratitude spectrum and understand what you are working with. There is a free assessment tool called the Gratitude Questionnaire-6 available online, such as this one: https://www.apa.org/ed/precollege/topss/lessons/activities/activity-gratitude-questionnaire.pdf. After calculating your score, you can determine where you may need improvement and focus on those areas.
2 . Take Inventory. Each morning, journal about 3 to 5 things that you are grateful for. This can be as simple as having a roof over your head and food in the fridge, to a colleague who paid for your lunch last week or a person who held the door open for you at the bank. Consider past experiences, the people in your life, basic essential needs, your pets, or your good health. If you have difficulty thinking of things to be grateful for, remember what you have that others may not, such as running water, heat, or the use of your eyes, ears, arms, and legs. When you think of each thing you are grateful for, feel the emotion of gratitude in your heart and genuinely give thanks for it.
3 . Look for the Positive. Next, identify things in your life that aren’t where you would like them to be — perhaps you aren’t living in the best part of town or your boss is critical and demanding. Maybe your car is old or your kids have bad attitudes. Now, consider why you are grateful for these things. For example, if you have a demanding boss, then you are most likely, at the very least, receiving a paycheck. If your home isn’t in a good neighborhood, it means you still have shelter and aren’t sleeping under a bridge. Your car might not look great, but it is still getting you where you need to go (for now), and your children are likely teaching you lessons in patience and resilience. It may sound counterintuitive, but no matter how challenging the situation is, chances are you can reframe it and find at least one positive aspect to be grateful for.
4 . Acts of Kindness. What better way to spread gratitude around than by giving others a reason to express it? It is said that the blessings you put out into the Universe come back to you threefold. Consider paying for someone’s cup of coffee or giving away items in a local gifting social media group. Return shopping carts for people at the grocery store or hold the door open for someone. Give a genuine compliment to a stranger or leave a generous tip for your server. Look for ways to volunteer in your community, such as mowing an elderly neighbor’s lawn or serving meals at a shelter. By being selfless and doing things for others without expecting anything in return, you are acting altruistically and increasing activity in the pleasure centers of your brain.
5 . Express Gratitude Publicly. Don’t just think it — say it. Write a letter to your favorite teacher to tell them how they positively impacted your life. Thank a first responder or veteran for their service. Give a compliment to the supervisor on a customer service representative’s behalf. Write a list of reasons why you love your partner and share it with them. Send an email to a colleague telling them how much you appreciate their hard work and collaboration. Give flowers or goodies to your nurses, doctors, mail carriers, delivery people, librarians, contractors, or other service providers. By sharing gratitude with others, you are strengthening your connection with them and improving their own sense of well-being.
Is there a particular practice that can be used during a time when one is feeling really down, really vulnerable, or really sensitive?
It is important to be gentle with yourself, give yourself grace, and remember that everyone has hard days. When times are especially tough, it is a good opportunity to reflect on what you might be trying to tell yourself, perhaps subconsciously. Keeping a journal of thoughts and feelings is a helpful way to process emotions and identify any patterns or triggers. If you are having self-deprecating thoughts, consider where they might be stemming from; for example, if you feel like you are not good enough, did you have a parent who was overly critical when you were growing up? Try reframing the thought into a positive one that will contradict the negative thought, such as acknowledging the compliment your coworker gave you last week. Think of one good thing that has happened today, no matter how insignificant. By looking for the good things, you start to find them. As Wayne Dyer said, “If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.” If needed, connect with a mental health professional to further explore these feelings and start your healing journey.
Do you have any favorite books, podcasts, or resources that you would recommend to our readers to help them to live with gratitude?
Here are a few of my favorite books that talk about gratitude, positive mindset, and manifesting:
The Secret by Rhonda Byrne
Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill
Gratitude: A Way of Life by Louise Hay
Change Your Thoughts, Change Your Life by Wayne Dyer
E-Squared by Pam Grout
And of course Infinite Possibilities by Mike Dooley
You are a person of great influence. If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. :-)
I have worked with incarcerated individuals for the past 7 years, and one of the concepts I have taught in therapy groups is the idea of gratitude. I would love to expand this and reach more detainees, perhaps by designing a course that could be completed by mail or via the tablets that many detention facilities have. People who are incarcerated are often at rock bottom, and sometimes they need a little help finding the positives around them, whether it be the support of their loved ones, the fact that they have meals and shelter, or the care packages that may occasionally come their way. A little bit of gratitude and positivity go a long way and can be quite contagious.
What is the best way our readers can further follow your work online?
You can connect with me on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anniniguez/.
Thank you for the time you spent sharing these fantastic insights. We wish you only continued success in your great work!
Thank you, it was my pleasure!
SOURCES:
About the Interviewer: Shawna Robins is an international best-selling author of two books — Powerful Sleep — Rest Deeply, Repair Your Brain and Restore Your Life, and Irresistibly Healthy — Simple Strategies to Feel Vibrant, Alive, Healthy and Full of Energy Again. Shawna is the founder and CEO of Third Spark, an online wellness hub for women over 40 who want to reignite their sleep, reset healthier habits and respark their lives. Shawna is a sleep expert, hormone health expert, and a National Board-Certified Health and Wellness Coach (NBHWC). She has been featured on many podcasts including Dr. Mindy Pelz’s “The Resetter Podcast” and in Authority Magazine, Thrive Global, and The Huffington Post. A free download of her latest book can be found at www.thirdsparkhealth.com/powerful-sleep/ You can follow her on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn.
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