At this point in my life, I’ve worked with hundreds of clients—it’s probably more like thousands. I don’t say this out of ego. I say it to reinforce experience. What I’m about to share with you is a little secret sauce I’ve learned from all of these amazing, brilliant individuals. It’s a word that you often hear tossed around and seen in memes. I’m going to vote that the majority of people don’t completely understand it’s super power or I think we would see a different state in humanity right now.

Gratitude is a superpower and I don’t make that claim lightly. Gratitude has the ability to completely shift energy around emotions, perspective in a conversation, dealing with difficult situations and more. Trust me, I’ve seen it so many times. I want to share a few examples.

One of my clients was dealing with the unexpected passing of a young child. It was absolutely devastating on so many levels. We shared tears in more than one session. The grief of a mother is not something easy to describe in words. As the client made her way through the coaching journey, she had a profound moment in one session as she started on a course of gratitude. All of a sudden, she was naming all these beautiful memories and all of a sudden, she paused and said, I am so grateful for the time I did have. Look at the impact my child had in my life. She then went on to say that maybe, just maybe, she could use this experience to help others. What she also realized is that she could hold multiple emotions and experiences at the same time. She could be grieving while also having gratitude for the time she did have with her child and the experiences she could help create for others around their grief. She chose a lens of gratitude.

I had another client who had been diagnosed with a life-altering illness. There was a good prognosis if she chose to do all the treatments and at the same time, she would need to leave her job (or at least modify it significantly). She came to our session right after the diagnosis in a state of confusion, mixed emotions and a whole lot of questions. As we processed this diagnosis and continued our sessions, she came to an acute awareness that she had a choice of how to respond to this diagnosis. She started to say things like, I’m so grateful these types of treatments are available, I’m so grateful my work is willing to be more flexible than I thought they would be, I’m so grateful I have supportive family and friends, I’m so grateful I can take this time to really get in touch with my faith. There were probably more. These were the ones that stuck out to me. The client found and chose a lens of gratitude.

Then I have the client who is in a permanent state of gratitude. This client gets up in the morning and is grateful for the day, the ability to move, the ability to see, hear, have running water. You get the idea. This client LIVES in gratitude. Each and every day she chooses a lens of gratitude and before you think she never experienced anything horrible in her life, let me gently state that this client experienced horrors and trauma that you and I probably don’t want to think about. Through previous therapy and healing work, this client has come to this place—full on gratitude for everything.

What does your lens of gratitude look like? I invite clients to look at the current emotions they are experiencing. For example—let’s say you have some sadness. After acknowledging the sadness, ask yourself what gratitude would say to the sadness. Notice what shows up and what shift you see. Gratitude is the superpower, after all.

I’d love to hear about your experiences with gratitude. Have you used this superpower? When do you activate it the most? What are the ways you can integrate more of the gratitude lens into your life?