An Experiment in Gratitude

Monday, November 22, 2021

Soul Pancake was created in 2008 by a group of guys who were disgusted with all the gossip, rumors, porn and auto sales that seemed to dominate the digital waves at that point in time. Joshua Homnick, Devon Gundry and Rainn Wilson (whom some will recognize as the hilariously irritating Dwight Schrute on The Office) started their operation with the mission to put something out there that would uplift, entertain and provide inspiring content. They didn’t know anything about what they were trying to do but they had a simple conviction that the world needed something good. It clearly did because Soul Pancake is now “a media company with over four million cross-platform fans.” There’s a good chance you’ve seen an inspiring video or two as a tone-setter for a conference because the short inspirational video clips they put out put people in a good head space to work together and make something good happen.
 
Being the week of Thanksgiving, I thought I’d share a Soul Pancake/Science of Happiness experiment in gratitude to help get us warmed up. This particular experiment in gratitude tested the happiness of the research subjects before the experiment and then tested them again after the experiment. Since 100% of them were all happier after the experiment, it was deemed a resounding success, but the most remarkable of the research findings? The least happy person in the cohort ended up scoring the highest.
 
That says something very interesting about the nature of this experiment which I’m not going to reveal. You’ll have to watch it. But whether you conduct this experiment on yourself after viewing the Soul Pancake Experiment in Gratitude or not, I bet just watching it will make you happier. Even if you’re really unhappy. Perhaps especially if you’re unhappy.
 
More good stuff
Something else that will make change your mind state for the better: Dr. Astrid Andreescu’s 5-minute stress breaks on Mondays from 12:15 – 12:20. Five minutes is all it takes to reset something in your neuro-happiness. Each 5-minute session will focus on one technique. As time goes on, you will become skillful in an extensive collection of body- and mind-based tools that work directly on your neurobiology. It’s like getting under the hood of your bodily vehicle and adjusting a few wires that keep coming loose. That’s not good. You can’t just let your wires go loose.
 
NOTE: if you already accepted the original invitation, please delete that invitation and accept the new one. I mistakenly sent out a single meeting rather than the series. My apologies for that.
 
Have a warm, safe and happy holiday,
 
E