This week, I’m headed to my nieces flower and bunny farm, Blooms and Bunnies, in the New Mexico mountains near Albuquerque to this Thanksgiving with family and about 150 animals she raises there. It’s a special week that always fuels my soul as well as my belly.
With that spirit in mind, this issue is all about Gratitude and how it changes everything. Not just your mood, but your mind, your energy, and the way you tell your story. I’m diving into the science behind gratitude, including research that surprised even the neuroscientists who ran it.
In today’s newsletter, you’ll get
A look a what holiday break is like in the Graft family (probably looks just like yours, but with fewer animals)
3 takeaways on how gratitude, reflection, and rest sharpen your storytelling
A video that uncovers what most people get wrong about gratitude
Enjoy this gratitude trip and a little taste of the Southwest…LG
LG’s STORY: The Gratitude Infusions of Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving. My favorite holiday stretch of the year.
It’s traveling with smiling strangers (most of them anyway). Family arriving from all corners. A continuous stream of hugs and cheerful greetings with my mom, sisters, nieces, nephews, and brother-in-laws see one another again.
It is the slower mornings, sipping lattes by the fire. The busy kitchen where everyone cooks side by side, swapping recipes, creating more food than any human gathering could ever finish.
LG & the farm working dogs.
It’s wrestling 120 lb Great Pyrenees dogs, watching my mom feed 60 chickens, holding baby mini-flop rabbits (called Kittens) to get them ready for ‘best in show’ type competitions. And cats. Lots of curious cats.
Sister Linda with her bunny
It’s farm projects while football hums in the background. Puzzles scattered across the table. Conversations that drift across every topic imaginable, without agenda or rush.
And the laughter. OMG, the laughter when our family gathers.
The “remember when” moments that turn into full-on stomach cramps. New stories get added to the collection. Someone new to the family hears the classics for the first time, and we all get to experience them fresh through their eyes.
On these days, the stories flow like mimosas.
Momma G and Maggie
It is this blissful wave of sights, sounds, and smells, wrapped in smiles, laughter, and shared memories. With a big family like mine, you never know if it’ll be 4 people or 24 showing up, but it is always a time of joy.
It’s the same beautiful rhythm every year. Tuesday and Wednesday for travel, projects, and settling in. Thursday for feasting, football, napping, and snacking. Friday for leftovers and staying put. Saturday for shopping, sleeping in, or doing whatever feels right. And Sunday for the journey back home.
Just being present. Just coming together. Taking one day of thanks and letting those cherished moments spill across the whole week.
It’s this rare stretch of the year where every day is filled with moments that deliver infusions of gratitude.
This constant stream of lovable stimuli fills my creative cup and resets my soul. It is where I rest, reconnect, and rekindle my energy in a way that elevates how and why I tell stories.
And it is a gratitude spring available to all of us, whether your family is one person or twenty-four.
Sister Linda showing me her chile relleno recipe
Reflection, Gratitude & Renewal Make for Better Storytelling
After years of studying, filming, and interviewing successful founders, I’ve noticed a pattern. Breakthroughs, aha moments, and clarity rarely come from constant grinding.
They come from the moments when you pause long enough to take things in. When you reflect on how far you’ve come and appreciate what you have right now. When you step away so your mind, body, and spirit can rest and reset.
As we enter this week, I wanted to share three simple ideas from what I have studied and experienced. My hope is that you pour yourself into this time in a way that fills your cup and gives you a bit of clarity for the road ahead.
Shared Moments Create Deeper Stories
Momma G and my sisters Cindy, Wendy, Lindy & Mindy & me :-) #blessed
Thanksgiving reminds me that shared moments carry real weight. And they're usually simple. Passing plates around the table. Cooking side by side. A quick joke that hits everyone at once. These moments aren't agenda-driven. They're feeling-driven. They exist to make the people around you feel good and feel connected.
Research backs this up. In a study in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, people who shared positive experiences with others didn't just relive the joy, the joy actually increased. The act of sharing deepened connection, trust, and bonding. Even small or trivial events created this effect.
This is exactly how it works for founders. Share an honest win. Share a small struggle. Share something real. It builds closeness and trust.
Howard Schultz, founder of Starbucks, has said it plainly: Every big strategic shift at Starbucks required stepping away to reflect on where the company came from and why it mattered. The story got clearer when he stopped to remember it. That's not nostalgia, that's craft.
Action. Share & Receive those Moments: Take time to listen and feel those emotional spoken and unspoken moments. The sound of the fireplace. The warmth of the coffee mug. The smiles when you walk in the door. Shared emotion = stronger connection. Stronger connection = a story people feel instead of just hear.Gratitude Sharpens Your Story
Gratitude doesn't just feel good, it changes how your brain works. In studies by UC Davis, adults who kept gratitude journals reported higher optimism, more physical energy, fewer symptoms, and more progress toward personal goals. They literally took more consistent action. Gratitude made them more effective.
Thanksgiving gives you a rare pause to appreciate what you have. It shifts your energy. You think more clearly. You make better decisions. You get more creative. You feel less rushed and more grounded in what actually matters.
John Mackey built Whole Foods on this principle. He regularly practiced meditation and took quiet retreats to refocus his thinking. Gratitude was woven through his leadership, toward team members, customers, and the mission itself.
That appreciation didn't just make him a better leader. It helped him ground Whole Foods' story in purpose and values that people could actually feel when they walked into a store.
Action: Stand in Appreciation. When you focus on appreciation, you stop talking like you're defending something. You start talking like you're sharing something. That shift changes your story. Investors and customers feel the difference instantly.Rest and Renewal Bring Clarity
Entrepreneurship takes a lot from you. Thanksgiving gives you a chance to put something back. Rest. Reflection. Renewal. When you step out of overdrive, your mind sees patterns you missed. Your story gets clearer because your thinking gets clearer.
Gratitude helps accelerate this reset. Research from Journal of Psychosomatic Research found that higher gratitude predicted better sleep quality, more sleep, and fewer daytime issues. People fell asleep faster and felt more functional the next day. Gratitude reduced negative pre-sleep thoughts and quieted the mental noise that keeps people up.
Drew Houston, founder of Dropbox, lives this. He schedules deep-work retreats to think through strategy, product, and the future. Early in Dropbox's life, he took time away to write what became the backbone of the company vision. Clarity doesn't come from speed, it comes from space.
Action: Rest the Brain. When your brain rests, your storytelling shifts. You see your past year with more perspective. You see your wins more clearly. You see your lessons with less judgment. Patterns emerge that help you decide what story you want to carry forward.
Holiday Wish: Invest In Your Bliss
Thanksgiving gives you space to breathe. To renew your energy. To step back and decide who you want to be in the next chapter of your business and your life.
Don't miss this moment to be fully present. Close the laptop. Put away your phone. Do nothing for more than a few hours. Trust me, those devices will be just as ready to be used when you return next week.
You don't need permission from anyone. But if you're waiting for a sign, here it is: Take the break. Feel the gratitude. Let your body breathe and your story prosper.
The version of you on the other side of this week will tell better stories, because you'll remember what's worth telling and why you are telling it.
Happy gratitude week.
Niece Erin and Santa’s Uber Driver
Video to Watch: The Gratitude Study That Shocked Neuroscientists
Stanford University neuroscientist Andrew Huberman and his team spent 18 months digging into the neuroscience of gratitude using brain imaging and blood markers. What he and his team found surprised even them.
In this short “Everyone Is Practicing Gratitude Wrong” clip, he breaks down why most people practice gratitude in a way that barely moves the needle, and what the science says actually creates the biggest shift in your brain. And why Thanksgiving is such a gratitude smorgasbord.
