Thank You.
I mean it – and it feels great to say.
Thank you.
For being a reader of Down to Earth, whether this is your first newsletter or your 200th.
Thank you for supporting positive, community-driven, health-focused work.
Thank you for being authentically yourself.
For everything good that you do, and all the joy and positivity you spread in the world,
Thank you.
I’m starting out with so much thankfulness because gratitude the foundation underneath all good things that serve us.
Gratitude is the virtue on which everything good is built. It’s step one.
I believe that if you’re grateful, you’re safe. If you’re safe, you’re free to dream — and dream big. Not just survive.
When you’re safe and grateful for what you have, you become a receptacle for more of that. Like attracts like, and those who express and embody gratitude tend to get more of it.
That’s because your mind tends to project itself into the world you inhabit.
Your reality.
Yeah — your mind, thoughts and deepest beliefs will spill into reality, based on the world and the blueprints you create in your mind.
This is how it goes.
As within, so without.
As above, so below.
On Earth as it is in Heaven.
As a man thinketh, so is he.
Your mind is your home base — the command center of your reality.
Why not garnish its walls with joy, delight and appreciation?
Simple gratitude hygiene holds the keys to an existence of deep meaning and abundance.
The Dominican mystic, Meister Eckhart said that if the only prayer you ever say in your entire life is thank you, it will be enough.
I’m a firm believer in that. Thank you for everything, and I mean everything.
The religions may have figured this out. Nirvana, prayer, Valhalla. Tony Robbins and the productivity folks know this too.
Priming exercises. Visualization techniques. Even the scientists have arrived at gratitude as the brain’s safe space and productivity resource.
Gratitude rewires your brain. Scientifically, expressing and receiving thanks releases dopamine and serotonin. This boosts mood, quiets stress responses, and strengthens positive thinking over time.
The Reason Everyone Is So Grateful
What makes gratitude more powerful than just a virtue? More powerful than any practice one could do, it seems …
Prayer accomplishes gratitude.
Journaling channels gratitude.
Saying thank you, exchanging — and even hearing — kind words evokes gratitude.
These actions have the potential to make us feel good and do good.
Gratitude is the gasoline that feeds the engines inside us, driving greatness home.
So we should treat our lives and our minds like engines, and our thoughts and intentions like fuel sources.
Passivity, fear, spite, envy, doubt, resentment, evil, deception, cruelty, and greed are cheap, degrading fuel sources.
On the other hand, kindness, sacrifice, temperance, providence, charity, love, and gratitude are like 93 octane fuel — the highest quality there is.
How To Be Grateful, All The Time
If nothing else, you can be thankful that you’re alive, present, and receptive to the gifts of sensory awareness and perceptive consciousness.
I get it, though — we’re human. It isn’t easy to be in a constant state of thanks and gratitude.
But grasping every possible moment and appreciating it for what it is — that’s achievable.
In Eastern traditions, experience and appreciation of it is the meaning of life itself.
You Have To Be Ready To Receive Gifts
Priming yourself as thankful, peaceful, still and receptive is the state that offers the best chance for more reception.
Oftentimes I pray for becoming — for the strength and integrity to transform into the man that I’d like to be, but also to become the man who is deserving of more blessings.
The best part about that prayer and that mindset is the uncertainty. The excitement of not knowing what comes next, but hoping for the best.
Like in that priming practice, I can already see it.
“For all that has been,
Thank you.
For all that is to come,
Yes!”
- Dag Hammarskjöld
When you’re able to recognize the blessings you’ve received you begin to notice patterns of reward that align with your behaviors.
Your past — if you’re able to see it as fortunate — begins to shape your future.
Michael Jackson was known to utilize gratitude and visualization practices to supplement his success.
He would leave notes for himself as reminders of the grace he’d received in his life, and therefore, becoming primed to receive more.
I’m Grateful For the Reality I’ve Created
Down to Earth’s Community Day was held in Van Cortlandt Park yesterday.
Attended by dozens of members of the hiking club — some loyal day ones and a healthy inflow of first timers— I realized that the day was an exercise in gratitude.
Further, it was a celebration — of the hard work we put in to make these events happen, the beauty and wonder of nature, and the legacy we continue to build together in this city and in this country.
We played games, ate swell, danced to playlists, learned the history of Van Cortlandt Park, double-dutched, played tug of war, (my team won) and hiked through the true urban jungle.
A simple mindset shift (more like a eureka! moment) helped bring me to a place of reflection and stillness during the event — something that contributed to my joy as much as it did my leadership.
I was able to operate from a perspective of gentle appreciation.
Everything that occurred was simply meant to be that way, and with that acceptance in my mind and heart, I felt bliss.
That’s just reality when you embrace every new moment with thanks.
How Far We’ve Come at Down to Earth 🌎
I want to show you just how accurately reality bends to the vision in your mind if you stick with it for long enough.
Below is the original DTE banner that I crafted in December of 2023.
I was in a vulnerable place when I conceived the idea of Down to Earth.
But I was certain that I wanted to build something based on health, happiness and community. So I started writing this newsletter, sharing my insights into how I stay even-keeled and connected in a time where it feels needed.
I didn’t have the hiking club then. I had barely even spent honest time in the outdoors.
But my vision, evident in the crude renderings of love, authenticity & community smashed together in the banner I used to broadcast to the world, was clear as day.
On Saturday, I stood proud as my hopes and dreams became reality, my vision squeezing through my eyes and out into the universe.
On Saturday, I was able to hear the whispers of nature, and the calls from the souls of those who joined us, (also — music blaring from speakers) that were yearning to be in fellowship with one another and with the world of the wild that we left behind so many thousands of years ago — the one we never got to experience for ourselves.
But we’ve changed that reality.
We’ve found each other, and we’ve found ourselves on the trails.
I’ve learned a lot in this third year of DTE’s hiking — mostly, that God doesn’t talk to you more when you’re in the outdoors — that’s just where its easiest to hear him.
My Praises and Gratitude 🙏🏾
Red Young
I am often tossed about in the wake of mercy that God casts with his will & his wrath.
But still, I find myself dizzied from the tantrums that leave me tumbling about on the plane.
But I am grateful for the fluidity of life.
Nothing, even when it really does seem so, is set.
I’m grateful for when it flows, and grateful when it suffers from fits of Mercury.
I am grateful for the anomalous and the memorable ones.
I am grateful for The Energy — that which I can see, that which I can feel.
I am grateful for my perception. I am grateful to be here to see this.
To bear witness.
I am grateful for cool breeze, music, bliss, acceptance and understanding.
I am grateful for my reality, and my ability to create it.
God said “I Am” …
And there, I am! But for the grace of God …
Thank you, reader, from deep within my heart.
This really resonated with me. I’m so thankful for my health, for my family, and for the opportunity to witness Red turn his passion into something so meaningful. Watching him bring people together to build community, get outside, and share unforgettable experiences is truly inspiring. Thank you for creating a space where people can connect, explore, and feel like they belong. Grateful to be part of it. 💚