The Role of Gratitude in Thriving as a Military Spouse

[00:00:00] Christine: Hey, amazing Milspouse. Welcome back to the Milspouse Mastermind Show. I hope you had a great Thanksgiving and that you got to spend some time with family or friends and that you had a moment to escape from the hustle and bustle of everyday life and take some time to Reflect on the blessings in your life.

[00:00:19] I, I know it can be tempting to fixate on how far we are away from family, or that we don’t get to spend the holiday with loved ones. But when we focus and fixate on the negative, that leads us down the spiral of comparison, frustration, and discontentment with life. All of us have the opportunity. And the ability to reframe our thoughts and to change our lives simply by starting with gratitude.

[00:00:52] Gratitude is what helps us embrace life, become more resilient, and thrive as a military spouse. And so in this season, Of gratitude, I am excited to bring to you today’s conversation about what it looks like to craft a life with purpose and how that doesn’t necessarily mean doing something noteworthy or showy, it doesn’t necessarily even involve starting a business or obtaining a specific title or degree or speaking to large groups of people, it means that we approach a each day with intentionality and choose to make today matter.

[00:01:35] One way we can do that is by spreading intentional acts of kindness. And today’s episode is going to focus on exactly that. Ready to learn more? Then let’s dive into the show.

Embracing Intentionality and Making Each Day Matter

Ever feel a little lost, confused, or uncertain of what you should be doing with your life, or what you want to be when you grow up, or even what you really want your life to look like?

[00:02:52] It’s easy to move from duty station to duty station and to feel like you have to place your own Needs and passions and dreams on the back burner to make sure everyone around you is doing okay And then you wake up and realize, I don’t even know who I am or what I want anymore. That is exactly why I created the free clarity workshop for military spouses.

[00:03:21] In this free training, you will learn what’s really holding you back. And five specific things you can do to begin to reconnect with yourself. Unlock your potential, find your uniqueness, and begin to create a life around your passions and purpose. Without ever having to leave military life. When you do this, you will truly get unstuck and discover who you are meant to be.

[00:03:53] Imagine starting the new year off knowing exactly what goals you want to pursue for yourself and how to structure your life. In a way that lights you up without having to wait for some future season or duty station to actually go after your goals and dreams. I promise that this workshop is going to bring so much clarity.

[00:04:20] Whether you don’t have any kids, you feel… Like your life revolves around the needs of little people you feel like your full time job is Driving kids to after school activities or your kids are all about to leave home Whatever season of life you find yourself in There is a way to tap into your passions, and your purpose, and truly build a life you love.

[00:04:49] And it begins with this process of self-discovery. Go watch the free Milspouse Clarity Workshop to get started today at milspouse mastermind. com slash workshop or click the link in the show notes below to get started. Now today I have a very special episode from the archives to share with you. This episode highlights the work of the InspireUp Foundation and Giving Tuesday Military.

Inspiring Acts of Kindness: Giving Tuesday Military

[00:05:15] It first aired two years ago and this year Giving Tuesday Military is celebrating its five year anniversary. of being in existence. It’s been an incredible to be on the sidelines and watch this organization grow from idea to really having this global impact. Now if you aren’t familiar with Giving Tuesday in general, it is an event that takes place the Tuesday after Thanksgiving every single year.

[00:05:47] It was built on the idea of Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, and someone at some point said, Hey, we need to have a day that is not just about getting more stuff. It’s about giving and generosity. So over the last several years, Giving Tuesday has become a global movement. And in 2019, some military spouses decided to create Giving Tuesday Military.

[00:06:15] It is an initiative focused specifically on the military community and encouraging the military community to give back by spreading intentional acts of kindness. So in this episode, I sit down with Brittany Raines, who’s the Director of Community Engagement. for the Inspire Up Foundation and the Giving Tuesday Military Liaison.

[00:06:40] Brittany holds a Master’s in Counseling and Military Resiliency from Liberty University. She has served as Giving Tuesday Military Ambassador Lead for the last few years and has coordinated over 50, 000 acts of kindness in that time period. In 2020, the Association of the United States Army selected her and her family as the volunteer family of the year, and she is also the 2017 AFI Fort Drum military spouse of the year.

[00:07:14] Brittany, welcome to the Milspouse Mastermind Show.

[00:07:18] Brittany: Thanks for having me on.

[00:07:20] Christine: I would love it if you would just introduce yourself, give us a brief background about who you are and what you do. Absolutely.

[00:07:29] Brittany: I am the Community Engagement Director for the Inspire Up Foundation and the Director for Giving Tuesday Military under Inspire Up Foundation and I have been with Inspire Up just for about nine months now in my position, but have been an ambassador for the program since it started in 2019.

[00:07:53] I’m currently at Fort Leonard Wood in Missouri.

[00:07:56] Christine: Okay. Well, can you tell us a little bit about your story about your life and how that has led up to what you do today?

[00:08:07] Brittany: Yeah. I, I, so I’m an Army. I have my master’s in counseling and health and human services and I have six kids at my house. So very, very busy and which makes it so that I, working from home and volunteering has sort of become my, My lifestyle and my passion projects.

[00:08:29] So I have traveled the world and we’ve been, this is our fifth duty station. My husband’s been in for almost 15 years now. So yeah, that’s where crazy lifestyle and lots of community outreach and community giving is my

[00:08:46] Christine: world. Awesome. So how did you kind of get started in the community giving and volunteering and all of that?

[00:08:55] Brittany: Well, the army life sort of gives you that hand up a bit, you know, and working with the units and getting more involved on the installation. I have volunteered my entire life. That’s just sort of been my, my MO and sort of what my family has done. And so it was just kind of a piece of the puzzle for us.

[00:09:15] And then I met The Inspire Up Foundation ladies through the Military Spouse of the Year program with Armed Forces Insurance and really connected with them and loved the Giving Tuesday military mission and kind of mantra on how they, they function and what their purpose is and just sort of fell into place and how they, how they live in their worlds and Yeah.

The Journey of Giving Tuesday Military and the InspireUp Foundation

[00:09:42] Christine: Okay, so why don’t you unpack for everyone what Giving Tuesday Military is, how that falls under the Inspire Up Foundation, and then we’ll get into how this all

[00:09:55] Brittany: began. Yeah, so those, the founders, Jess, Sam, Maria, and Stacey, they came together as military spouse of the years, as emsoys, and wanted to do something bigger than themselves.

[00:10:11] And so they worked with Giving Tuesday and came up with Giving Tuesday Military in 2019 to, just to give back to the communities that we all live in. We, we get a lot of thank yous for our service as family members of military, but we really wanted to To shed some light on that. We wanted to give back to where we were living.

[00:10:32] And so they started this and they have the goal of 1 million acts of kindness in 2019, and I know we far surpassed that. And then in 2020 we, as many people struggled and had challenges in 2020 with COVID, that actually became a blessing for our organization because it was such a need kindness and looking out for each other.

[00:10:57] Became a necessity. And so we were able to show and sort of role model as ambassadors and volunteers how to take care of each other in those challenging times. And a lot of people got what it takes They got a taste of what us military families go through, right? That 1 percent we’re traveling and are far away from families and COVID sort of gave that to everyone.

[00:11:22] And so we finally had a leg up and got to show them that. So we’re going into our third year. We, and in all of that, the Inspire Up Foundation was born after that first year of Giving Tuesday because they just, they wanted to continue to give back to the community in just a bigger way than Giving Tuesday Military could.

[00:11:44] And they wanted Giving Tuesday Military to maintain its special effect that it had. Once a year, or giving always, it, it just is something that’s a special piece of their puzzle. And so they branched off and made their own nonprofit, but maintained that, that special organization. So we’re going into third year and we’re, we’re like almost 40 states.

[00:12:08] We have an ambassador in almost 40 states. And then we have an ambassador in five different countries too. So we’re. Kicking off and taking a worldwide.

[00:12:18] Christine: That’s amazing. Okay, for those who may have not heard at all Can you just give a brief overview of giving Tuesday itself and then kind of just can you tell us a little bit about?

[00:12:34] the inspiration for, okay, let’s, let’s do something with the military. Like how, what was the evolution of these a million acts of kindness idea?

[00:12:44] Brittany: So giving Tuesday military in itself, its mission is to spread intentional acts of kindness on that one day. So we give, we give always, but we really had that focus on one day to come together and give.

[00:12:58] Give back and be intentional about your giving, whether it’s big or small the military piece of the puzzle is purely because that’s just our life, right? So it was born out of military spouses. And so why not highlight that? But so we’re giving back to those military communities, but we really want this to be it.

[00:13:20] Anybody who’s a patriotic supporter, anybody who lives near an installation or just wants to be kind, you know, we are, we just have that military piece just to, to make it special for, for us because we’re, that’s our world.

[00:13:36] Christine: So in 2019 how did they go about getting it started on different installations?

[00:13:46] Brittany: Really, they put a call out and just said, this is what we want to do. We’ve got a goal of 1 million acts of kindness who’s on board. And it started with those networks, right? With the EMSOI program and All of us as spouses. I mean, here we are even on this podcast. We all have a kind of our own little passion projects on the side, and some of them are small and some of them are huge and that’s, they started there with those networks and just said, we’ve got this idea, we don’t know if it’s going to work or not.

[00:14:15] And I’ll tell you, it’s, they put that call out. In like maybe the beginning of October of 2019 and this was December 1st. No, December 3rd was giving Tuesday that year and they got, I mean, we well surpassed that. That count of 1 million acts of kindness. And so just in a short amount of time, gosh, who doesn’t want to be kind?

[00:14:39] You can’t say no to that. So they put that call out. I’m just on social media and people hopped on their website and signed up and said, pick me. And then basically you just sign up as a leader in your community. You either put a team together or you do something on your own and figure out what your community needs.

[00:15:00] For you to, to put some time into.

[00:15:05] Christine: So what were some of the biggest lessons learned or some of the coolest stories that came out of that first year?

[00:15:13] Brittany: I think connection and that we’re all like what we’re so capable of as this small military community and. It’s gone far beyond the military community now, but that first year, that’s really what it was and how big we really can be and how big our voices can be, even being just that 1 percent of the world population.

[00:15:37] So it was most of us didn’t all do the same things they gave us that first year. They gave us zero guidance. They just said, go be kind. And all of us were like, And do what? And they just, it’s such a simple concept. It’s almost, you had to dial down the complexity and, and just. It was literally just go take your neighbor some snacks, you know, like it really doesn’t need to be that big to be impactful.

[00:16:05] And so knowing that just simple things could really make a difference and watching us all come together.

Unpacking the Successes and Challenges of Spreading Kindness

[00:16:13] Christine: So what were some of the things that people did?

[00:16:17] Brittany: That first year was pretty, like I said, small and simple. Lots of donation drives, you know, winter coats. I was up in Northern New York then. So we did a winter coat drive even just chalk messages on the, on the sidewalks, you know, have a good day.

[00:16:34] Like I said, taking your neighbor a meal. My kids go and do post it notes on lockers at school. So it really can just be. as simple as opening the door for somebody or paying for the person behind you’s coffee. It’s pretty simple acts. It has sure grown from there, but that’s where our roots are at, is those little things.

[00:16:58] Christine: So then, talk to me about 2020. How did that throw a wrench in your plans, and how did 2020 turn out?

[00:17:07] Brittany: 2020 was actually amazing. I think we all panicked a minute, but then realized how simple it is to We were actually leading the way in that because we have the military background and are sort of used to, to the, we weren’t recovering from 2020 like others might have been because those challenges were, were already something that we’re used to.

[00:17:33] So it wasn’t as impactful, but we got to then switch gears and make it impactful for other people. And We just had to pivot a little, right? So it was, you know, making sure that we were social distancing, making sure everyone had masks. But the need was so strong that just being out and talking about being kind of people, you could see it brighten people’s day.

[00:18:00] So and then there was a lot of, like last year we did a lot of blood drives. You saw a lot of, because, because that was a need. And so it was cool watching our ambassadors dial in. To what was a necessary thing in their communities and a necessary piece of the puzzle for our world and, and really tap into those resources and give back.

[00:18:23] Christine: So has the organization kind of evolved? Does it have more structure now? How, how has it changed in the last couple of years?

[00:18:32] Brittany: It for sure has more structure because there’s so many volunteers that it needed. I mean, for example, there’s now a director of Giving Tuesday Military that really those, those girls took that on themselves and they pushed it out and There, the Inspire Up Foundation has grown, and Giving Teeth the Military has grown, and so, there’s, there’s more structure even in just being able to provide templates, because we know now, we’ve gone through it a couple years, we know the need, and So I have taken on that role because I’ve been in all their shoes.

[00:19:10] And so, you know, even the boots on the ground struggles of, you know, you move every couple of years and so you have to restart your network again. And that’s really hard when you’re trying to. Do donation drives or you’re trying to get into the PX for something and you need to find those people to talk to.

[00:19:27] So that’s, that piece has for sure evolved, but I will say they have maintained that simplicity. We’ve, we’ve kept the simple acts of kindness and we’ve kept the, that our mission is purely. We’re just giving back and it doesn’t matter how big or small.

[00:19:48] Christine: That’s really exciting to hear how, what y’all have been able to do. What do you think some of the biggest lessons or tips that you’ve learned along the way are?

[00:20:01] Brittany: I from an ambassador standpoint, cause I still do both. So from an ambassador standpoint, I think our biggest lesson learned is that a networking is huge and trying to To build that network ahead of time instead of waiting until right before Giving Tuesday, and it sort of depends on how big you want your campaign to be, but It really getting to know your community stakeholders is beneficial so that you get some buy in from the community from the organization standpoint.

[00:20:34] Now that I’m on this side is how difficult it is to. To talk to people about those little acts of kindness being okay that it’s that that that’s enough and you as you’re by yourself, you’re enough and you don’t have to have a big team and and making sure people understand that this isn’t about. Making it a gl you’re, you yourself isn’t, you’re not going to make this a global movement, our organization can make it a global movement, but your little act is a piece of that puzzle and, and keeping that in the forefront for them, because sometimes they really want to hit it out of the park and, and your community might not support that or you’re, you know, there’s, there’s lots of challenges and, and that’s okay.

[00:21:23] And that you’re enough to make it, a worthwhile impact in your community.

[00:21:29] Christine: And that’s such an important message. How can people find if there is an ambassador in their local area?

Joining the Movement and Making a Difference in Your Community

[00:21:37] Brittany: So we don’t have a map on our website anymore, but they can join our Giving Tuesday military group on Facebook and could seriously just ask and somebody will raise their hands.

[00:21:51] They can also reach one of us on our website, giving tuesday military. com. You can do the contact us and we have a running list of where everyone is at and can, can connect you or there can be more than one ambassador or one leader in the community. So if you’re really inclined, you could just sign up to be an ambassador or participant and you can just take on a project of your own.

[00:22:16] There’s not a limit to how many people can be.

[00:22:22] Christine: And if you’re driving right now, I will have all of those links linked in the show notes so that you can go access those when you have a chance. So is there a list of different ideas of things that people have done before? Or that if you’re considering doing something this year do you have some suggestions or a list of ideas somewhere.

[00:22:45] Brittany: Absolutely. So on that same website, there is a tab that’s called radical kindness, and that has a whole list of different ideas that have worked for other ambassadors in the past. And it has groups that we have linked up with. So it’s got be the match. There’s pay it with a post.

[00:23:04] It is on there. There’s different ideas. And then you can also find on our our group page. There’s Constantly ideas being thrown out of those small acts that you could do every day that could give you an idea of just what to go do on that, on that day.

[00:23:23] Christine: Perfect. Okay, so let’s say this episode is going to air on November 29th. I know it’s going to be a little last minute. But if you are, you know, just hearing about it for the first time, go out there, just do something kind in the world, in your local area. But if someone is interested in getting more involved in being more intentional with this next year, how can they begin preparing now?

[00:23:50] Like what is a good timeline for starting to plan? For really getting involved in this for next year.

Preparing for Next Year: Starting Your Giving Tuesday Journey

[00:23:57] Brittany:They could certainly reach out any time to me and I can sort of maybe direct as far as a timeline goes, but just start thinking about what your where your heart is. And maybe some somewhere that a need is in your community.

[00:24:13] Is that, you know, a foster care? Do you need to do a loophole that way for.

[00:24:21] Is that a necessity? Do you need to do a canned food drive within the schools? I, just start looking for those where you’re, you can be a change maker. And I will say that even if you’re listening to this the day before, there’s so many small acts that you can do. You can go put popcorn on a Netflix or red box, not Netflix, red box.

[00:24:42] And Just surprise somebody with a bag of popcorn with their movie that they’re, they’re renting. Or if you have an Aldi near you, go put quarters in the shopping carts. Cause I always forget my quarter when I go try to get a shopping cart and they’re locked. And that would be an amazing gesture for me.

[00:25:00] It can be so simple and, or just leave a kind note for your mail carrier that day. I mean, there are lots of little, little things that can be done that could make somebody’s entire

[00:25:13] Christine: day. Those are such great tangible ways that just a small little act of intention can make such a huge difference in someone else’s life.

[00:25:25] I’m curious to know what has been the biggest Blessing or what has meant the most to you personally being involved in this organization?

[00:25:37] Brittany: I think the biggest blessing is watching my team grow so and watching People’s eyes light up when they get involved. I once they get a taste of it, they, they want to keep coming back because it’s just as simple as it sounds, because it’s just as genuine and transparent as it sounds.

[00:25:58] And I think that’s one of the challenges that we face as leaders is trying to just say it, this is really all it is. Like it really is just giving back and, and being nice to people and being kind. On purpose, right? We’re in kind on purpose. And I, once people realize that that’s the reality, that you can watch a person just change because they then want to be a part of your team.

[00:26:26] And so watching all my volunteers come in and, and really give of themselves on those days and with my projects has been the biggest blessing, I think.

[00:26:37] Christine: Well, thank you so much for coming to share with us today about Giving Tuesday Military and letting people know how they can get involved. If somebody wants to connect with you, what is the best way for them to find you?

[00:26:50] Brittany: They can email me, it’s braines at inspirefoundation. org.

Embracing the Power of Your Own Impact in the Military Spouse Community

[00:26:57] Christine: Perfect. Well, thank you again for joining us. I hope that this is inspiring to so many people and that they will take the opportunity tomorrow to go do something that’s going to make a difference and light up somebody’s life just by that simple act of intentional kindness.

[00:27:16] Okay, friends, I hope you are blessed by this conversation for a couple of reasons. Number one, I just want to showcase what is possible when you have a heart and a passion for making a difference. Just ordinary military spouses choosing to use their voice for good and make an impact far beyond themselves.

[00:27:37] Second, I want to highlight how easy it is for all of us to get involved and how simple, intentional acts of kindness can be a huge blessing to others. And finally, I just want to offer the encouragement to you that you are enough. You are doing enough right where you are, and that your voice, and your story, and how you live your life matters.

[00:28:04] Whether you listened to this episode, Prior to giving Tuesday or not, I would encourage all of us to make an effort to do one small act of kindness this week. To do one small thing that can make a difference in the life of someone else. I’d love to hear what you end up doing. Head over to the Milspouse Mastermind Community on Facebook and share your story.

[00:28:29] Let us know what you did and let’s spread love and kindness all around us. Until next week, may you live filled, fueled, and full of joy.