Finding gratitude in connection
by Françoise Gallet, coach & facilitator (with wordsmithing support from Perplexity AI)
December, 2025
“When we pause, we are able to observe our interdependence — from a harvest taken from the soil by a stranger’s hands to the electrician who keeps the lights and Wi-Fi on. We are surrounded by the abundance we create for each other.” – Joe Primo
Joe Primo, CEO of Grateful Living, and a voice on resilience and adversity, captures a truth that Buddhism has illuminated for centuries. His words remind us that nothing exists in isolation — not our food, our comfort, or even our sense of self. Everything arises through a web of relationships, countless unseen hands, and moments of cooperation.
Form is emptiness.
Emptiness is form
In Buddhism, this understanding is called śūnyatā, or “emptiness”. “Form is emptiness; emptiness is form,” reads the Heart Sutra of one of the most important texts in Mahāyāna Buddhism.
It doesn’t mean that things don’t exist — it means they don’t exist independently or permanently. The carrot pulled from the soil exists because of the rain, the sun, the farmer, the microbes in the soil, and the seed. Remove any one of these, and there’s a change.
So emptiness reveals that everything, including ourselves, is in constant transformation — held together by conditions that are always shifting.
Seeing how we depend on others
sparks gratitude
When we truly pause and contemplate our interdependence, gratitude naturally arises. We begin to feel the invisible threads that tie our lives to others — the builder of our homes, the coder behind our digital connections, the farmer across the world whose labour sustains us. This awareness softens the illusion of separateness.
Emptiness, then, isn’t a void to fear but a space of connection. It opens our hearts to compassion and humility. After all, our well-being depends on others, just as theirs depends on us. In recognizing our shared interdependence, we find abundance not in possessions, but in the expansive, richly connected, network of life itself.
Broadening our outlook
on life
It’s a significant broadening of our perspective. Because, far too often, we’re solely focussed instead, (thanks to our negativity bias) on what’s not going well – like the people who are making our life ‘difficult’. Or, thanks to our news media feeds, we overlook the billion acts of simple co-operation and service that happen every minute of every day and pay more attention to the worst acts of humanity. If this is where we continually focus, it can fuel hyper-individualism and a scarcity mindset.
So, we need to see both — what is bleak and what is bountiful. When we pay as much attention to the co-operation, kindness and abundance, it reminds us that we’re not alone. It gives us hope and sustains us. So, perhaps, take another breath and sense this truth. We all belong, and exist, in this rich web of interdependence. This is something we can be grateful for.
Then, more fortified, we can turn towards our challenges, injustice, and crises, and look a more deeply into the complex causes and conditions behind them.
Gratitude linked to better
individual mental health
At thrivelife, we draw on contemplative science — an interdisciplinary field that scientifically studies the mind and consciousness, integrating first-person insights from traditional contemplative practices (like Buddhist meditation) with third-person methods from neuroscience, psychology, and other sciences to help teams, individuals and organisations flourish.
For example, in our personal lives, an awareness of interdependence can show up in simple ways — like pausing to appreciate the relationships and ecosystems that make our days possible, from the food on our plates to the friends who sustain us.
This gratitude and appreciation has implications for our individual wellbeing. Gratitude practices are consistently linked with better mental health and wellbeing in individuals.
Simple activities like keeping a gratitude journal or writing gratitude letters can increase positive emotions, life satisfaction, and happiness, while reducing depressive symptoms and negative mood. Some research suggests these effects can grow over time, with regular gratitude practice leading to deeper and more sustained improvements in wellbeing.
Workplace gratitude interventions
ups job satisfaction
Meanwhile, at work, this awareness invites a shift from competition to collaboration.
It helps us to recognise and appreciate the contributions of our colleagues. Consider a top surgeon. The success of their surgery rests as much on their individual skill and expertise as it does on those who clean and prep the operating theatre and surgical instruments.
When we see how nothing we do is possible without the effort of others in our teams and organisations, it sparks gratitude. Success is then not just a measure of individual achievement but of collective well-being and purpose.
So it’s not surprising that in workplace settings, structured gratitude interventions have been shown to improve engagement, and job satisfaction among employees.
Programs where teams regularly share appreciation or participate in guided gratitude dialogues can boost positive emotions, strengthen social bonds, and support a more collaborative and caring culture.
The business of interdependence
is good for the planet too
And in how we do business, an awareness of interdependence calls us to honour our living planet as the ultimate partner in productivity — to recognize that healthy soils, clean air, and thriving ecosystems are not external to our work but foundational to it. When we truly see this, sustainability stops being a trend and becomes a natural expression of gratitude and interdependence in action.
For each time we pause to notice the countless human and more-than-human contributions that make our lives and work possible, we strengthen the very qualities our world most needs: gratitude, humility, courage, and care.
Whether it is the colleague whose unseen labour allows a project to succeed, the community that holds us in times of strain, or the living planet offering air, water, food and raw materials, we are continuously being supported.
When we choose to acknowledge this, we begin to design our organisations, our economies and our personal lives in ways that honour relationship over extraction and stewardship over short-term gain.
From this place, gratitude is no longer a feel-good add-on; it becomes a way of doing business, building teams and living on Earth that is aligned with the reality that we only truly thrive when we thrive together.
Interdependence and gratitude - two reflections
Insight is the place where we prompt you with questions to catalyse your own ah-ha moments. You can try these activities before musing on the information we share in our blog (see the Information tab above). Or after.
In the first reflection, we invite you to explore the themes of interdependence and gratitude, for yourself, with some contemplative prompts.
In this second reflection, we offer a guided team reflection, designed to spark shared insight, dialogue, and connection among colleagues.
Individual journalling on
interdependence and gratitude
When you can sit quietly and journal, perhaps carve out some time, to reflect on these prompts:
We all have many core needs — from physical needs such as shelter and food to social and emotional needs such as belonging, love, compassion, connection, and a need for meaning and purpose in life.
- Take a moment to consider a group that you value being a part of. This might be your family, a group of friends, a faith community, your work team, a club or even an online community.
- Now, try to list all the ways in which those in this ‘group’ help you meet your needs.
For example: In a faith community, your pastor might offer leadership and support, a friend within this community might offer understanding and connection. Meanwhile, someone else in the community might make refreshments available at gatherings.
- Now, see if you can stretch yourself and think of any others who didn’t immediately come to mind.
For example: If you meet a particular venue, who cleans the bathrooms or opens and locks up your meeting place.
In his Christmas sermon of 1967, Martin Luther King Jr, emphasized that “all life is interrelated” and we are “tied into a single garment of destiny”. He reminded us that: “Before you finish eating breakfast in the morning, you’ve depended on more than half of the world”.
Having reflected on the ways in which those in an ‘ingroup’ help you meet your needs, perhaps consider reflecting on King’s words and broadening your sense of your web of support.
On a piece of paper list all the many people (like the farmer or the shop keeper), and the aspects of the natural world (like rain or soil microbes) that make it possible for you to eat breakfast.
Lastly, you might also like to reflect on these further prompts:
How does recognizing my relationship with the natural world shift the way I think about success or growth?
Where, in other areas of my life, could I bring more awareness to the ‘invisible’ networks that support me?
What practices help me reconnect with gratitude and a sense of belonging when I feel separate or overwhelmed?
- How might my daily actions — even small ones — express appreciation for the web of life that sustains me?
Interdependence and gratitude
a team reflection
Perhaps carve some time out to reflect together, as a work team on these prompts.
You could set aside 20–30 minutes in a regular meeting, begin with a brief pause or grounding, and then invite people to reflect silently on one or two questions before sharing in pairs or small groups, and finally as a whole team.
Another option is to share the questions in advance and invite written reflections, then use these as a starting point for a circle-style conversation where each person has a few minutes to speak without interruption.
It can also help to agree on a few gentle guidelines up front —such as speaking from personal experience, listening without trying to fix or debate, and making space for quieter voices — so the prompts feel like an invitation into shared insight, rather than just another task to get through.
What examples of interdependence can we notice in how our team works together each day?
- What are some moments of cooperation, kindness, or shared purpose that we can celebrate from our recent work?
How does our work rely on the care, effort, or creativity of people we may never meet?
When we think about the challenges we face as a team, how can awareness of our interconnection help us respond with more understanding and compassion?
- How might recognizing our relationship with the living planet influence the choices we make in our projects, operations, or partnerships?
In what ways could gratitude — for one another, for our work, or for the wider systems that sustain it — become a more intentional part of our team culture?
As we pause today, what do we each feel most grateful for within this shared network of work and life?
These activities are often better when guided by an experienced facilitator. For those looking to strengthen or restore team dynamics and workplace culture, please consider reaching out for more information on how we can bring gratitude and a sense of interdependence alive for your team.
What is our negativity bias?
The negativity bias is the brain’s unhelpful habit of treating bad news like breaking news and good news like a boring rerun. It means we’re wired to notice threats, mistakes and criticism more quickly, and remember them more vividly, than praise or pleasant experiences.
From an evolutionary point of view, this was handy for spotting lions in the grass; in modern life, it just means a single awkward email can outweigh ten kind messages, and one tense meeting can eclipse a week of quiet wins.
That’s part of why being purposeful about noticing interdependence and practising gratitude is important to our wellbeing and flourishing.
