Grateful Every Year For The Passing Year - Julie Reisler (ep. 969)

Welcome back to The Gratitude Podcast—the show that reminds us that every sunrise, every season, and every year that slips by is a gift waiting to be celebrated. Today’s episode lives up to our title: we’ll explore why being grateful for each passing year isn’t just a feel‑good habit, but a powerful catalyst for transformation.

Our guest, Julie Riesler, embodies this mindset. She once faced the crushing belief that she was “too big to be a dancer,” battled a deep‑seated food addiction, and carried the weight of a family scarred by PTSD and financial strain. On the brink of ending it all, an inner voice nudged her into a support group—and that decision became the turning point that reshaped every year that followed.

Since that moment, Julie has reinvented herself year after year—emerging as a TV personality, serial author, TEDx speaker, life‑design coach, global ambassador for brands like Lululemon and Canyon Ranch, and the director of the documentary Hungry for More. Her meditations have been downloaded over 100,000 times, and she continues to add “vintage wisdom” to her life, just like a fine wine that improves with age.

In today’s conversation we’ll discover:

• How gratitude for each year can turn pain into purpose, using Julie’s “PhD in You” framework that honors past strengths, present gifts, and future dreams.
• Practical rituals—daily gratitude journaling, stillness meditations, and celebrating the tiny moments (the donut‑filled nursery‑school memory, the uneasy loan from a distant aunt) that accumulate into a life worth cherishing.
• Why the “passing year” matters: each new chapter invites us to become more authentic, to shift from constant “doing” to mindful “being,” and to recognize that every year adds another layer of wisdom, compassion, and resilience.
• The people who helped her grow—from Louise Hay and Wayne Dyer to her supportive sponsor, her family, and especially her two children, who remind her daily why she’s grateful for every year lived.
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Resources:

Julie's website: https://juliereisler.com 

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Timestamps:

• 00:42 – Intro to guest Julie Riesler and her early hardships (dance rejection, food addiction, family trauma).
• 01:05 – Julie’s turning point: crisis moment, choosing life, becoming a TV personality, author, speaker, coach.
• 01:59 – Welcome and gratitude for Julie’s presence.
• 02:12 – Host’s appreciation for Julie’s authenticity.
• 02:27 – Julie’s mission: help high‑achieving people love themselves and trust inner wisdom.
• 03:21 – “PhD in You” metaphor & past people‑pleasing struggle.
• 04:01 – The pivotal inner voice urging Julie to attend a support meeting.
• 04:28 – Julie’s obsession with reviving “light” in others through gratitude and self‑love.
• 05:01 – How gratitude transformed Julie’s life and fuels her purpose.
• 05:16 – Julie’s daily gratitude practice (structured & spontaneous).
• 05:51 – Host reflects on staying true to self amid external expectations.
• 06:26 – Wisdom aging metaphor revisited; need for authentic “you‑est” self.
• 06:41 – Contrast between society’s “doing” mindset and the need for stillness.
• 07:15 – Host’s fire‑sign drive vs. importance of quiet, receptive stillness.
• 07:26 – Emphasis on meditation and listening to inner intuition.
• 07:55 – The frenzied media environment and importance of becoming “USU.”
• 08:21