A DIVOted Talk on vata season, lost traditions, queer lineage, idealism & becoming gratitude instead of chasing it
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Quote from the Episode:
“What would your life be like if you were gratitude, not someone trying to have it?”
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Description:
In this tender and contemplative Thanksgiving episode, Nicholas Wade Kimps reflects on grief, lineage, vata season unraveling, and the modern world’s fractured relationship with gratitude. Through personal stories about family, loss, studio life, and the emotional whiplash of the holidays, he asks one striking question: What if gratitude wasn’t something you practiced… but something you were?
Nicholas explores how Western culture has turned gratitude into a task instead of a state of being, how disconnection from land and ancestors has reshaped our inner world, and how queer communities—especially gay men—lost vital generational wisdom during the AIDS crisis. With equal parts softness and sharpness, he invites listeners to imagine a life where gratitude, joy, and presence are not goals, but identity.
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Show Notes:
In this episode, Nicholas explores:
• Why holidays stir vata, grief, and emotional unpredictability
• Gratitude as a state of being rather than a verb or performance
• How Western culture lost its roots in land, lineage, and ritual
• The generational rupture caused by the AIDS crisis
• Idealism vs. actualism and why “living in the now” feels so hard
• What it means to embody joy instead of chasing it
• How Ayurveda reframes emotional fluctuation as meaningful data
• The question that changes everything: Who would I be if I were gratitude?
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Highlights:
• 🌬️ Vata imbalance isn’t failure — it’s information.
• 🙏 Gratitude is not something you do; it’s something you become.
• 🌿 When traditions break, so does our inner sense of belonging.
• 💔 Losing queer elders reshaped a generation’s cultural memory.
• 🔮 Idealism seeks the future; actualism roots us in the now.
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Reflection Prompt:
If you said “I am gratitude,” how would your life feel different from “I am grateful”?
Where does that shift challenge you, and where does it liberate you?
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Practice Prompt:
Today, pause three times and silently say:
“I am gratitude.”
Notice how your breath, body, or inner tone changes in even a few seconds.
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