Jill Bershad sits down with Danica Bajaj, a 23-year-old Duke graduate and Robertson Scholar whose life changed after losing her brother to terminal brain cancer. That loss sent her searching for meaning, and gratitude became the thread she followed through science, spirituality, and the land itself.

Danica shares what it was like to spend days in silence at a Buddhist temple in Japan, to live and work in a tiny town in New Zealand where community and sustainability are inseparable, and to keep asking strangers around the world one simple question: what are you grateful for?

Together, Jill and Danica talk about the kind of gratitude that does not bypass pain, the difference between forcing positivity and building a real practice, and the quiet shift from why was he only given 30 years to he was given 30 years and that was the gift. They also reflect on grief, time, connection, and why slowing down with others around a table can make people feel safe enough to tell the truth.

Contact Jill K. Bershad, LMHC, CAP

• Email: [email protected]
• Website: jillbershad.com
• Instagram: @jillkbershad.lmhc
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