is for journal
There are so many ways to work with gratitude, but lots of people find their way to gratitude journals. Being a paper and journal junkie I’m attracted to that convention as well.
But within that genre there are lots of options as well to explore.
You can keep a dedicated gratitude journal. Or you can add your list of gratitudes to another on-going journal you keep.
You can use an appointment diary to jot down a gratitude or two each day. With limited space you don’t have to expend a lot of time or energy, and yet think how delicious it will be to have a simple daily practice. And given a few weeks, a few months, the year, what a collection of notations to look at and re-remember all those blessings.
You can make a mini-book from one of those spiral-bound pads of index cards. Or use a pad of 3×3 sticky notes – and make a note on each slip. If you write small enough and leave blank space on each sheet, you can then go back and use your sticky notes for other things. And with each one you have a little note of gratitude at top reminding you a blessing. That can be a mood-uplifter for sure.
You might want to take a daily photograph. I love this idea, and yet so many of the things I’m grateful for aren’t things I can take photos of, so this is more of an adjunct exercise.
And if paper journals really aren’t your thing, you may be interested in using an app. You could try Happy Tapper or Gratitude 365.
If a daily practice feels too overwhelming, try weekly. Give yourself some space to enter into this, and then when you see how helpful it is you may well want to increase your commitment and frequency.
Here’s a peek at one of the journals I’ve made. I confess I’m a huge dangly-beads-on-the-spine junkie, and it feels perfectly opulent to have a gratitude journal bedecked in such a manner.
I also like the blossom tree I’ve added to the cover- it felt like a perfect addition because I so love this quote by Rumi:
“Hear blessings dropping their blossoms around you.”
What about you? What are you grateful for today? Do you keep a gratitude journal? Are you tempted? Do you keep any sort of journal? Have a favorite gratitude quote? Do tell – you know I love to hear.
What a good way to keep what is so wonderful about life in check and focus on the good. While the FB thing everyone does posting what they are grateful for daily drives me insane, I do like the idea of having one for your personal records and being able to look back on when feeling low, and forcing yourself to see the good when it doesn’t seem that way. Also I like the idea of doing it once a week to take the stress and adding another to do to the list.
I’m such a big believer in doing what’s right-fit for you, and choosing things that enhance rather than deplete. So yay to knowing your limits and to what feels nurturing and nourishing.
I love the idea of the spiral bound 3×5 index cards. That is genius.
Gratitude to the inventor of those gems. 😉