How to use a Gratitude Journal
Improve your perspective on life opening your mind to the little and lovely things that make a big difference
About Gratitude
The word gratitude and ‘be grateful’ is often thrown around a lot these days, people are unable to fully experience gratitude and are often left wondering if they are profoundly grateful for all that they have. It happens to all of us, we get so caught up in the things that are going wrong and what is bothering us that we let all the details and situations overshadow all the things that we are so thankful for. For me, gratitude is not running around joyous and shouting about how incredibly grateful we are for life. It is more of a daily practice, particularly if we are feeling a little overwhelmed or struggling to see things clearly. Gratitude is practicing appreciation or giving thanks to any situation and practicing enjoyment for your life. It is being grateful for the relationships and people in life, or the things that make life easier. It is not comparing yourself to others and thinking ‘the grass is always greener on the other side’. It is about accepting that we have down days and up days, and to embrace the up days and to give thanks.
You can practice gratitude through a daily journal or through a gratitude stone. Find a stone (or use a crystal if you want to) and put it in your pocket. Carry this stone around with you and whenever you touch your stone, count 3 things you are grateful for. This will help strengthen your emotion of gratitude.
My experience using a gratitude journal
I bought a notebook for a gratitude journal and decided to do this for a few months (but you could keep this going every day if you want to!) Every day just before I went to sleep, I wrote 3 things from that day that I was grateful for. Some days, I would write 10 things and they would range from how I love and cherish my little girl, the wonderful chat I had with someone or thoughtful card I had received in the post. Other days I struggled to match these notes, as it was one of those days where everything just seems to go wrong! Somehow, I would manage to find at least 3 things that had made me feel grateful, even if it was as simple as the food I ate that day, the hour of sunshine popping through the clouds (on a very rainy dull day) or the lady who let me through in bad rush hour traffic. After a few weeks of writing a gratitude journal, I would read through and see how blessed I was in life, even just the little things that I might otherwise have missed.
This way of consciously focusing on what we are grateful for helps us to view our lives from a peaceful place. It helps us to realise that the small positive things in life add up to make a big difference. Try it for yourself and see how gratitude can improve your perspective on life ♡