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What are you grateful for in your life?   Gratitude, it turns out, is one of the most powerful ways to increase positive thoughts.  Study after study has concluded that how we feel is determined by how we see the world.

Looking back on your day and identifying the things you are grateful for, no matter how small, re-frames a bad day into a “that wasn’t that bad a day”.  The old adage of “counting our blessings”, turns out to have merit (as your Grandmother told you it does).  It is so easy to live through a day where one bad encounter can turn what started as a day of hope and joy into a day of hell, where you relive the encounter over and over in your mind.  The day turns to evening , still the same emotions and then to night where you dream about the whole fiasco and what it’s consequences were, might have been, will be in the future.

Wouldn’t it  have been better to take the incident and see it as a smaller occurrence that when put against all the good things that happened that day, all the things we have to be grateful for, it paled in its significance?  The truth is, too often we only dwell on the bad things that happen in our lives, but just like dwelling on the bad brings us down, dwelling on the good raises our spirits and helps us lead happier lives.

Everyone has something in their lives to be grateful for, you just need to be open and look.  Maybe it is the cloud that blocked the sun dazzling you while you were driving, maybe your lunchtime sandwich tasted exceptionally good, maybe someone close to you thanked you for something you did, or maybe they did something for you.  The possibilities are endless.  Everyday we have so many things to be grateful for. Yes, sometimes it is hard too see what, but keep looking I promise will find something.

Gratitude Journal

A gratitude journal can be a simple and effective way to encourage you to see what you have to be grateful for in your life.  It can be a simple diary style or a full blown scrap book, it can contain:

• short lists,
• long lists
• theatre tickets,
• menus,
• photos,
• pictures cut from magazines,
• emails

just about anything you want to include.

If I asked you to keep a gratitude journal how easy would it be for you to complete one day’s entry?  What about each day for a week? Each day for a month? If you’re still filling it out each day for a year I’m really impressed.  With the best will in the world it is difficult to keep writing entries every day, it can have the opposite effect and become an unlikeable chore.

When my children were young I set them the task of keeping a journal of things they did and enjoyed once a week, or each time we went on a trip.  They chose what went into their journal and wrote an entry to go with it, colour was a favourite and made it appealing to read back later.  The only major requirement was the final entry had to be about what they enjoyed the most.  This last part was the hardest for them.  Why?  Because, as they read back their entries, they discovered how many things they had to be grateful for and it was hard to choose one above all the others.  Get my drift?

Gratitude journals do not have to be kept on a daily basis, you do not even have to think of them as journals, they do not have to be books.  They can be a notice board full of pictures, cards, greetings, post-it notes or whatever you want it to be and whatever you want it to contain.  It is yours so make it look anyway you want, start one way and if you do not like it change and do it a different way.

The whole point of gratitude journals is to change your way of thinking, to help you put positivity back into your life so that you can enjoy what it is you have.

TTFN

Amanda