I have decided to restart my gratitude journalying at the end of each day. This is a practice i used to be quite disciplined at but as the days go along & children, work, relationships, health & home need to be given more attention, some of the simple pleasures get dropped off somewhere along the road of life....
As many on the gratitude path might relate to - my journey started when life was feeling a little more difficult than i was comfortable with - aka - basically I wasn't getting what I wanted and was having a nice little 3 year old internal tantrum about it. I wanted a quick fix and The "Attractor Factor" aspect of gratitude seemed like a sweet & easy pill to swallow at the time...
You know what i discovered - It actually worked!
Maybe not in the sense of a sudden mansion on top of a coastal headland, a perfectly behaved child or a 100% cooperative partner following my every whim. But in a much bigger, more fulfilling way, I became grateful and appreciative for the positive's that already existed in my life. My focus shifted from what was not working to what was ~ suddenly life seemed better than it had for a long time ~ Suddenly i felt happy & light again :)
I know, i know, you've read this "gratitude smatitude" theory every second week in your latest magazine, face book page with those incessant image quote's, favorite book store & blogs etc etc....
But have you made time to actually do it on a regular & consistant basis??
Go on..... Just Do It.... I am too
what have you got to loose except 5 minutes and a negative mindset ~ You may even like to stretch out that 5 minutes to 15 with a hot cupa or glass of wine in a quiet cozey corner or garden hideaway. Call it self therapy & Tell your family it'll help you complain less, smile more & love better... They might even give you half an hour :)
This time I am adding a twist ~ Now that my son in 4 and able to clearly understand and articulate what makes him happy in a day, I am instigating a new family tradition...
"The Family Gratitude Book"
I am thinking maybe sometime around dinner we will gather together and share what we are happy / grateful for in our day... A treasure in the years to come i am sure!
What twist will your Gratitude Journal Journey take???
The Why & How of Gratitude Journal's
Sourced from:"SimpleAbundance.com"
There
are several tools that I'm going to suggest you use as you begin your
inner exploration. While all of them will help you become happier and
more content and will nurture your creativity, this first tool could
change the quality of your life beyond belief: it's what I call a daily
gratitude journal. I have a beautiful blank book and each night before I
go to bed, I write down five things that I can be grateful about that
day. Some days my list will be filled with amazing things, most days
just simple joys.
Other
days--rough ones--I might think tht I don't have five things to be
grateful for, so I'll write down my basics: my health, my husband and
daughter, their health, my animals, my home, my friends, and the
comfortable bed that I'm about to get into, as well as the fact that the
day's over. That's okay. Real life isn't always going to be perfect or
go our way, but the recurring acknowledgment of what is working in our lives can help us not only survive, but surmount our difficulties.
The
gratitude journal has to be the first step on the Simple Abundance path
or it just won't work for you. Simplicity, order, harmony, beauty, and
joy--all the other principles that can transform your life will not
blossom and flourish without gratitude. It you want to travel this
journey with me, the gratitude journal is not an option.
Why?
Because you simply will not be the same person two months from now
after consciously giving thanks each day for the abundance that exists
in your life. And you have set in motion an ancient spiritual law; the
more you have and are grateful for, the more will be given you.
I
have told you that the Simple Abundance path is a transformative
process. We're going to work on one principle for one month (online) at a
time, trying to weave that principle into the fabric of our daily life.
Let's
begin today with gratitude. Select the prettiest, most inviting blank
book you can find for your gratitude journal. Make a pleasant outing for
its selection. Note the fabric or design of the cover. The look and
feel of the paper. Do you prefer ruled pages or blank? As an online
member, you have access to a computerized page to complete each day.
Perhaps you can find a book with a ribbon clasp. One of the most
valuable lessons Simple Abundance has taught me is that it is in the
smallest details that the flavor of life is savored.
As
the months pass and you fill your journal with blessings, an inner
shift in your reality will occur. Soon you will be delighted to discover
how content and hopeful you are feeling. As you focus on the abundance
rather than on the lack in your life, you will be designing a wonderful
new blueprint for the future. This sense of fulfillment is gratitude at
work, transforming your dreams into reality.
A
French proverb reminds us that "Gratitude is the heart's memory." Begin
this day to explore and integrate this beautiful, life-affirming
principle into your life, and the miracle you have been seeking will
unfold to your wonder and amazement.
Study on gratitude
By "Mind Body Advisor : http://www.rodale.com/gratitude-and-happiness
"Many people today are struggling to make do with less. What’s the
secret to finding happiness when you’re coping with loss? If we observe
people who know how to be happy, we find that they make a point of being
grateful for whatever they have. And it’s not related to how much
material wealth you may or may not possess. A growing body of research
has demonstrated that grateful people are happier than their
less-grateful counterparts, regardless of their income level.
THE DETAILS: Gratitude has also been found to be a
powerful antidote to depression. Martin Seligman, PhD, a pioneer in the
positive psychology movement, and colleagues at University of
Pennsylvania delivered gratitude instructions to 50 severely depressed
visitors to a self-help website. They recommended that individuals take
time each day to write down three things that went well that day, and
why they thought so. Fifteen days later, 94 percent of the 50
individuals reported feeling significantly less depressed. Their scores
on a widely used depression inventory dropped by 50 percent—equivalent
to improvement seen with medication treatment or psychotherapy, although
the latter interventions generally take longer to work. Individuals in a
placebo-controlled group who wrote down three childhood memories each
day did not experience an improvement in their depressive symptoms. More
important, the effects for the group practicing gratitude lasted for a
full 6 months. The researchers repeated the same study several months
later with a different group of depressed Web users and obtained
substantially the same results. Seligman’s group also found that writing
in a gratitude journal had a mood-boosting effect for depressed
patients in a 12-week therapy group, as well as for patients in
individual therapy.
WHAT IT MEANS: Cultivating gratitude is a powerful
way to overcome adversity and depression. By choosing to focus on your
blessings, rather than ruminating on your disappointments and deficits,
you nourish positive feelings about yourself, your life, and others. As
an ongoing attitude, gratitude will help you cultivate happiness
throughout your life. It is no accident that the individuals in
Seligman’s study maintained their gains long after they completed the
online intervention. Gratitude is habit-forming. The number of things
you can be grateful for is infinite. As a happiness resource, gratitude
is free and inexhaustible.
There are many ways you can weave gratitude into the fabric of your life:
•
Keep a gratitude journal. At the end of each day,
write down three things you experienced that you feel grateful for.
They could be as varied as the buds appearing on the trees in your yard
and appreciation for the kindness extended to you by a stranger. As you
chronicle the things you feel grateful for, make a point of not
repeating any of the prior entries in your journal.
•
Write and deliver a gratitude letter to someone in
your life whom you have not properly thanked for what they have given
to you. You can deliver the letter in person or read it over the
telephone. It’s a powerful experience, for you as well as for the person
you’re thanking.
•
Say grace before each meal to express your thanks for the food you are about to eat.
Use whatever language you’re comfortable with, whether religious,
spiritual, or just an informal expression of gratitude for the meal.
•
Make a point of thanking anyone who serves you in
any way—the cashier at the checkout counter, your child for clearing the
dinner table, the tech-support person who helped you fix your computer.
•
Take gratitude breaks during the course of each day to simply appreciate the myriad blessings, large and small, that are present in your life."
Be Grateful, Be Happy, Be Well,
Rachael :)
