Happy Thanksgiving! I hope yesterday was filled with family fun time and turkey! I'm grateful that you're all reading this post and gathering around to talk about gratitude with me. You sharing your time with me is a gift and I thank you. Today I'll be drinking my tea with a slice of pumpkin pie, my favorite! I actually made the pie in the picture and it tasted wonderful. :) And I also wanted to show off the cute little flower arrangement I put together.
Since it's the day after Thanksgiving, I felt it would be fitting to write a post about gratitude lists! That's right! We're discussing gratitude lists. I've been engaging in this practice for two months now. I've known about gratitude lists for a long time and used to write simple ones every so often. After listening to Rise by Rachel Hollis, a podcast I adore, she explained her 90-day challenge, which I decided to take part in. This challenge is dedicated to forming life-changing habits, one of which is gratitude. Small, occasional gratitude lists aren't good enough to have a strong impact on my life!
Her version of gratitude lists is different than the typical "write anything you're grateful for" which results in us writing things such as family or education or food. Of course, these are wonderful things to be grateful for and you should be thankful for having that in your life! But Rachel's instructions for an effective gratitude list is highlighting at least three things from the past 24 hours. Every day, find things you're grateful for. Maybe you're grateful someone held open a door for you or that you had your favorite ice cream.
The goal is that you start looking out for little things to be grateful for each day, which reframes your perspective.
I've been honing in on my gratitude lists since the start of October when Rachel's challenge started, but I'm welcoming you to start your own gratitude list now! It's never a bad time to start one and reflect on the reasons you're grateful. Besides, we have the whole month of December to reflect on our gratitude while being surrounded by holiday magic. Something I need to work on is dedicating more time to my gratitude practice. I feel that I should be taking more time to reflect and resonate with the reasons why I'm grateful.
I write my gratitude list every morning soon after I wake up in my bullet journal. I'd be happy to write a post about my bullet journal if that would be beneficial! It's a great tool to stay organized, keep track of various activities, and help with visualizations and manifestations. Plus, they look cute and who doesn't need an excuse to buy more colored pens and cute notebooks.
Writing a little list every morning makes me feel peaceful. I love picking out the most wonderful parts of my days and putting them on paper so I can remember them forever. Even when I have a bad day, writing a list every morning forces me to remind myself there's always a bright side. Some days, the things I write down are exciting and charged with positivity, other times, I write down really small details from my bad day that weren't awful. Sometimes how I wake up in the morning influences how my list looks, but I always make time to write something down. The time I spend writing my lists is completely my own. The list is for me and only me. Watching the page fill up with things I'm grateful for sets out such positive energy. I've noticed I've begun looking out for things that I can write down in my journal. Some mornings I have so much to be grateful for and write down a much longer list than usual. Using gratitude to set the tone for my day has allowed me to become much more intentional, which is something I'm working on as well.
If you chose to start expressing more gratitude and writing lists, remember it's a practice! If you forget to write your list, that's okay. Just pick yourself back up the next day and keep working at it. Thank yourself for taking the time to reflect. Be sure you have your paper or notebook at easy access, that way, you're less likely to brush it off to the side or forget about it. Make gratitude a priority in your life!
Once again, Happy Thanksgiving! I hope you find yourself searching for new ways to express your gratitude.
Lots of love,
Camryn
