Why I Write Gratitude Lists
I don’t really remember when I started writing gratitude lists.
I think it goes back to 2005 or 2006 when I was working with a career coach and she encouraged me to keep a gratitude list for a month. Maybe it goes back to the women’s group I attended in Indianapolis in the late 1990’s when we would include gratitude in our weekly meetings. Maybe it even goes back to my childhood when nightly prayers would often involve saying the things and people for which I was grateful. I have been writing gratitude lists a long time. Perhaps writing gratitude lists grew from habits instilled in me by my parents and grandparents. Perhaps it was because it felt good to focus on positive things. Perhaps it was because I liked Thanksgiving and there is a little bit of Thanksgiving in every gratitude list.
Here is a little about what I have learned by writing gratitude lists.
It feels good to write gratitude lists.
Even when I am feeling less than grateful, which is more often than I care to say, writing a gratitude list helps me get out of that negative space. The point of the list is not to gloss over, or hide, or silence, or deny any negativity I might be feeling. The goal is to redirect my mind toward seeing sunshine in the darkness, toward looking outward more carefully to find good, toward being present to all of what is in my life and holding everything in a loving embrace.
A gratitude habit can be created.
I can now say I have a gratitude habit. Writing a gratitude list, and my gratitude project, has strengthened my gratitude muscles. I have asked most of the people I have interviewed about gratitude the same question. Can gratitude can be learned? Most people believe gratitude can be instilled when we are young and learned when we are older, too. Grateful living can happen at any age. That makes sense to me. Today, my first reaction generally comes from kindness. I see good in people, first. I take a deep breath, most of the time. Kindness. Goodness. Breath. These things can become habits.
Gratitude lists bring a little peace to this chaotic world.
Things are crazy right now. I can say, not from a space of drama or exaggeration or negativity, that things are crazy right now. Every day tests my belief in the goodness of people, the possibility for peace and justice in our world, and the idea that we are leaving a better world for our children than we received. Every day makes me wonder what I can do to be part of creating more love in the world. My gratitude list is a prayer for the world. My gratitude list is an essential part of my day. My gratitude list centers me. My gratitude list makes me smile.
Some days a gratitude list is harder to create than others.
A gratitude list is not hard to write when things are humming along. When things are wonderful, it is easy to see wonderfulness. When things are simply beautiful, I want to write it down and sing it to the world. There are times when writing a gratitude list is like threading a rope through a needle. When I am sick, gratitude is hard to find. When I am busy, gratitude is hard to find. When I am sick, gratitude is hard to find. Hard times are the times when a gratitude list is a must do.
Gratitude multiplies.
The more I share my gratitude lists with others, the more they share their gratitude lists with me. I have seen that across my gratitude journey over the years. The more I talk about gratitude, the more people talk about gratitude with me. Gratitude begats gratitude. The gratitude circle widens and becomes tangible, real, and alive. Grateful living can happen. That has been a happy accident. My lists and conversations are my effort to put something grounded and positive and loving into the world. That is why I write gratitude lists.
