298 Days Later…I Haven’t Stopped.
February 27th, 2015. That’s the day I started. 298 days later…I’m still doing it…every day.
This year, I’ve formed several new habits (eight to be exact). It’s more than I ever have.
One of these habits stands above the rest. It’s the one that keeps me grounded while also lifting me up. It’s the one I return to on my toughest days. And it’s the one that has allowed me to see the world anew.
Do you want to know what this meaningful practice is?
Gratitude. Writing a gratitude journal.
Every morning I reflect on the previous day and write down at least three things I was grateful for. It could be: randomly seeing my friend Becca Mann while studying, having a great song stuck in my head, waking up to a beautiful sunrise, someone saying they liked my blog post.
Most days it’s easy for me to find three things that are daymakers; in fact, most days I write down five to ten moments of gratitude. This isn’t a burden or something I dread doing. It’s a celebration of life and all the awesome stuff that goes along with being a person in the world.
Keeping a gratitude journal causes me to use confirmation bias (a cognitive error that typically has a negative connotation) for good because I now look for moments to be grateful for.
I was recently reminded (from a podcast interview) of just how many moments there are to be grateful for. There’s millions! MILLIONS! We can be grateful that the elevator we got in didn’t plummet to the basement. We can be grateful for the farmers that grew the food we eat and the truck drivers who delivered it to the grocery store.
There’s a lot to be grateful for, and when we start noticing these moments, it can have a profound impact on our lives. Here’s what best-selling author AJ Jacobs says about it:
“I’ve started to look at life differently. When you’re thanking God for every little thing — every meal, every time you wake up, every time you take a sip of water — you can’t help but be more thankful for life itself, for the unlikely and miraculous fact that you exist at all.”
Here’s another video to remind us of how many incredible things in nature there are to be grateful for:
Gratitude soothes the soul. If there’s one thing you start today and never stop doing, make it be keeping a gratitude journal.
You’ll thank me for it one day.
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