My gratitude practice consists of me reviewing the day briefly and saying to myself ‘this is what I am thankful for today’.
I’m experimenting (yes, again) with a gratitude journal and I find it’s a better idea to be specific.
I Am Thankful For Today
So in the past when I wrote what I am thankful for, I would write:
- My husband
Now I include more details.
- My husband
- He gets me and understands what I have been going through in the past few months
- He does so much around the home, making my life so much easier
- Even when he’s upset with me, most times it’s because I’ve allowed myself to be taken advantage of
- He gives me the freedom to be me – no pretenses
As I read more on gratitude practices, I realized that being more specific and including more details increases the impact of the practice.
Rick Hanson, psychologist and author of Buddha’s Brain, put it, “Really savor this positive experience. Practice what any school teacher knows: If you want to help people learn something, make it as intense as possible—in this case, as felt in the body as possible—for as long as possible.”
A good gratitude practice must be much more than writing a list every day. It means spending some time allowing gratitude to flood you – until it soaks into your skin – and becomes part of your outlook in life. Gratitude moves beyond being a mere list.
Try this out. Journal about a few things you are grateful for, but take time to identify and write down the reasons why you are grateful for each.
What are you grateful for today?
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Indeed Corinne writing about it…about being thankful is the sweetest way to show our gratitude towards many aspects in our life. Be it people or situations or experiences which made us what we are today are may be allowing us to be what we are today 🙂
I am grateful my husband is in the kitchen a few feet from me, because a fall he took in October could have ended quite differently. It would have changed his life. It would have changed my life. His recovery still may take our life in a different direction, but I think we will both be up to it.
The Me time matters a lot, Corinne and in today’s routine life which makes us exposed to all form of energy, good or bad, we need to sit alone with the self and express our thoughts in the personal diary. It is therapeutic.
I agree. I am not very regular with my gratitude journal, but when I do write in there, I am really really specific. It makes the whole experience more worthwhile.
You are right, writing is not enough until we soak into it. Feeling the gratefulness of each point matters and it really heals. I hope you must have come across my campaign. Kindly spread the word Corinne. Your contribution matters.
Yes I think when you become more specific with details it means so much more in gratitude. I have a cold. Just a bit of snuffy nose and tiredness and I am grateful that I can work from home and rest. No longer do I have to push myself to be in the office/meet people and push through a minor health inconvience.
You’re right. Including the details would not only let you spend more time with that feeling of gratitude but also let you relive it later on. That’s such a double bonus.