How To Use A Gratitude Journal
Hi lovely soul! However you have found yourself here, on this page, I’m grateful you have! I can see, already, that you are wanting to cultivate gratitude more in your daily life, and that is beautiful!!
Let me start by sharing a little of my story and why I am so passionate about gratitude and thankfulness. It literally changed my life! Picture this, 23 year old sassy independent girl who thinks she-got-it-all-together (as you do!) and all of a sudden— crashes. Crashes physically, with health; and emotionally with her mental health and spiritually ( ‘what do I even believe?’ set in) .
My mid-life crisis/breakdown came a little earlier than most and the ‘why’ is probably for another time. But regardless, I found myself in a dark place for several years. A friend used to say to me '‘Okay, I want you to tell me 5 things you are grateful for today” and boy, that is the last thing you want to hear when you are in such a deep place of struggle. Nevertheless, there I was searching for any. tiny. thing. that I was grateful for (turns out, even when you are in a really bad way, there is still a heck of a lot to be grateful for and the practise of gratitude changes you!).
After this happened several times: me begrudgingly reeling off 5 more things I was grateful for, I started to notice that my emotional state and mood would alter (even if just slightly) when I would do this. So I started using it myself with friends and family. Mum’s in a grump. Okay, mum. I want you to list 5 things you are grateful for— withstand the slight backlash of ‘I DON’T REALLY FEEL LIKE IT RIGHT NOW’— oh, wait— now she’s listing them. And— all of a sudden, emotional state changing, like magic!
Now please hear my heart, finding things you are thankful for doesn’t undermine the pain you are going through at all. It will always be valid. But I believe, and have experienced, that there is beauty in every season. And that practising gratitude actually infuses you with strength. More strength anyone?
So lets explore a little of how we cultivate thankfulness:
Self awareness. Its super hard to even be aware of when you may need to search for what you are grateful for, if you can’t recognise when you are in a low place, feeling hopeless. Usually feeling hopeless is an indication that we need some more gratitude. So being aware is key.
Then comes— Practise! No-one is great at anything without practising. I find this totally dissolves any pressure of having to ‘nail it’. And lifts the temptation to give up totally, when you don’t practise thankfulness ‘perfectly’. So... pressure is OFF! You have permission to be very imperfect at this and practise it until it becomes a little more natural.
Writing them down. Writing things down is a beautiful way to record all the beautiful little Wonders of life. And reading back over it is also a joy that brings your heart strength. It enables you to remember small moments of joy more clearly, and remembrance is a powerful thing. You can use a blank journal/notebook, scrap paper even. I used to literally list them in my head and that was great! Recently I have started writing them down in a gratitude journal. My close friend designed such a beautifully simple one, that I have found so helpful for cultivating gratitude. Every day, you simply write 3 things you are grateful for. There is space for the date (no pressure if you forget a few days yay!!) and the context of the day ie. lockdown, my birthday, sunny Sunday. If you are interesting in writing your thankfulness down, you can find her gorgeous journals here in my shop.
My journalling session sometimes looks like this:
I usually sit on my bed in the evening, just before I go to sleep; I grab my thankfulness journal and then have a think about my day. Often times, my first thought would be ‘hmm, could be hard to think of things today’ and then I start to remember really beautiful moments. It’s crazy how quickly we can forget the lovely things in our day (why is it soo easy to forget?!). Then after spending a minute or two recounting my day, I write my three favourite moments or things I’m grateful for down. Sometimes just a few words, sometimes it turns into a long sentence and I have to stop myself from wanting to keep writing and writing and writing. That is the goal. To be overwhelmed by thankfulness! I then sink into bed, meditating on the Wonder from my day, however small. Some days, it is easier than others but its also more enriching on those tough days. It is definitely a practise worth being intentional about.
So whatever your practise of thankfulness looks like, know that you won’t do it perfectly, but with intentionality it will make your life
oh, so beautiful.
If you’d like a thankfulness journal of your own, to continue your journey to cultivating gratitude, you can check them out here: https://www.thehiddenpearlstudio.com/shop-illustrated-greeting-cards/gratitude-journal
Photography by Shaun Bushby & Tamar Hope Photography