Writing a gratitude journal can be a wonderful way to start or end your day. Our family does it with wonderful results.
Today I am taking a break from talking about food. No beef, muffins or salad recipes.
If you follow my Instagram or twitter accounts, you will see that I am never short of enough to eat. This is just one of the things I am thankful for. There are hundreds, possibly thousands of other things.
This week I decided to start a little project for my family. I purchased gratitude journals for everyone and we are going to write down 3 to 5 things we are thankful for every night. After that is completed, we will also write down something that we want or hope for. I thought this would be a good exercise to start and there will be lots of benefits for everyone.
It is not always easy to keep a journal but this one will only take a few minutes every night before we go to bed. I know we all spend too much time on our cell phones so what's three minutes every day? It has been proven that gratitude journals reduce stress and anxiety, keep you focused on what really matters in life and give you a positive perspective before going to sleep.
I have a teenage boy and writing is definitely not a favorite thing for him to do. He'd much rather be playing soccer, baseball, golf or even doing math problems before choosing to write in a journal. But I'm hoping this exercise will not only give him a positive feeling but it will also get his creativity in writing going. That should make things also easier when he has to write an essay for school.
I predict it will get me to write more and I'm hoping it creates more creativity running through my brain. There is so much gratitude that I have in all areas of my life. Of course I am thankful for my family and friends, my faith and good health. But there are also the smaller things such as the opportunities I have gotten through this food blog. There are so many smaller things like being able to walk outside on a nice day, drinking a good cup of coffee or eating ice cream at the beach.
If you'd like to start your own gratitude journal, here are some tips:
- Get a journal that's just your style. If you like pretty things, get a pretty one. If you would rather have a leather bound business like one, that works too. But make it fit your personality.
- Set aside 5 to 10 minutes everyday to write. This could be when you first wake up, before you go to bed or some other time of the day.
- Be honest when you write your journal. No one has to read this except for you.
- Write down things you are thankful for then think about how this makes you feel. It will bring down stress levels but bring up happiness levels.
- If you get stumped on what to write have a list of prompts or topics. For example: things I enjoy, people that love me, my favorite foods, etc. You can always google prompts also.
- Enjoy every minute of thankfulness and what you have. When you write things down in a gratitude journal it makes it more real.
So what do you have gratitude for? Think about it and you will be smiling all the time.
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