Gratitude Journal

 So another special moment that occurs this week is that it is one year post bariatric surgery for me.  I know I have spoken about that before, so I won't belabor the point here.  However, here is a pic that Jerry took of me before I headed back to bed.  I was just feeling off yesterday, not any one thing, just tired and a bit nauseated with a touch of dizziness.  So this weekend is spent mostly in bed, sleeping, resting, and some reading but mostly not~~esp as I had a hellacious headache that is only just now fading a bit.

However, the other day, I mentioned Gratitude Journals and wanted to continue in the vein of writing and forms of both thinking and writing.

I think most of us are familiar with daily gratitude to some extent, whether it is a review of the day and listing five {or some number} of things that we are grateful for that particular day.  It could be an actual object or person or idea or event or the weather or something that didn't happen or something that did.  It could be your own inner attitude or perspective or having had patience for someone else that might usually be someone you would not normally have patience or tolerance for.  It could be that you are thankful for someone else extending some grace and understanding toward you.  Maybe some stranger stopped to help you with a flat tire or gave you the dollar you were short of at the grocery store or your child slept thru the previous night for the first time in a month or you had enough milk to add to your coffee or your realized that you are thankful for your ability to breathe today.

Some folks do this as a matter of course, give thanks for the food they eat.  Perhaps their prayers have become a matter of rote and yet today, they truly became mindful of their abundance because they saw someone who went without.  Maybe you know that you might have narrowly avoided catastrophe when you decided to stop at the yellow light instead of speeding thru it, as you normally do.

Gratitude journaling can be about any and all of that.  I like to do mine in the morning tho, so it does NOT contain the things that actually did or did not occur, like that I've written of earlier.  Doing my gratitude journal in the morning means that it puts me in a better frame of mind for the day.  Mostly, my gratitude journal consists of particular presence in my life that is constant and consistent.  So it is feeling gratitude, being thankful and grateful for my husband, my friends, my health support network, my home, my financial security, my health, my ability to think, my wit, and so forth.

Being grateful first thing in the morning helps to frame my mindset for the day so that I am more likely to greet various elements with happiness and acceptance, with an open heart and open mind, versus already dwelling on what isn't right, or just, or the dreaded must~do tasks that can overshadow and taint everything with a bit of sourness that twists the stomach and tenses the body.  Being happier and healthier means I get to be ... healthier and happier, it's a cycle that feeds into itself and sets me into a better stronger place to deal with any pitfalls or stumbles thru the day in a better way, a way that I choose to greet the day, making my day, my day.

If you don't already do this, or something like it, give it a try for two weeks, just to see what happens for you.  Then let me know what you think!  Was it worth the trial test run?  Will you continue to do it?  Did it make a difference?  How did you feel as compared to how your days progressed prior to giving it a shot?

You don't need to devote lots of time to gratitude journaling.  Just three to five minutes.  I am grateful and thankful for....