How do you feel about your life and business right now?
Are you filled with positive thoughts… or do a few negatives pop in to your brain front and centre?
If you’d have told me 10 years ago that writing down what you’re grateful for could dramatically change my outlook on life I would’ve laughed and nodded and then thought that you were crazy.
I wasn’t open to the idea of gratitudes until 2011 and even then I was sceptical. How can writing down that I’m grateful I’ve got clean sheets improve my life?
Then I started doing it and was amazed at the difference it made. This one small action was transformative and still is today.
To be honest, one of the reasons I gave it a go was because it was a great excuse to buy a new notebook 😉 and, funnily enough, I found said notebook in a lovely little café whilst on a pit stop during a 12 mile walk on the Norfolk Coastal Path with my mum. Tucked it in my walking bum bag (yes I know what you’re thinking – sexy walking attire – indeed!) and went on our way, after a brownie and a cuppa of course!
I felt awkward at first. I wasn’t sure what to write. I kept it simple and I just wrote one thing down, before going to sleep. I continued with the 1 gratitude a day for a couple of weeks and then didn’t bother again for a few months.
Eventually I picked it up again and this time I got into the swing of things much easier and I began to fill 1 page per day. It was A6 and soon it became very easy to fill a page and occasion did multiple pages.
The funny thing about writing down your gratitudes is that you start with one… and then you think of another… and another. As the days go by, when you write every day, you start seeing more and more nice things you could jot down in your notebook that evening.
The world begins to be a more positive place. It’s amazing how much there is in the every-day that we take for granted and when considered are actually wonderful things very much worthy of a line in a gratitude journal.
- Clean bed sheets – is there a nicer feeling?
- Long, hot, relaxing baths
- Fresh air in your lungs
- A good book to take you to another world
- A great night sleep
- A new toy / obsession
- Your favourite song of the moment
- The familiar smell of a loved one
- A waggy tail greeting you on your arrival home
Once you start you realise just how much we have to be grateful for every day.
There are of course days when I want to throw that darned gratitude journal across the room and scream or sob into my pillow. On those days it’s still good practice to write, even if it for something simple like the fact I can breathe unaided, that I have a roof over my head, that I have running water, that I have electricity. All incredibly, wonderful things.
I found gratitude so transformational that I wrote a free 30 day series of emails, all designed to get us thinking about how we can create a more positive world around us and for us. You can see that over at www.gratitudechallenge.co.uk if you’re interested.
This is also why I have had a box on the daily columns of the Ultimate Diary Planner since day one. I truly believe that when we are consciously grateful we can change our worlds for the better. And when we lead by example and become more positive we are able to spread that positivity like a stone landing in a pond – ripples going out and making the world a better place.
Challenge time:
Are you up for writing down your gratitudes every day this week?
I’m going to post a prompt in the Facebook group every day and if you want to join in with us on there you can comment on that thread.
I would highly recommend a beautiful notebook by the side of your bed though. Lovely pens and a few peaceful moments before sleep where you can consider your day and focus on the good stuff before you head to the land of nod.
As always, let me know what you think of this.
Wishing you a gratitude filled week ahead.
Love, Sophie
x