Benefits of Practising Gratitude
Practising gratitude is well known for developing a positive mindset. Our positive reflections force us to notice things that may otherwise go unnoticed. We become more appreciative of those little things that make up our day.
This brings more happiness to our everyday lives as we do not focus on one bad thing that may be ruminating in our minds.
And what does everyone on this planet want? Happiness, of course!
Negative people attract negative people and negative interactions whereas positivity attracts positive relationships. Relationships are often a source of frustration so gratitude journaling can help you attract more positivity into your relationships.
It helps us enjoy our lives as we see a balance in our lives, rather than overwhelming gloom and doom. We become more appreciative.
Gratitude is easy to do - just requires us to reflect on our day. But it is a powerful tool for changing our mindset.
Why I chose to practise gratitude
After some very sad occurrences in my life, I sank into a deep depression. This was very unlike me and it was scary.
I refused medication but had to find my own way out of depression. So I came upon the habit of gratitude while blogging online.
It was a turning point for me in relationships and work. I was working on a casual basis at schools, at this time but I could choose to work every day with multiple offers. Other staff remarked that I always seemed happy and had a smile for them. I enjoyed my time in classes with children and gratefully helped out when I could.
Each day, I reflected on my day and it made me happy as I reflected on my accomplishments that day.
I became happier when I focused on each day's positives and started reaping the rewards in my new work situation. I became in high demand in my profession and had many offers of work and was given an ongoing position at age 67(which was unheard of).
To this day, I am grateful and still reaping more benefits borne of practising gratitude.
Gratitude Journaling
A gratitude journal helps you keep track of the positives that happened throughout your day and the most effective way is to journal daily.
They say it takes a month to develop a new habit so you can challenge yourself to a 30-day gratitude challenge here.
Gratitude journaling becomes a beautiful keepsake for you and the coming generations as you can reread your experiences and thoughts throughout the year.
Your children and grandchildren can read and find out what sort of person you were through your journaling.
I am a teacher and I did the Gratitude Jar with one particular student and we reread it to see what had happened in the past days. You will be surprised at how many little things you forget and it really does become a nice memory.
The Gratitude Jar is a nice idea to use with children who write the day's reflection on a strip of paper, fold it and put it in the jar. They can pull out strips when they want to read their reflections.
Children do get excited about this activity and love rereading their past refelctions.
For this reason, I prefer journals to apps as who knows what will happen in the future with apps?
Gratitude Journals you may like
You can use a gratitude journal daily guide to cultivating a life of gratitude and abundance.
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This beautiful big book (8.5 x 11) contains all the important elemnts for your reflections of the day, helping with your mindset and road to happiness. It also has colourful, supporting gratitude quotes. Read more here.
A couple of examples of inner pages if this gratitude journal:
Gratitude Journal for Kids
By teaching the habit of journaling, we are teaching our children resilience, coping skills for anxiety and stress, kindness, gratitude and happiness.
The journals are fun-based and interactive.
It also builds relationships between you and your children as you share the reflections and activities.
I hope you have enjoyed this post. If you are interested in further reading, I have a post on Self-Care you might enjoy. You can read it here
For more information about gratitude, you can read How Can Practising Gratitude Help You?
Wishing you a blissful day.