Gratitude Journal

Written by: Jennifer Smeddy

Early in my yoga journey I knew I needed to find something to help with my overactive mind and how I could always seem to find an issue in a situation. A close friend of mine suggested keeping a morning gratitude journal. This is how my daily gratitude journal started a long time ago. From there this has blossomed into a daily practice that I keep but I also share with others in my meditation and yoga classes.   

To begin this new daily self-care routine you will just need a notebook to place your thoughts and a pen by your bedside. Each morning before you go for your phone or to get out of bed, take just 60 seconds to open the new page on your gratitude journal. Write in today’s date and for the next minute write down everything you are grateful for. It could be items big and small. In the beginning you may struggle a bit with coming up with a few items but after a week or two of doing this each day I promise you will be on a roll.   

I found myself being thankful for all sorts of things that I didn’t even give much thought: my body to allow me to write in my journal, my favorite little plant in my bedroom, my mug I use each morning for tea, my soft socks, the blue sky, my sense of hearing and the list went on and on.   

What happened as I began this routine I noticed I began to rewire my brain to consider the positive in each situation. Not to say I don’t have challenges and ups and downs but I take this time each morning (or when I can find my mind racing to a not so nice place of negativity) to just observe what I am grateful for at that moment for one full minute. When we become present in the current moment we start to find that things are pretty good and we have much to be thankful for in this world in any situation.  

Tomorrow morning please take just 60 seconds to start your new self-care habit of writing in a gratitude journal.