I keep a daily gratitude journal and have done so for a couple of years, using a simple website called Happy Rambles. They send me an email every day, I reply to it listing my gratitudes, then they store it for me in an online journal that I can view and search.
I find it really has changed the way my brain works. From the moment I wake up in the morning, my brain is scanning for positives, for the good stuff rather than something to complain about.
So much so that if for any reason I don’t get my Happy Rambles email, I start getting a bit twitchy. About 10 days ago I stopped receiving emails altogether and when I checked the site, found it was down and it hasn’t been back up since.
This means that I’ve been without my gratitude fix for almost two weeks. I’ve written them down when I’ve remembered to, but without my email reminders the coverage has been patchy.
The result of all this has been I’ve been able to take a step back and view the past fortnight through a slightly different lens. A more considered one, perhaps, with more context. The bigger picture of blessings, if you will. What I see is a life for which I am profoundly grateful. I would not want to change any of it; it is perfect just as it is.
And this, for me, is what living in the moment is all about. As Byron Katie says, gratitude is who you are without a story.
Robert Holden says gratitude is a training in vision. “Gratitude invites more grace and success into your life. It restores a feeling of abundance, and it attracts what you most value.”
I know that on the surface all this talk of “being thankful” and “counting your blessings” all sounds a bit touchy-feely-Oprah but the science of positive psychology backs it up.
Leading gratitude researcher Dr Robert Emmons states: “Grateful people report higher levels of positive emotions, life satisfaction, vitality, optimism and lower levels of depression and stress,” but adds: “Grateful people do not deny or ignore the negative aspects of life.”
Keeping a gratitude journal is not about skipping around in La-La-Land, because bad things do happen. It simply helps you focus on the good things that happen on a “bad” day – and there is always something to be grateful for, even if it’s simply “I’m glad I survived”.
So come on, Happy Rambles, sort yourselves out! I’ve got some daily thanksgiving to do!
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