simplelifecorp.com

When was the last time you experienced something and felt a flash or a wave of joy, happiness, or deep contentment?  It may have been just a moment of pleasure- such as glancing out of your car window to see a lovely garden of flowers.  It might have been something more substantial, such as your child looking at you with steady blue eyes and saying a heartfelt, “I love you, Mommy.”   Maybe it was your spouse getting a well deserved bonus, or maybe it was glancing at your spouse and noticing how sexy and handsome he looked.

These moments don’t have to be fleeting, accidental experiences.  Learning to recognize, allow, and even to seek out those things, people, or experiences that either bring happiness or allow for happiness is probably the single most effective thing that you can do to greatly enhance the quality of your life.   Realizing how blessed you really are – how much abundance is already in your life and how much beauty and love you have all around you every day – is rich and freeing.

Writing these things in a gratitude journal helps you to recognize, seek, and even create bursts of happiness.  A gratitude journal is an excellent way to begin to discover your authentic self.  Sometimes we’ve spent so much of our lives being indifferent, unobservant, and submissive to other’s choices, that we have lost track of what it is we really like, love, want, and need.  A gratitude journal will help you realign this.

Another benefit of a gratitude journal is how comforting and uplifting it can be when you are feeling a little depressed, deprived, or when you’ve had one of life’s inevitable not-s0-good experiences.  Leafing through your journal will help you dissipate and deal with those negative feelings as you begin to focus on how much beauty and happiness is already in your life.

I’ve posted an article on How to Start a Gratitude Journal on the Simple Life site.  The photo in the upper corner of this post is one of my own gratitude journals.  I can say emphatically that keeping a gratitude journal not only has made me realize how many things I have to be grateful for, but it also has had unexpected results.  There have been many times when I’ve reached for my gratitude journal and struggled with something new to write.  Those times have made me realize how I’ve let my life become stagnant and repetitive and that has guided me to take steps to make changes and create new experiences.

Being grateful and joyful has a powerful influence on your family and other people in your life.  When you are operating in an attitude of gratitude, as it is called, you appreciate other people much more deeply.  You find it natural and easier to be giving and loving to them.  You also influence them, as gratitude and happiness are rather contagious.

I hope you will try this – either keeping a gratitude journal in a note book or in a file on your computer.

With peace,

Patti

Article:  How to Start a Gratitude Journal – Simple Life Corp