Journaling and Gratitude

“You simply will not be the same person two months from now after consciously giving thanks each day for the abundance that exists in your life. And you will have set in motion an ancient spiritual law: the more you have and are grateful for, the more will be given you.” 

— Sarah Ban Breathnach

Keeping a gratitude journal is a powerful practice to bring attention to what our blessings are in the present moment. Taking the time to sit down, focus on what you do have, and intentionally feel those feelings of gratitude is the beginning of a habit that becomes self-fulfilling.

I have kept a gratitude journal in many different forms for the past 8 years. In the beginning it was a sporadic practice in a notebook, on for a week, off for a month or more, then back to it again. Today it is effortless, a practice as ingrained in my day as is oil pulling, flossing and brushing my teeth. Instead of a notebook I use a digital app, the result of this change being consistency. I have tried quite a few apps and continued searching for one that is just right for me.

It seems I have found it. It is free, which is even better. This app is called Stigma.

This app is not gratitude specific, it is more of a journal. You can use it to journal about any number of things. Successes. Changes. Growth. Counting your blessings.

What I like in particular about Stigma:

• Tagging journal entries with emotions #grateful #happy #calm
• Anonymously sharing entries and seeing shared entries
• Searching entries by specific emotions #excited
• Liking entries
• Choosing to journal anonymously or privately
• Adding photos to remember a particularly good moment
• Weekly recapping of your entries via email
• Word cloud showing your most frequently tagged emotions

When I made that firm commitment to keep a gratitude journal for thirty days straight I noticed it become easier and easier to be grateful. Even on the worst day I can be grateful for breathing, for seeing, for hearing, for getting out of bed.

Some of the surprising changes I noticed in myself as practicing gratitude became a way of life is an effortless appreciation for the little things in life. I notice when parking spots magically open up, the green lights I catch.

One day I heard myself say out loud, "Thank you Universe for the green light, I'll take some more ..." In that moment I realized how far I had come and how much had really changed. Thi is how practicing gratitude became self-fulfilling for me. Back there in my mind my reticular activating system is on the lookout for anything there is to be grateful for. It skillfully points it all out to me.

The more you do it, the more there is to be grateful for. The more you see the things that are already all around you to be grateful for. Try it for thirty days. You never know, you just might be grateful you did.