Today Is A Holiday Of Gratitude

Like a giant, motorized float, gratitude is paraded out and cheered at Thanksgiving, its ultimate holiday.  Many acknowledge what they are grateful for, even announcing it while sitting at a table with family, friends and a sumptuous feast, truly a gratitude-inducing event.  This continues into the year-end holidays, again around food, but with the addition of decorations, lights, music, and gifts.  We give and receive, grateful for both.

But what happens when the celebrations are over, the bright lights and decorations put away, and the gray of winter settles in?  Often, it’s simply cold, damp and colorless.  Do you still feel gratitude?

During these times, it’s often more profound to feel it, to seek and find the tiniest little things, mundane even, to be grateful for.

Consider uplifting this recognition through the practice of journal writing.

Write your gratitude in a little notebook, perhaps one you like and are grateful for.  Type it on a computer or in the notes app on your SmartPhone.  Send yourself gratitude text messages.  Try different ways; keep the practice fresh.

Write these items in simple lists, or jot notes down with goofy doodles next to them, or write five each morning as a great way to start a new day, or highlight several points of gratitude within a story.

Think about specifying topics from your life that are important or you want to become important.  Do any of these headings make you feel grateful just to consider focusing upon them?

• My Healthier Food Diet
• Building Community
• Something New Today
• Strengthening My Body
• Expanding Relationships
• Relaxation in Stressful Situations
• Loving Myself
• My Writing Practice

Be grateful for your creativity and expression.  Play, and feel the thankfulness well up in your body and fill your spirit.  Read your gratitude journal along the way; your words will inspire more joy to write about and live from.

Having gratitude opens your heart to receive experiences you dream of.   It feels good and allows more good.  And the more you practice living with gratitude, the more you instantly recognize good in your life.