Recently our older students started their YogaPebbles ‘Thought Journals’ to help bring a little bit of gratitude to their day. Why not start your own journal?
It is all too easy to forget what we should be grateful for but appreciating the small things can help us to live in the moment and not get too worried about what is still yet to come.
According to the University of Berkeley, studies have traced a range of impressive benefits linked to the simple act of writing down the things for which we’re grateful, including better sleep, fewer symptoms of illness and more happiness.
Here’s three easy ways to express your gratitude:
- Start a gratitude journal. Buy a notebook and take some time every day to write down three things you’re grateful for, or three things that went well today and why they went well. You don’t need to concentrate on the big things, even a warming hot chocolate or sunny morning will work!
- Create a gratitude jar. Buy a jar and place it somewhere you will see it every day. Each day write a note on a small scrap of paper – something that made you smile, the beautiful birds, people you are grateful for – and pop them in the jar. A gratitude jar is a lovely visual reminder of the good things in life and is perfect to dip into when you are feeling a bit down. Look back at the end of a month or six months and remember all the good things that happened to you, or have fun sharing it with a friend.
- Go on a gratitude walk. Set aside 20 minutes to take a walk by yourself every day for a week and try to notice as many positive things around you as you can. Register each one, don’t just let them slip past you, and try to identify what makes them pleasurable.