Do Gratitude Journals make us grateful ?

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Conferences, Energy, Facebook, Gratitude, Journaling, Melody Beattie, Technology, Thought, Twitter

Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow.

I love the above quote by Melody Beattie. It has been stuck in my head since I read it yesterday.

Journaling is something I’ve done over the years – quite sporadically, I might add – and I recently began again. Call it stuck in a rut or needing to refocus, but I felt the need to find my center again and focus on being grateful in a life where depression was about to get overwhelming. Holidays, who am I kidding, all days are difficult for me at some point during the day. When you have children who have been alienated from you, children whose very breath gave life to your day, it sometimes takes a lot of strength to get through the day. Multiply that times the seventeen years that it has been part of my life, and you may realize the daily struggle I sometimes tend with.

So…I bought a new journal (and pretty pens and stickers), something that made me happy to look at it, and began journaling again. Each evening, or at some point during the day when something good has happened and I don’t want it overshadowed by sad thoughts that may come up, I write down thoughts of gratitude. Some days there are many (at least 5) and others, maybe one. And, on some days, there are none. But, at least I’m trying, and in that is gratitude.