Being a modern woman, I downloaded a gratitude journal app for my phone that would remind me to make my entries. At first I started entering the items regularly before bed. On some occasions I would enter my blessings in the mornings before work.
Upon realizing that the gratitude entries had become less and less frequent, I was a bit disappointed in myself, unaware that an unknown changed had already begun. Even though I was no longer entering items into my gratitude journal, I decided to leave the pop up reminder on my phone.
I started to keep my gratitude journal in my head. At first, any time I saw the reminder display across my screen (two to three times a day), I would look around to see all of the the things that I was grateful for and numbed off a handful of fortunate thing in my head.
Eventually this practice seeped into the foreground of my life. Before I knew it, every time something good happened to me I found myself making mental notes, even about the small things.
As the gratitude continued to grow, the practice evolved again. Once again, I did not notice when the shift happened. All of the sudden I noticed myself looking for the good in most situations, even the difficult ones.
Now any time there is a slight annoyance in my life, or something that can be perceived as negative I find myself looking at the positive. For example, when my coffee doesn't taste "just right" in the morning, and my thoughts immediately jump to, "well, I am glad that I have coffee."
It is a big change that seems to have happened over night. I am amazed at how joyful I feel, because I thought I was pretty darn happy before.I am constantly saying thank you (mostly to myself and in my head, but also out loud and to others). Some days, I have so much gratitude it feels like I might overflow, spilling thank you's all around me. like leaves off a fall tree. There is so much to be thankful for if you open your eyes to it.
Warning this practice can lead to random feelings of happiness and smiling.
