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Step 1
Choose a blank notebook or journal to write in every night. Consider a spiral-bound journal that opens flat for ease in writing. Select lined or unlined paper. Keep this notebook next to the bed with a pen readily available.
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Step 2
Look for things during the day for which you are grateful. Make mental notes throughout the day. Notice how the gratitude journal shifts the focus to a more positive outlook.
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Step 3
Write five thing you're grateful for each night before bedtime. Review the day and include anything, however small or great, that was a source of gratitude that day, e.g., a baby's smile, a flower in bloom, or the smell of a newly cut lawn. Make the list personal. Write a few words about the five benefits or blessings. Be brief and increase the length as time progresses.
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Step 4
Begin looking everyday for the positive angle in all things. View obstacles as opportunities to appreciate.
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Step 5
Focus on the wonderful things in life to attract similar encounters in the course of the day. Use positive energy as a magnet to draw even more positive energy. Note these attractions in the gratitude journal.
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Step 6
Personalize the gratitude journal. Expand it with clippings, photos, quotes or verses from magazines or other sources.
Comments
jbpounders said
on 8/20/2008 Check out ButterBeeHappy.com, another place people are posting feelings of gratitude. It does it in the form of 5 happy thoughts a day.
jorge522 said
on 12/19/2007 There is a website, www.thanks-o-meter.com that is a free online gratitude journal. Rather than a personal journal, it displays all of the submissions for anyone to read. It's a nice way to see what others are thankful for.