How to Start a Compliments Journal

Life can be hard at times for all of us and you may sometimes feel like you are a failure or that there's nothing special about you. A compliments journal is a great tool to use for times when you are down in the dumps or need to know you are indeed special and that your contributions to the world have not gone unnoticed.

Instructions

Difficulty: Easy

Things You’ll Need:

• A pretty book to use as your compliments journal
• time

1. beautiful sunrise What exactly is a compliments journal? It's a blank book that you fill with the compliments you receive, both large and small.
   
   What is a compliment? The dictionary definition of a compliment is an expression of praise, commendation, or admiration.
   
   We all get far more compliments than we realize as I discovered when I was given the assignment, in a class I took, of buying a pretty book to use as my compliments journal, and then writing down every single compliment I received from then on out in my Compliments Journal until my journal was full.
   
   The class teacher even told us to write down any compliments from the past that we remembered, particularly those that had made us especially happy, or that had pleased us the most for whatever reason.
2. happy people I was so amazed because, like everyone else in the class, I didn't believe I'd get enough compliments to fill my journal. But we were told to write down every compliment, even the smallest ones, so when my daughter told me I "was the best mommy in the whole world," I wrote it down, and when the beautician said I had pretty hair I wrote that down.
   
   I tried to write the date too, and who gave me the compliment. If I didn't know them, it would be something like; clerk in the grocery store told me I had a nice smile.
   
   Before I knew it I was halfway through my book and had filled it with hundreds of beautiful life-affirming compliments from a wide variety of people.
   
   An unexpected thing happened too. I begin to give more compliments to people. They were just as happy to receive compliments from me as I was receiving compliments from other people.
3. sunflower Our teacher suggested that we bring out our Compliments Journal and read through it if we ever found ourselves blue or moody, if we were going through a hard time, or when we needed inspiration to start a project of some sort. It worked! The Compliments Journal never failed to elevate my mood or to inspire me to take some action that I was needing to take.

Tips & Warnings

• Buy the prettiest journal you can find, because just looking at it should make you feel good.
• Try to write in your compliments journal at least once a day, perhaps just before bed, as you might forget some compliments if you wait too long to record them.