It matters less what you write; It matters more what you experience and feel.
[“The Ultimate Gratitude Journal Guide (including benefits, how to keep one, prompts, and best journals)” on the Intelligent Change website.]
When you list off the things you are grateful for, what do you feel inside?
At first, you might feel the excitement of recognizing your blessings. But as you continue to record these lists, it might begin to seem like a perfunctory task.
The Intelligent Change website describes how the authors there find things to write in their gratitude journals:
When we ask ourselves what we are grateful for, we try our best to wait for the feeling to kick in before putting pen to paper. We try to visualize our gratitude and why it actually matters to us. This feeling usually happens in our chest, that place where we feel the intensity of a new love and excitement.
By waiting a bit longer for that sensation, we know it is coming from a deeper place where we are able to affect our body and mind. This is the way to do gratitude journaling.
Take a moment to experience this yourself.
What are you grateful for? Really. Right now.
Hand on your chest, right over your heart. C’mon. Feel that sensation deep inside.
THAT is gratitude.
The thinking usually comes rapidly, but the feeling takes a little bit longer. Waiting for the emotion—the wonder and awe—makes all the difference when the pen hits the paper.
Wakeup Wednesday is all about creating moments in your life filled with wonder and awe of the amazing blessings you have right here, right now. And then recording those gifts in one place to make
Your Personalized List of Blessings.
Each week we are taking another step toward waking up to seeing the good that is in our lives. We are opening our eyes to finding the abundance of blessings and beauty we have every single day. We are awakening the gratitude within us to help us see that in this present moment of time, we have what we need.
Join us!
Grab a notebook to keep your record . . . or grab your phone and make the list your desktop . . . or grab a notecard and stick it on your bathroom mirror, but keep this list somewhere you will see it often, and where it will be protected. Showing reverence and respect for your gifts and blessings is part of giving gratitude for them!
Every Wednesday, I post a challenge to list FIVE things you are grateful for. But not just any five things . . . these five things need to fit the criteria for that day’s challenge.
And today’s challenge is:
List 5 lessons from your youth that you are grateful for.
How have those lessons affected you today?
Really strive to FEEL that gratitude!
Leave a comment with your top 5 today . . .
And see you next Wednesday!