3 easy ideas to add a daily gratitude practice to your day
Can you believe it’s already November? I feel like it was just yesterday that my kids were all standing on the back porch blowing bubbles and watching fireworks! Time sure does fly! But here we are, Halloween is over and the stores are playing Christmas music! Everyone is already telling you how to get off the weight off from your holiday meals and you haven’t even eaten a bite! It seems like the world is in fast forward- getting a jump on life before we even experience it.
It’s times like these that can make us really anxious. We are so afraid of failing because we have basically been told we already have. This is when it’s really important to slow down, and allow life to unfold in real time. One of the ways we can slow down is to stop and really appreciate the things that are already happening and the things we already have. This appreciation, or mindfulness of the NOW is called gratitude.
Gratitude gives us the opportunity to think about all the things we are thankful for, (great month for it right?) and be able to focus specifically on the blessings or luck or hard work, however you like to refer to it. It makes us happier, brings our vibration up, and even helps us bring more great things into our lives!
Though most of us do this all the time, it can be super helpful to create a routine to ensure we engage in this practice every single day! Here are three practices that can be done in 5 minutes or less to help you create a daily gratitude ritual that won’t cause you even more anxiety.
Gratitude Journaling
Gratitude journals are a place to put down thoughts of gratitude on paper (or electronically.) They allow you to see the things you are grateful for in front of you and give you the ability to track different things that come into your life. Some people prefer just an updated notebook. I personally enjoy the guided journals that ask meaningful questions to really get you thinking. You can complete your daily journal in the morning when you first wake up or when you go to sleep and really any time you have a free minute. I find it works best however, when you do it the same time every day. There are lots of great options for this method. I have a list of some of my favorites here:
Daily Gratitude Alarm
I love this one because it is so easy and works so well! Set a timer on your phone for the same time each day. When it goes off, find a quiet place or just close your eyes and think about something that you are grateful for. Really allow those feelings to flood your body almost as if you are experiencing that moment again in real time. See the face of your loved one smiling. Feel the breeze of the ocean from the balcony of your hotel room, whatever you are grateful for, be there in that moment fully for as long as you feel comfortable staying there.
Evening Gratitude Recap
This is another one I love because the results are so noticeable when you do it for a while! Before you go to bed, after you have done your evening routine, just as you are about to fall asleep, go back over all the things you are grateful for in your mind. Conjure an image of as many as you can before you fall asleep. Having good thoughts before you go to sleep can help you sleep better and it also helps you get into a higher vibration and wake up happier. This one will take some practice to remember and it might be a good idea to set an evening reminder until you get the hang of it.
By trying any (or all!) of these methods, you can take back some of the sovereignty of your life and choose the pace that it goes by. You can continue to think about the look on your children’s faces while they carved pumpkins or bumped along on the hayride, while the rest of the world is out putting up their Christmas tree. You can breathe into THIS moment, knowing how blessed you already are, and that more blessings just like these are on their way.
Would you like more ideas for how to add gratitude into your life? We are practicing gratitude all month long in my free community! Join us here.
