Attitude of Gratitude

#289

In my previous post (#287) on positivity, I wrote about having an optimistic bent of mind, and briefly mentioned gratitude journaling. This practice has been with me for more than five years now. Looking back, I thought I learnt it from books, but realized that I also inherited it from my family.

Growing up, my grandma would read out snippets from her diary she maintained almost daily. Sometimes, she would even let me witness her beautiful handwriting. Almost all her entries were prefaced with "By God's Grace". She'd either say how an event went off really well, express her gratitude toward specific people, accomplishments big and small alike, or some days, just "By God's Grace, everyone is healthy."

Years later, I see my cousin doing exactly that. Same phrasing, same practice. Amazing!

My mom too, at the dinner table, would thank the Almighty not just for the meal but for a good appetite as well, which is super important. What a wonderful feeling it is when your body is working well enough to desire and crave food. She wasn't thanking for abundance. She was thanking for function. For the small things that keep you going.

And somewhere along the way, I absorbed and imbibed this. Thanking people for things. Big things, small things. It costs nothing. You don't lose anything by saying thank you. You just acknowledge that someone showed up or that something went right or that you noticed.

The journaling part came later. I started writing three things every morning. From generic "I'm grateful for life and love" to specific "I'm grateful for having cooked this experimental dish that turned out yummy," or "I'm immensely thankful for all the support my loved ones have shown me during recent tough times by calling and checking in on me." 

Specificity matters because our brain stops scanning for the broad strokes and starts catching the actual moments. After weeks of doing this, even hard days brought in perspective.

I'll sit down frustrated about something that didn't work. Journal about it. And as I write a couple of paragraphs, I'm writing a thank you on that same page. Because I realized that no matter what, there was ALWAYS something to be thankful about. A tiny win for the day.

The habit of gratitude journaling doesn't mean or require you to pretend everything's fine. A lot of it is mostly just data. Even terrible days have small good things (silver linings) in them. Both feelings can exist at the same time. The frustration and the gratitude. My family recognizes that. And five years into this practice, I'm becoming more and more cognizant of it too.

"Acknowledging the good that you already have in your life is the foundation for all abundance." - Eckhart Tolle (The Power of Now)