Gratitude Journal

For several years now I have been keeping a gratitude journal. It's something I heard about from some schmuck on Oprah, decided to try out and found that it really helped me.

The idea of it is simple. Every day you write a list of five things you are grateful for. The hope is that by doing this, you train yourself to be optimistic, to think positive and learn to appreciate the little things in life. My lists of Good Things that you guys are familiar with is the online reincarnation of that very same thing.

I especially love my Gratitude Journal during stressful times. Graduate school was an especially prolific period, for example, and I held on to my journal like it was a safety vest. School was hard, life in State College even harder and I needed to constantly remind myself that I should really feel appreciation for the good stuff that WAS happening to me but seemed so easy to ignore. So I wrote my lists. My lists have grown a little bit cheesy since I met Kyle... lots of hugs and kisses and whispers have been dutifully documented. It's corny, I know, but it's actually those sweet nothings that HAVE made the bad days pass by and the good ones seem just perfectly fantastic!

I have recently started telling my friends that I do this. Many of them started writing their own journals and said that it helped them too. So I thought I'd share this with you guys too. I know it's a little bit wacky and new-agey and all... but I do swear it's a great exercise in humility and acceptance.... and it brings a whole lot of happy thoughts in one's life. And we all need that. So there.