The Best Days Start with Gratitude

Suddenly it hits me! It’s Tuesday morning and we don’t have an article for Heart and Mind Matters! What to write about?

Ask and ye shall receive.

I go to my desk to write something, and there is Divine intervention! A simple little 5 1/2″ x 8 1/2″ booklet – 5 sheets of paper folded in half and stapled, sitting there on the table top. The cover says “Be Grateful” amidst a mass of beautiful flowers. I don’t know where the booklet came from or what it’s doing on my desk.

The longer I stare at it, the more I have a vague recollection of a friend handing it to me at a busy time. I must have tucked it away in a bag to look at later and forgot about it. Then it must have fallen out of a bag last night when I was searching for other things … and I didn’t even see it til this morning!

Curious, I pick it up. There is no indication of who produced it, or who to give credit to, for it lists no author, nor publisher. It’s simply someone’s beautiful gift to the world.

I open the cover and it says, “Gratitude Journal. Anyone can develop a greater sense of gratitude. Gratitude is an ability that can be cultivated with practice. Instead of complaining about circumstances it is better to focus on the good thing you have in life. The simplest way to improve your appreciation and quality of life is to take a few moments to reflect on the good things. The benefits are numerous!

The Benefits of Gratitude

• increases positive emotions
• multiplies the good
• enhances empathy
• expands generosity and compassion
• promotes optimism
• increases joy and happiness
• helps to get a perspective on life

The best days start with gratitude… Use this journal to begin a practice of daily enrichment.”

The pages that follow list the days of the week, with a line, “I am grateful for…”  and blanks to fill in.

AND there are wonderful little prompt boxes, with ideas for more things to be grateful for and write down, like “People I am thankful for”, “Acts of Kindness”, “Happy memories”, “A kind note to someone special”, “People I’d like to see more of”….

It’s a precious little booklet. I wish I knew where it came from and how to get more copies! It would be an amazing gift to give people!

And in a way, I am giving it to you now. Feel free to take these ideas and create your own gratitude journal from the description here. I’m also including a scan of one of the pages. Get creative… what additional prompts could you add?

Feel free to write me at info@shindao.com and let me know what you would add.

I started my own gratitude journalling process again about two weeks ago.

(It’s funny how we stop doing the things that support us when we get comfortable, isn’t it!? We take the supportive habit for granted and think, “Oh, I don’t need to do that today… and today slips into many days, months or even years very quickly. Often, we don’t remember to pick up the habit again until we hit a serious bump in the road of life.)

I love how journalling again is shifting my focus… (Of course, I’m using an expanded 4-step journalling process – one I developed many years ago for the book I published, “Believe in Yourself – You are Awesome!” Ask me about it if you care to know about it… I’m at 403-860-7311.)

Yet there is no denying the value that expressing gratitude plays as one of those 4 steps in the process… and in our lives. I highly encourage you to write down your gratitudes, if you don’t already.

p.s. I feel gratitude journaling fits into 3 of the 4 guiding pillars of inspiration of the Shin Dao Philosophy… what do you think? Write to us at info@shindao.com and let us know