If you’re like most of us who use our journals when we are feeling tense and upset to work out the feelings in our minds and hearts, let me suggest a “gratitude journal” to balance out your life. I have file cabinets of old journals that helped me survive life’s challenges and work through problems but little that I wrote when I was filled with happiness. So I bought a small journal that will fit in my purse and has lines on the pages to make writing legibly easier. I plan to write daily something brief that I’ve learned or felt that was positive and uplifting to share with others-maybe on my blog or just to have around to remind me to look at the world through rose colored glasses more often. (I do keep a journal on my computer but my latest computer crash has shown how quickly that can disappear if not backed up. Thus the need for a physical tangible journal to pass on to my family of my positive feelings about my life.)
The glass is “half full” if you perceive it as such or “half empty” if that is your frame of mind. I feel more serene and fulfilled at this point of my life that I have before. Maybe because I am trying to get rid of expectations of others’ behaviors toward me and just accept them unconditionally. We are all lacking as family members and friends in our relationships but when I see others through judgmental eyes it’s difficult to appreciate them fully. This is how I perceive God and His son looking at each of us with “love and appreciation” for our uniqueness. Just having gratitude for whatever comes our way and not being so greedy for more, gives us a certain peace and joy that is as my friend Caryn says…“delicious.”
Do you keep a gratitude journal?