I wrote a post last year at this time about beginning a gratitude practice. I have been actively practicing for about a year and half now. Over the year I have found it easier to maintain my practice with these 4 tips that I do. There is a lot that goes into developing and sustaining a practice but I have been living by these mantra lately: Start where you are! I thought I would share with you some of things I have been doing that I have found help me in hopes that maybe they might help someone else too. I have also created some printables for my own house that I have chosen to share here. See below for those.
4 Ways I Cultivate My Gratitude Practice
1. I made a commitment to recognizing the big and small blessings in my life and committed to writing them down. I suggest you pick a journal you just love to hold, look at and open. Here is a picture of the my first ever gratitude journal where I began writing my daily 5 gratitude phrases. I chose it because of the black and white designs with its addition of pink touches. I love pink! Then I switched over to this Buddha Doodles one which has inspirational quotes and doodles which gives me inspiration for writing or using for my own reflections.
2. Commit to a set time and place to write in your journal. Maybe it is at night right before you go to bed, first thing in the morning, or during a coffee break throughout your day. Always have your journal and a pen handy.
3. I sometimes use a book for inspiration and reflection, such as this one Gratitude Prayers: Prayers, Poems, and Prose for Everyday Thankfulness by June Cotner.
4. I put inspiration up around my house. I find my favourite poems, or prayers on gratitude and display them in my house where I can see it regularly and use the pause in my day to read the poem and also check in with myself. This poem by Karen O'Leary is one of my favourite. (See poem and printable below) After I stop and read it. I will ask myself these 3 questions:
1. What is 1 thing I'm thankful for right at this moment?
2. What do I need to let go of right now?
3. What am I looking forward too right now?
I have created 2 different printables that are available as a free printable if you would like them. This first one I printed out to hang in an 8x10 picture frame. In order to do that I scaled the size down before printing. It is scaled to about 30% so that way I could keep the border. Then I used that piece of paper that comes with the picture frame as a guide to trim away the extra so that way the piece would fit nicely in the 8x10 frame.
#1
It is a Grateful Heart 5x7 Free Printable
This printable had a bigger border so this one I just printed out onto an 8X11 piece of heavier card stock paper and trimmed the extra and this one is hung on a magnetic board in my laundry/entrance way so I can see it when doing laundry. *Note: I have not tried scaling this one down to fit in a 8X10 picture frame. I would scale the first one.
#2
Link to Free Printable
These are just some of the ways I have begun cultivating a gratitude practice. Does this mean I always see the glass as half full or see the world only with rose coloured glasses? No, there are many challenges to practicing gratitude and one is just maintaining the conscious effort it takes to combat negative feelings from arising. Sometimes we have to let those feels arise and learn how to move through them. Sometimes I only write superficial phrases that I don't really feel connected too, but I feel like I have to write something down and other times I can write an in-depth paragraph focused one thing and truly feel connected to it.
If you would like lots of inspiration for living a meaningful life where there are lots of articles on gratitude The Greater Good Website is a great place to start.
Here is my post from last year 2014 Gratitude Post.
I am grateful for those who have read my blog posts and the blogging community who have been supportive and encouraging as I have entered into this blogging world.
Cheers,
Bonnie
This post has been linked up here:
No comments:
Post a Comment