It has been a rough start to February. Kids have been sick, and mama has been sick. I feel like I have been playing catch up for the last two weeks. I am grateful my family is recovering from the winter steady onslaught of colds. And February is half over and it’s a short month anyways. Spring will be here soon.
I have been practicing mindfulness in some shape or form since first year university. That was almost 20 years ago now. I visited a naturopath at that time to help me with my inability to fall asleep at night. I would spend hours tossing and turning from one thought or another. He directed me to yoga, mindful breathing exercises and positive psychology. While single I found what worked for me so I was able to maintain self-care no problem. Enter children which as we all know is a game changer.
My way back to centre. First, I started with expressing my gratitude not just by saying it out loud but writing it down. Writing things down should not have been foreign to me as I have been a journal writer since I was a pre-teen but writing down people and things I was grateful for well that was something I needed to really focus on to recalibrate so to speak. I started with just recording in my weekly agenda. Everyone has to start somewhere. I started the first week of 2013. Below are a few of my first ones.
Theses were my first three weeks in January 2013.
She had us write down 5 things we were grateful for every day. Every day. Every day. The one thing I noticed right away was how I had to pay attention to the smaller moments of my day not just the large ones. And some days it was really hard to get to five and other days it flowed like a fast river. In order to do this I had to carve in me time every day to write in my journal. Everyone has to find what works for them. For some it is in the morning and others it happens at night. I started in the mornings with my morning cup of coffee. One of my favourite rituals. But I have since moved it to a ritual right before bed. I found the advantages of the morning was that it started my day with positive thinking and at night I could sit more and reflect deeper. Other days I squeeze it in wherever possible. Life sometimes gets the better of me but since beginning the gratitude journal with the Abundant mama project I find I gravitate back to gratitude a lot faster. And I always remember to go easy on myself.
For more inspiration on developing a gratitude practice I find these sites helpful:
Abundant Mama Project with Shawn L. Fink
Tiny Budda: How to start a gratitude practice to change your life
Left Brain Budda where Sarah writes gratitude posts every Monday
Now that I feel more centred and gratitude is a part of my daily life I am going to introduce it to my children and help them develop their own gratitude practice. We could all use more. Do you have a gratitude practice? Do you journal in the morning or at night? Do you have a special dedicated journal? I would love to hear about it. Please feel free to leave a comment.
