“Today, I’m grateful for….”
Every page of my journal these days begins with these lines.
I started practicing gratitude when I was in a place of extreme emotional turmoil. I was struggling to be a solopreneur, I was having trouble landing clients, I was simultaneously preparing for my exams- a lot of things were weighing down on me.
I was watching the successes of my counterparts and feeling insecure about my skill and the kind of content I create.
It is around this time that I came across the power of journaling. The extraordinary power of gratitude.
The start was difficult. It was me staring at a blank page on my journal trying to think of ways to fill it. So surrounded I was by negativity, that I didn’t see anything that I could be grateful for. I was failing professionally, emotionally, and personally. I did not know what to write. Or how to write it. It was extremely frustrating.
A conversation with my mother changed my perspective- start small, she said. And it struck me like lightning. I began looking for the smallest of things that had made me happy in the past 24 hours, and started writing them down. Even things that might seem inconsequential made their way into my diary. Things as small as- feeding the stray puppy in my neighborhood and watch her wag her tail, the morning breeze that touches my face every morning after I wake up, having a delicious meal, and so on.
My gratitude list started with mentioning five things I was grateful for. Picking small wins and thanking the universe- that was the process I followed with due diligence. And trust me when I say this, I have never been more at peace.
Soon, my list of five increased to ten. As each day passed, I could pick more and more things that I was grateful to have around me in my life. It felt like the universe has my back. I was happier than I’d ever been before.
Practicing gratitude reminded me that I was surrounded with so much love and abundance- failures are just temporary hurdles that the universe sets for testing you. Now, every time a negative thought crosses my mind, it is replaced immediately by thoughts filled with positivity and fulfillment.
Being grateful has made me
- Happier
- More Content
- Positive
- More in charge of my emotions
- Craft my own destiny
- Deal positively with failures
- Seek success with double vigour and enthusiasm
and the list can go on and on and on.
The law of attraction is real. Focus on giving good things – gratitude, joy, abundance, love. You will see the same things coming back to you, multiplied tenfold.
Now, I can’t go a day without writing down things I’m grateful for. It is the best start to my day. This is my story. What’s yours?