Being a birthmother and dealing with all the emotions that go with it on a daily basis, is not an easy task, yet even on our darkest of days, we can at least find a few things to be grateful for such as the last scoop of chocolate chip ice cream in your fridge or your fuzzy bunny slippers on a cold winters night. As Thanksgiving draws near, many of us give a little bit of thought to things we are thankful for, but why should we limit that to just this time of year. Use this Thanksgiving season to jump start a “gratitude journal” and then continue it through out the upcoming year.

What is a gratitude journal?
I originally heard about gratitude journals on Oprah. She’s a big fan of them. Basically, a gratitude journal is a journal where you record brief thoughts and things you are thankful for. Unlike other journals, where you may make long winded entries, the entries in a gratitude journal are usually pretty short and in a list format. Obviously, you will need a journal to record what you are grateful for, since you are not writing long entries a small journal will work fine for this project.

What are you grateful for?
Writing in your entries can be done in one of two different ways. If you wanted to write daily, you could list five things that happened through out the day that you are grateful for or if you prefer you could make your entries at the end of the week and write 15-20 things you are grateful for.

If you are a negative person, at first this might be difficult but once you get going you will begin to notice more and more positive things through out your day. When you are having a bad day, it’s also neat to pull out your gratitude journal and read over some of the things you are a grateful for.

This Thanksgiving season is a great time to start your gratitude journal!

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Related Posts:
Giving Thanks
Journaling for Birthmoms
Therapeutic Activities: Journaling