Posts tagged gratitude

I started a gratitude journal yesterday.  I’d been thinking about doing it for a while, and had to be at Meijer in order to buy replacement smoke detector batteries anyway, so I bought a small spiral-bound notebook with a pretty cover, and started filling it in.

Here’s what I’ve written so far, transcribed from the journal exactly as I wrote it, minus scribbles and strange goof-ups such as misplaced quotation marks.

• I am grateful for being alive and having the chance to learn, grow, change, and become a better person.
• I am grateful for the internet.
• I am grateful for wacky, dorky, awesome Mormon culture.
• I am grateful for blogs and the “Web 2.0”
• I am grateful for modern medicine, despite its flaws.
• I am grateful for liberty and free agency.
• I am grateful for classical music.
• I am grateful for having a job.
• I am grateful for disability insurance.
• I am grateful for the gospel of Jesus Christ.
• I am grateful for the faith, devotion, leadership, and service of Church leaders.
• I am grateful for my computer.
• I am grateful for my family.
• I am grateful for the Atonement of Jesus Christ, and the sacrifice He made for me.
• I am grateful for all the boys and girls (and grown-ups) who serve missions.
• I am grateful for prayer.
• I am grateful for therapy.
• I am grateful for being able to get out of bed today.
• I am grateful for General Conference.
• I am grateful for the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.
• I am grateful for fall weather.
• I am grateful for pumpkin pie.

Note: I am just making a list of every thing I think of, in the order I think of it.  The only thing that counts is if I thought of it and am actually grateful for it (on any level.)  In cases where I have to qualify the statement in order for it to be true (like the modern medicine one) then I try to be nice about it.

I am not following the usually suggested best practices for this right now.  I might later.  Right now I’m just trying to “count my blessings; name them one by one.”  This is in part because the longer I spend time trying to think about a thing, it seems like I end up heading in a not-so-good direction (talking about how awesome it is in light of how little I have managed to succeed at, or how it’s great especially because I don’t really deserve it at all, or some such thing.)

Also: I am not avoiding repeating myself.  I’m sort of curious to see what comes up repeatedly, quite frankly.

I was all in a “I hate depression” moment when I wrote in my journal today and I realized suddenly that I needed to write down stuff I’m thankful for.  And here’s what I got.  It, uh, started out slow and kind of got weird at times, but there you go.

I am thankful for computers and electricity and the internet.  I am grateful I know how to type.  I am grateful I have a job, and a nice apartment, and a newish car.  I’m grateful I have auto insurance and renter’s insurance and life insurance and MEDICAL insurance.  I am grateful for Tootsie Rolls and entrepreneurs and therapy.  I am grateful for aloe vera and “I Voted” stickers and salt.  I am grateful that the Mormon Channel now has a music-only feed.  I’m grateful I got to know my grandma before she died and that I can get to know my grandpa even though he died when I was a toddler.  I am grateful the Nazis lost.  I am grateful for the Book of Mormon and the Bible and for seminary and institute even though I don’t take nearly as good advantage of them all as I should.  I am grateful for Tumblr and Facebook.  I am grateful for alarm clocks and fabric softener and Febreeze.

I’ve been meaning to do that thing where you write things you’re thankful for on fall-color construction paper leaves and put them on the wall.  Still haven’t found the leaves, though.  But on the DBSA forum they asked us to list what we’re thankful for, and here’s what I’ve come up with, in no order beyond that in which they came to me:

• The internet
• Therapy
• Apple juice
• Refried beans
• My car
• Health insurance
• The church
• Netflix
• IKEA
• Hot showers
• Antidepressants
• The zoo
• Parks and natural places
• My family
• Cheddar cheese, extra sharp
• Really nice writing pens
• Hobby Lobby
• Vacations
• Pumpkin pie
• EAP
• Short-term disability coverage
• My glasses
• Mormon Tabernacle Choir
• Modern medicine in general
• Really patient phlebotomists
• FMLA
• Tomatoes
• Distilled water
• Dr. Pepper
• Lane Bryant

I’ll probably start on finding the leaves this next week.  I really really want to just buy pre-made leaves rather than have to cut them all out myself.