Thankful Every Day
By Joan Raymond, Writers of Kern
I’ve kept a lot of journals over the years. When I’m frustrated it helps to pour out my thoughts on the page. Holding it in, I’m miserable. Letting it out, I begin to heal. My journals held my fears and frustrations, celebrations and sadness, rants and raves.
While it was therapeutic to let my feelings flow through my pen, I felt something was missing. A few years ago, I noticed people taking the “30-Day Thankfulness Challenge” on social media. During the month of November, they’d post once a day, for 30 days, something they were grateful for. It was refreshing to see positive posts instead of discouraging diatribes. Their positivity changed the face of social media, for at least a month.
Around this same time, I read how keeping a gratitude journal helps one train their brain to see things in a more positive light. Focusing on one positive thing a day will help you notice little things. Plus, acknowledging positive things daily will help you feel better year-round.
I started an experiment. When I wrote in my journal each night, I told myself no matter how good or bad the day was, I had to list at least one positive thing. If life wasn’t treating me right, I still found something worth listing – watching a hummingbird, seeing a cloudy sky (I love cloudy skies), or finding a grasshopper when I watered the flowers.
Each time I added something thankful in my post, I kept track and numbered it. I began with Thankful #1 and continued. It wasn’t always easy, but soon I got into the habit and looked forward to listing one thing I was happy about or thankful for. When I reached Thankful #365, I realized I’d reached a year of thankfulness. A year where I could go back and find at least one positive thing that I’d noticed for each day.
Last night I wrote Thankful #793. More than two years-worth of seeing something good in each day. No, those days were not all happy. And I still ranted and listed frustrations.
But, no matter what, by the end of each entry I found one thing to be thankful for. And over the last 793 days, I’ve seen a change in my own attitude. While I know I can still share my frustrations, I’m more likely to share positive thoughts. I’ve trained my brain to find the good, no matter what was going on.
For the rest of the month of November, I challenge you to start a thankfulness journal. Or, if you already have a journal, at the end of your entry add something you are thankful for. Give it a number, and watch how you start to see something special in each day. I promise you’ll see a difference in your entries over the course of the next few weeks, months, and year. And, then when things are tough, and it’s hard to find something good to write about, you can look back and see where life, while tough, tended to give us something to be thankful for each day.
Happy Thanksgiving!
This essay first appeared as
Joan Raymond’s President’s Message
in the November 2017 newsletter of
CWC’s Bakersfield Branch.
Writers of Kern.