Dedicate a few minutes every day to reflect on your blessings.
Over the past year I’ve swam in a steady sea of stress, attempting to maintain balance while I went after my goals with every ounce of passion and fortitude I posses. The guilt I’ve felt by my inability to remain completely kind, level-headed and spiritually supple has turned my normally positive and chill hippie-esque attitude into one which quite often angles towards negative and terrible.
I’ve tried various things throughout my 84-hour-a-week work days – instilling a tea break routine, meditation, exercise, mantras and so on. But despite all this I’ve still failed to find the perfect balance, to create a mindset which I am consistently proud of.
Earlier this month while I was productively procrastinating by pinning inspirational quotes on Pinterest, I found one which offered me an activity I could partake in. It said: “You can “rewire” your brain to be happy by simply recalling 3 things you’re grateful for every day for 21 days.” I paused for a moment, realizing this could really work for me—I already do three daily French words a day to enhance my vocabulary.
I began on November 1st, dedicating but a few minutes at the end of every day to sum up a few things I was grateful for in a journal. Some days it is simple single words lists: the heating in my home, the food in my fridge, the water which runs from my taps. On other days it has more depth with detailed love letters to my partner, the planet, the people who grow my tea and the bees who make honey which heals me.
Photo by Shane Woodward.
It’s only been a few weeks of this regular commitment, but I’ve already felt a change, which hasn’t yet brought perfection but has brought more peace as I learn how to adjust my perceptions.
I would recommend this exercise to anyone, especially with Thanksgiving arriving, so you can see as you’re gearing up to make resolutions for the New Year how much more positive your thoughts about your self and your life become.
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