The practice of Gratitude is something I wanted to write and post a blog about it since some time. (Better late than never, while starting the New Year with good intentions and put them into practice) 🙂
Back in January 2013 I posted the following on my Facebook page:
“This idea made the rounds on Facebook last week.
Start on January 1st with an empty jar. Throughout the year write the good things that happened to you on little pieces of paper. On December 31st, open the jar and read all the amazing things that happened to you that year.
So I started my own with a hand made label and I call it “Gratitude Jar”, seeing and appreciating the beauty and abundance in life.
If you like you write a daily note, about anything that put a smile on your face that day and made you feel happy in your heart. Of course you can use a smaller jar……. “
Half a year later my Gratitude Jar looked like this:
Since then I still add more notes to my jar. I write about anything that brings joy to my heart, the smell of a flower, a delicious organic fruit, the many new and loyal happy people in my yoga classes. A phone call, a postcard, etc. I received.
A few years before I started the gratitude jar I wrote a gratitude list at the end of each year. I still do that and also add things to the list throughout the year. After I write my gratitude list for the previous year, I then write my intentions list for the new year.
If you prefer you keep a gratitude journal, where you write your daily or weekly notes. Anything you give thanks to.
It is a wonderful practice that brings abundance, as you start to see the beauty in your life.
It’s actually a practice that I did for a while as a teenage girl. And it really helped me a lot back then (it was after my father died), no one told me about it, I listened to my intuition. I would write in my girly diary when: someone in the street smiled at me, I saw a nice flower on the side of the footpath, if a certain boy at school would say “hi” or “hoi” to my …… 🙂 I did not call it gratitude back then, I just noted what brought me joy that day, usually the smaller the better.
This year I do my gratitude on social media. Instagram has these wonderful hashtags #366grateful #365grateful #366daysofgratitude #366grateful2016 and more similar # or you start your own.
If you like to follow me on Instagram you find me under @mariaprema
I hope you join me this year in the practice of gratitude in some ways & the format that speaks to you. Let’s share our experiences throughout the year.
Hatha Yoga Ipswich 