GRATITUDE LISTS

This is free therapy.

I recently read on a website that writing a gratitude list is a great way to help push through writer’s block. If nothing else, such a list provides a wealth of material on which to write. More importantly, engaging in this discipline can help move a person through various negative states of mind such as anxiety, complacence, ungratefulness, despair, anger, and at minimum, helps to right-size exaggerated emotions and perspectives when they get out of balance. I’ve found this to be true when I write out a gratitude list.

I’ll often start planning to write 20 things I’m grateful for and usually I just keep writing and writing – it just flows out of me. I’m always amazed at how many good things – blessings – I have in my life for which to be grateful. Doesn’t mean I don’t have problems, sorrows, or unresolved issues…but it does help me not allow those negative circumstances to take over my consciousness. I encourage you to do the same. Here’s an example of mine today (in no particular order of importance) – a jumping off point for you.

1. I have people around me who love me
2. My family members and I are healthy
3. We have gainful employment
4. We own a home that we love
5. We like our neighborhood and surrounding community
6. Summer vacation is coming soon
7. My children’s schools are excellent
8. My children are all thriving in school
9. My family is continuing to learn better forms of communication and problem-solving
10. Our city is out of drought status
11. I’ve found writing to be such a wonderful, creative outlet
12. God’s mercy and blessings in our lives
13. My personal strengths which I often minimize and take for granted
14. The wonder and beauty of nature
15. Delicious food
16. Chocolate
17. A free and democratic country to live in
18. Advanced medicine
19. A society in which women have more rights and freedoms than in centuries past
20. Access to medical care
21. My oldest son’s entry into manhood
22. The hilarious and unique sense of humor of my middle son
23. My youngest son’s “little boy” cuteness
24. A hot cup of coffee with cream in the mornings
25. My comfortable bed
26. Fifteen years with our wonderful dog Chelsea – may she rest in peace
27. Warm baths in the winter
28. Great fiction books to read
29. The soothing, comforting quality of chicken broth
30. Two functioning cars