What is your gratitude practice?

What is your gratitude practice?

Do you journal? Do you sit with your warm coffee and run a list through your mind of what you are grateful for? Do you stare at a flower in awe?

I was chatting with a friend and we started talking about her nighttime routine. She told me that she writes a gratitude list every night before going to sleep. It doesn’t have to be a long list. It can be 3 or 5 things. It helps relax her, and puts her in a positive headspace. I feel calm just thinking about it.

I’m a writer and I aim to journal every morning. I read The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron a few years ago. Have you read it? It’s a book written decades ago that has helped countless artists (including Elizabeth Gilbert) combat fear and create magic.

In the book, Julia explains that writing first thing in the morning helps your subconscious mind get onto the page through your brain to hand connection. Before I became a parent, I could stick to her recommendation to write first thing in the morning. Now, it happens (most days) once my daughter is off to school.

Writing in my journal is part of my meditation practice. It is holy. It is taking out the mental garbage. It is therapeutic. It is creative. But most importantly; it is magic.

Why?

Julia explains that something magical happens after a page and a half. I won’t rob you of finding out for yourself what that magic is, but I will attest to the fact that what she says is true.

She encourages the writer to start by describing what’s around them. What’s the weather today? What time is it? How do you feel? What’s bugging you? What are you happy about? Most importantly, there is no need to correct it or read it as you write. Just write for three pages and then stop. You can even throw away the paper.

She likens the daily practice to writing letters back during the time when we would write letters longhand. She inspires us to remember that magic is collected over time. How our lifetimes are embedded with the simple, the dramatic and the mundane. That it is all beautiful. Those stories can be told by sunlight, how the rays spread their wings through a window. How your partner holds their coffee cup. How a photo you stare at every single day comforts you with its predictable sameness. 

Sometimes, I write down the things that I am grateful for when life doesn’t feel like it’s going my way. When I need a reminder of the beauty that surrounds me. 

Celebrating the simple things at my fingertips helps remind me of the bounty beside me, and right outside my door; no key required. And love, like warm honey, rushes through my body, and calms my soul. 

What are you grateful for?

Share your list on our gratitude board at reception at Morpho Bleu studio! We want to spread grateful thoughts to uplift us all. 

By: Angelique Gay