Ah November, the month of gratitude. By now, many of us are aware that practicing gratitude is good for us. Journaling for gratitude helps us put things in perspective. It helps us shift away from stress or bitterness over what we lack and feel more grounded and at ease with what we have. This is powerful for our daily well-being.
At the same time, I'm not shy in saying that I've struggled with gratitude before. Especially when I'm feeling depressed, down, or let down, I don't feel in a place to express gratitude. Trying to force it even in my self-care journaling digs the wound even deeper.
If you've felt this way, you're not alone. That's why I think it's valuable to find other entry points into gratitude and journaling for gratitude beyond the standard, "What am I grateful for?"
In Zenit journals, our standard journal prompts for gratitude is, "What can I be grateful for?" This one word allows ourselves to be a little more open and gentle as we try to practice gratitude in our self-care journaling.
Plus, we can use more guidance for self-journaling for practicing gratitude for the different areas in our lives. One of my favorite new wellness journaling prompts I've been using in workshops is, "Dear __[body part]__, thank you for..."
You can do this gratitude journaling to this prompt in your custom wellness journal to this prompt over and over again and each time come up with something different. Through this gratitude journaling, we can get to a place of deep gratitude for our bodies, which then helps us set the boundaries we need to take care of our bodies, protect our energy, and nurture our health.
This month of November, I'm exploring different ways to practice gratitude with journaling and align gratitude with wellness. I invite you to join me. I'll be holding a Mini-Retreat, "Journal for Gratitude," on November 10. I'm giving away Lil Gratitude Journals! For organizations, I have an entire standard workshop, "Journal for Gratitude" you can bring to your team for employee wellness and employee engagement. Reach out if you'd like to learn more!
Beyond "What am I Grateful for?"
Posted by Alina Liao on