I am not a meditative person.
Get The Latest News!
Don't miss our top stories and need-to-know news everyday in your inbox.
I would like to be. I try to be. But at the end of the day, I’m too jittery to really have meditative moments.
But this week, I decided I would try my best to relax and engage with my surroundings via gratitude journaling. I’ve heard a lot about gratitude journaling before, and friends have recommended it to me as a way to increase my — well, gratitude. There are a lot of ways to journal, and I do journal pretty regularly. But I’ve never been consistent with keeping a gratitude journal.
For those of you who aren’t familiar, gratitude journaling asks you to sit down and write out things you’re grateful for. It can be as big or as small as you want, as long as you do it every day.
In the past, I’ve tried to keep a gratitude journal to varying degrees of success. The biggest challenge I’ve encountered is simply remembering to do it. If I’m too tired or overwhelmed by the day or just really busy, these self-care tasks tend to be the first things I forgo.
And gratitude journaling is a form of self-care, make no mistake. By taking the time to list out things I’m grateful for, I hope to become more appreciative. The goal is to slow down and fully take stock of my life, and what better way to do that than by physically writing down information about the people and experiences that bring me joy?
With this goal in mind, I started strong on Monday. I decided I would journal in the evenings; by devoting a few minutes to this practice every night, I hoped to reflect and take a deep breath at the end of the day. I aimed to grow more appreciative of my surroundings.
It quickly turned out that this was harder than I expected. Let me clarify — naming things to be grateful for was not the difficult part. I am so, so fortunate, and I could write lists of reasons why every night if I took the time to do so. The struggle was exactly that: finding the time. What should have been a few minutes’ worth of gratitude quickly seemed overwhelming.
Why do these self-care tasks fall by the wayside so easily? They’re good for you, but still, I find myself struggling to take the time to complete them. All of the self-care practices I’ve started over the years — meditation, yoga, exercise, and now gratitude journaling — quickly become old hobbies I never pick up again.
I know it’s the middle of August, but I’m creating a New Year's resolution, starting now. I want to be more mindful of my wellbeing, and I’m going to start regularly doing the things I know will make me feel better.
Meditation, yoga, exercise and gratitude journaling are where I’m starting. Gratitude journaling is off to a positive start, and now I just need to find the time to throw in some other self-care tasks to my routine. But I’m hopeful these new habits will quickly become like second nature as I do more to take care of myself.
I may not be a meditative person yet, but with any luck, it’ll all become second nature soon. Stay tuned.
More like this:
