Daily Gratitude Practice: How a Simple Ritual Transformed My Life
I did this…
How My Family Gratitude Ritual Began
Each night, or most nights, anyway…
before bed, I give myself a moment to pause and think about and write some things and people I’m grateful for that day.
My practice grew out of the ritual I had with my sons from the times of their births: Each night, as I held them, I would ask out loud: “What are we grateful for today?” answering for me and for them, until they could answer for themselves (which was early on because they were both very verbal boys…what are the odds?)
Listing Gratitudes: Gratitude List Ideas That Spark Joy
Every night, we would share sometimes long lists of what we were grateful for that day—
The stick bug in our driveway
Being the very last people in the pool when they closed
Seeing dog shapes in the clouds
Grandma and Grandpa’s visit
Pizza for lunch AND dinner
They grew older and still I asked them and me: “What are you grateful for today?”
The answers were sometimes formulaic, but I figure, grateful is grateful and feeds more grateful and grows more to be grateful for…
Transition into Journaling: From Spoken Gratitude to Journaling
They were in high school, I think, when I began WRITING what I was grateful for, keeping a journal of gratitude.
Writing as Embodiment: Why Writing Gratitude Imprints Mind, Body, and Spirit
The physical act of holding a pen, putting the pen to paper is a type of sigil for me, imprints what I write on my whole body-mind-spirit, my whole Being.
But I’ve been feeling the impact of this continual liminal space of wintering I’ve been in since LAST Autumn…going within to find what’s truer and truly me.
And resting in this pace, listening to and following through on the nudges, left me here:
Wintering and Discovering Old Journals: Rediscovering (and Letting Go of) Old Gratitude Journals
Two days ago, I found a pile of my gratitude journals dating from 2012—some very nice notebooks, purchased specifically for this purpose, one, in fact, as a memory of a day I spent with a friend at a museum…
I paged through a few and thought,
“This practice of writing what I’m grateful for is for the moment. It’s to bring my body-mind-spirit into a space and place of wonder and awe at all the blessings bestowed upon me that day, a place where I open myself to receiving this and more and even more. It’s meant to be savored in the moment and not saved for posterity.”
Recycling the Journals: The Surprising Freedom of Recycling Gratitude Journals
And I took the whole pile—beautiful notebooks and all—to the recycling bin.
And the garbage men, just now, relieved me of their weight by taking the recycling away.
Wow.
Closing Reflection: Gratitude Is in the Doing, Not the Saving
Will I keep writing my gratitudes nightly?
Absolutely.
The practice is in the doing, not in the saving.
At the end of this year, I will recycle (or maybe offer in a burning) 2025’s gratitude journal.
If you’re curious,
The link to a podcast I did a few years back with Amy Balowitz Miller on…gratitude is in the comments for you to take a listen! Let me know how it FEELS…she and I did a lot of crying! Tears are truth for me you, know!
I am grateful for you, my friend.
blessings,
