The first words out of my mouth to my coworker this morning were "I feel blah." Shortly thereafter I ran into this quote by one of my favorite authors, Paulo Coelho.
In today's busy world it is so easy to lose track of the little things all around us. The little things that make up the "now". The tiny things in each day that one should be grateful for and our need to hit the "pause button" throughout the day to recognize the little things. How satisfying is racing to work in the morning, working and then racing until bedtime. Without hitting the "pause button" and recognizing the small things along the way it is inevitable you will sink into times of "blah". Appreciation of the small things creates happiness. This has been proven.
The above circles back to mindfulness. Mindfulness is the process of actively living in the moment and noticing new things.
A mindfulness practice that promotes gratitude is simply at the end of a day writing down 3-5 things that happened during that day that you are grateful for. Easy peasy! I have done this in the past with great success. Research has shown that those who keep a gratitude journal show an increase in fulfillment and happiness.
I have used the happier app in the past, but have been challenging myself to limit my social network usage. If you are more of an electronic person - then I urge you to give it a try. I personally have lots and lots of empty journals just waiting to be used.
I have done this in the past. I have obviously stopped for one reason or another. I want this time to be different. I want at least a year of gratitude in a journal with a long-term goal of doing this indefinitely.
All of the little things that aren't always tangible made tangible.
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