No matter who you are, I’m willing to bet that you have days where you wake up and are just not feelin’ it. You want to stay nice and cozy in your bed and not face the day. Maybe you didn’t go to bed early enough, maybe you woke up too early, maybe you’ve been stressed, or maybe it’s 2020 and our lives have been turned upside down by this crazy Covid 19 quarantine lifestyle. For all of those reasons and more, I start my day with gratitude.
This is something that I never used to do until about a year ago when I discovered Rachel Hollis. If you do not know who Rachel Hollis is, please come out of the hole you have been living under and go watch/read everything she created! Seriously though! After reading both of her books (Girl, Wash Your Face and Girl, Stop Apologizing) as well as following her content, I realized just how important it is to start my day thinking about all of the positive things in my life and all that I’m grateful for. I think it’s easy to focus on the negative and forget even the smallest things we have to be grateful for like a steaming cup of coffee in the morning or the sounds of the birds chirping as the sun comes up.
So…how do I actually put this into practice? It is very simple and it does not need to take more than 5 minutes. I try to wake up before my three and a half year old and let me tell you, some days this just does not happen. But that’s okay! On the days I do wake up before her, I reach over to my bedside table and pull out my journal and pen. I think of at least three things in my life that I am truly grateful for and I write them down in my journal. Like I mentioned earlier, they do not have to be in depth and can be as simple as your few minutes of quiet time before the kids wake up or putting on your cozy robe after your nice warm shower. I have written everything from finding the lip gloss I thought I lost to having my best friend’s husband’s biopsy come back negative for cancer. No matter what you write down, grandiose or minuscule, this allows you to start your day from a place of gratitude. I find when I start my day this way, I continue to look for positivity throughout the rest of my day.
Here are some examples of what I have written:
- I woke up to the sun shining
- Dinner with girlfriends tonight
- My new workout shoes
- It’s leg day at the gym (my fav!)
- My new coffee mug
- It’s FRIDAY!
Whatever your gratitude practice looks like, find a way to make it work for you. If you don’t want to write it down, just say it out loud or to yourself. If you really cannot find a few minutes at the beginning of your day to practice gratitude, try to fit it in at some point. Doing this first thing when I wake up puts me in the right mindset to tackle the rest of my day. If I’m really struggling or wake up feeling down, I simply open up my journal and read through what I have written down in the past. This instantly pulls me out of my funk as I’m reading through all of the wonderful things in my life I have to be grateful for. Not every day is going to be a perfect day. But if you seek out positivity and gratitude, I guarantee you will find it.