Oh, it's August. The dog days of summer. School starting back. The month with no real holidays. In spite of the heat, school supplies, new schedules and no days off of work, by golly, we're going to make this month something spectacular!
The freaking amazing and overwhelming response to July's World Tour assignment - I Am Me: Defining Yourself - has just blown us away. There have been so many posts, they will be trickling in here and there this next month. Seriously, there are THAT MANY! You're amazing! It's REALLY going to be hard to top it, but we're gonna give it the ole college try!
This month we're going to tackle gratitude. We want you to share what you are grateful for. Tell us why you are thankful or what you do to appreciate the world around you.
One of our Brains Behind The Band, Chibi Jeebs, has the most wonderful exercise she does daily to get out her gripes and find what she is grateful for. I'm going to let her words lead you in this month's Bringing The Happy Back World Tour assignment.
Go forth, The Band, and be grateful! We are grateful for YOU and wouldn't be able to do the amazing things we do without YOU.
~ jana
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I have a Daytimer that I no longer use for its intended purpose (I use Google Calendar now), but I have this really lovely red, leather cover for it and I'm loathe to leave a book full of blank pages neglected and unused.
What I started doing was writing anything and everything that was bothering me on the page each morning; once I was done bitching and moaning, I would write five things I was grateful for at the bottom of the page, just to end on a slightly more positive note. Once I was done writing, I'd close the book - the magnetic clasp would give a very final, satisfying SNAP, and I'd put the book away.
Writing it out (see: hug it out) helped me, well, get it out of my system, and closing the book felt like a symbolic way to move past whatever my gripe(s) happened to be. I found it much easier to move on with my day in a lighter, more positive frame of mind.
Some days, the things I'm grateful for are serious, like my loved ones or my job; other days, they are as silly and simple as clean sheets and fresh blueberries. The point for me is to try to be mindful and aware of what's going on in my life so I can take notice of the things that fill my cold, little heart with warmth.
This kind of journaling feels very private to me, which is just one more reason why I do it the "old fashioned" way with pen and paper instead of doing it online somewhere.
I started doing this sometime in late 2009. I still do it on a daily basis, and I can't imagine stopping at this point, as I find it really helpful to me. If this idea intrigues you, I'd suggest giving it a shot just for a week and see if it feels right for you.
