Hey there beauties!!
Gratitude has been on my heart recently- It’s good all the time, but incredibly life changing especially in the midst of a difficult time or season.
Just so you know a little more about me, I’m an enneagram 6 & taking wings into account I seem to be a 2×3, while I have lots of the qualities of 6, I’m extremely focused on achievement, being the best I can, and I hate losing more than I like winning, but loving people, serving and lending my hand along the way. I naturally have an introverted personality and tend to slide towards the negative side of things if something bad happens which I don’t proudly admit, but am honest with myself and own it, otherwise it would be extremely crushing. Growing up, my parents divorced and we went through a lot of struggles that I don’t need to go into, but it caused a lot of distrust and disappointment in my life. Although I choose to have a positive mindset and try to expect the best of others, sometimes I make the mistake of putting my walls up, not allowing people to get close to me and assuming the worst… and of course that way of thinking can really cloud your perspective on your life and others around you.
The last few years, gratitude has been something that has helped so much with not only my mindset, but my expectation, belief in how amazing our lives are, finding the good in the every day, appreciating differences, developing a positive outlook on life, and has given me a sense of peace and joy I hadn’t experienced before.
For so long, I spent hours, days, weeks and years of my life striving; almost in a way of trying to change into the person I thought I needed to be, so focused on my flaws instead of my gifts that I wanted to be so far removed from who I was..but I found out along the way through developing, overcoming obstacles and loving people, who I really am and I accept it, I’m so thankful for how God made me and so excited, thankful and optimistic for the future and what’s to come.. and also enjoying the present and LIVING in the moment.
How I practice gratitude may be different from you or a completely new habit, but hopefully this is valuable to you also!
I have a notebook where I record my gratitude for the day- morning & night. I also have a section in my planner, daily, that I was able to customize with Plum Paper- you can customize planners, notebooks, etc. they’re amazing! Broad topics are great to record yes, but it’s even better with more specific things, especially those that happened that day or people you ran into; otherwise you may rewrite the same broad thing over and over again so this makes it that much more special and causes a moment of reflection on your day! For example- Instead of “I’m grateful for my marriage” I’d say “I’m grateful for my husband and the coffee date we got to go on today. I’m grateful we were able to spend some quality time together and grow our marriage/relationship.” Hopefully that makes sense!
Enjoy the time of reflecting and expressing gratitude and I’m excited for you to see a positive change in your outlook, attitude and perspective on life and your situation!!
Let me know your thoughts!!
I’d also love to hear how you like to practice gratitude!
Xoxo
Brandy
