How To Practice Gratitude- Journal Edition
Do you have a name for when your brain is racing? The time when that same situation is replaying in your head over and over again. As it replays over and over new stories or situations are added? Let me explain:
If I thought a friend of mine was mad at me. I will then replay why they are mad at me, saying they didn’t return my text. I will convince myself they are mad because they didn’t return my text. I will then add on more stories from previous encounters with her about why she is mad at me, such as the last time I saw her our conversation was short and so on. I call this “hamster wheel”. I think this paints a perfect picture of how my thoughts just viciously spin around and around.
When I first started working on myself I never wanted to “bother” any of my friends with my problems or express what was on my “hamster wheel”. SO I began to journal. I would write about my day and thoughts that were spinning. This would help, but I soon realized I needed something more. I realized I needed to not only write out negative thoughts but my positive thoughts. This is where I learned how to practice gratitude.
HI I am I am Jessica Harrington, MPH. I am a Public Health Educator. I educate about stress, how to create a different perspective, and what habits you can start today to help decrease stress. In this blog I want to discuss how I started to practice gratitude and the benefits of practicing gratitude.
I started to write things down that simply made me happy and or happy that day. I found this would create a balance within my day. I practice writing in my journal, or what I call my “brain dump book” a few times a week. I know it is said to make this a habit every day, but I found that this specific mindful habit for me is beneficial a few times a week.
If you have not tried journaling/brain dumping I highly recommend it. Grab any piece of paper near you and just write down your first thought. This thought could literally be “This is dumb”, and go from there. Remember you got this!
