Spring Cleaning for Your Soul, Day 10: Make Room for Gratitude

Still following along with our Spring Cleaning for Your Soul Challenge?

Today we’ll touch upon the importance of gratitude.

Did you know that finding time to be grateful for all the blessings in your life actually can help to bring you even more blessings in abundance?

This is because a happy, positive outlook creates good feelings. These are then shared with others to intensify the positive feelings all around.

There is even science behind the benefit of gratitude. Positive psychology studies have been conducted which show that people who take part in a daily gratitude practice manage to reduce stress levels and increase feelings of happiness and well-being. Not only does this brighten their outlook, but actual beneficial brain chemicals such as oxytocin are released as a result of the positive change in thinking. These feel-good chemicals work to calm the nervous system and take us out of fight or flight mode.

Not being perpetually stressed allows us to slow down and live our lives in a mindful, rather than reactive, mode.

When we plan, strategize, and consider our problems, we create useful results that have far-reaching effects on others.

Journaling Exercise: Take Time to Be Grateful

For today’s journaling exercise, we’ll get into a gratitude frame of mind. Gratitude is one of those ways of being that start out with purposeful intent. In the same way that hanging around negative, sarcastic people can change your thoughts to become negative and sarcastic, having a positive outlook is something that can be taught to our brains through repetition.

So for today’s journal, grab your writing tool and trusty notebook or journal.

Jot down five things to be grateful for today. Even if today was a bad day, find something positive in the challenges you faced.

For example, suppose that today you came home to a sink full of dishes, which made you feel grumpy after a long day at work.

Therefore, you created a chore list so that everyone is much less likely to come home to messes after work or school.

This is something positive. First, it will help your family become more organized. You’ll spend less time cleaning up when you’d like to cook, eat, and enjoy your favorite activities together.

Set Your Intention

Once you complete your journaling exercise, you’ll have some good ideas about what sorts of intentions you can set for yourself in the name of being more grateful.

Gratitude doesn’t have to be a chore or burden. In fact, you can set aside 10 minutes to consider all the blessings that came to you on this day.

Before long, gratitude will become habit, and you’ll find that all sorts of positive people and situations have begun to manifest in your life!