About Making Gratitude Your Attitude
In 2015 I decided I needed to be more grateful. I had conquered a decent bout of depression and anxiety and felt that I was left with a residual 'flatness'. I loved my life - but felt I didn't appreciate what I had as much as I wanted to. So I decided to embark on 21 day challenge - writing a ticket each day about something or someone I was grateful for. I decided to post the tickets on my facebook page and count down the days, to help keep me focused and motivated. Each evening after dinner I sat down and made an image and then wrote a few words about what I was grateful for (later I used photos).
The cognitive process was facinating. During the day I found myself thinking about what I was going to post about later that day. Then something shifted around the 21 day period - I noticed that rather than just looking for things for the gratitude post I was seeing things to be grateful for everywhere. A couple of months later I noticed my brain had changed. I was more grateful. I could see things to be grateful everywhere. The residual flatness was gone. I felt I had rewired my brain. I kept it going for a year.
When I stopped doing it I missed it quite a lot. Six months later I am launching a one month refresher - I want to see what happens.
The cognitive process was facinating. During the day I found myself thinking about what I was going to post about later that day. Then something shifted around the 21 day period - I noticed that rather than just looking for things for the gratitude post I was seeing things to be grateful for everywhere. A couple of months later I noticed my brain had changed. I was more grateful. I could see things to be grateful everywhere. The residual flatness was gone. I felt I had rewired my brain. I kept it going for a year.
When I stopped doing it I missed it quite a lot. Six months later I am launching a one month refresher - I want to see what happens.
Join the 21 Day Challenge
You are invited to join the 21 day challenge by recording at least on thing you are Grateful for every day for 21 days. You can use blank pieces of paper, photos ... anything to record what you are grateful for.
Please consider emailing or posting some of your post cards to us so we can put them on this page to inspire others. In the space below we have included a link to a flyer about setting up a project with family and friends:
Please consider emailing or posting some of your post cards to us so we can put them on this page to inspire others. In the space below we have included a link to a flyer about setting up a project with family and friends:
Tips on making it stick
To help make Gratitude your Attitude - you might find it helpful to consider some tips from James Clear', an expert in habit formation. He says repetition is the key. While there is a widely held belief that a new habit can be formed in 21 days, he suggests it is more likely to take 66 days. So if you are really keen - take the 66 day challenge. James has three steps to creating a habit that you may find useful:
- Reminder: find ways to remind yourself to do this every day (see the running water suggestion below)
- Routine: try to do this at the same time each day
- Reward: congratulate yourself each time you make a ticket.
There is a beautiful TED talk about Gratitude by David Steindl-Rast. One of his Gratitude practices involved putting a note above his sink that said "running water". Each time he turned on the tap he was reminded to be grateful for the fact that he has running water and many other people do not.
You might like to try this as a strategy to remind yourself that you are on the 21 day challenge.
http://www.ted.com/talks/david_steindl_rast_want_to_be_happy_be_grateful
You might like to try this as a strategy to remind yourself that you are on the 21 day challenge.
http://www.ted.com/talks/david_steindl_rast_want_to_be_happy_be_grateful
Gratitude tickets
This section shares some of the gratitude tickets from the 12 month project. The oldest ticket is at the bottom of the page - and you can double click on a ticket to enlarge it.
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