My Daily Personal and Family Gratitude Practices (That Are Game Changers!)

Happy 2019!

As you are diving into creating your best year ever, I want to share with you something that has been significant in my own life: A regular gratitude practice. I absolutely love this past November’s holiday of Thanksgiving (especially the pumpkin pie!) but for me, really, Thanksgiving is something I celebrate every single day of my life.

There are a few different ways that I practice gratitude daily. I have a gratitude journal that I typically write in every morning after I meditate. I list five or so things that I am grateful for. These can be simple things like the smell of a fresh pot of coffee, or the beautiful leaves on the trees outside my office window. Or big things like my children, my family, and my beautiful home that I love. I acknowledge and write down regularly what I’m grateful for.

This practice has increased my daily happiness level. I find more and more things every single day to be grateful for whether they’re big or small. There are lots of gifts in our lives if we slow down and get mindful enough to notice them. Sometimes I do my gratitude journaling before bed, especially if it’s been a difficult day. I want to go to bed with good thoughts on my brain.

If I’m in a funk and can’t seem to get out of it, I will stop and practice gratitude. I might just say what I’m grateful for in my head, but if I really can’t get out of the funk then I get into my journal and write it down. I notice that my perspective and my attitude shifts energetically, almost instantly. With gratitude there comes a shift into joy and peace.

I’ve also created a gratitude practice with my family. Even though my boys are a bit young (they’re two and four years old) at nighttime when we do our bedtime routine, we say our “gratefuls.” I share three things that I’m grateful for, and then my son, Maverick will share with me three things that he’s grateful for. From him they started out really simple like, “I’m grateful for my family, and for God, and for this universe, and for my house.” He shared the big, obvious ones. Now he’s starting to get more specific as he’s seen me identify things like an experience, an opportunity, a moment, or any of the many big and small blessings in my life. He’ll say things like, “I’m grateful for getting to play with my neighbor friends tonight.” Or, “I’m grateful for eating apples with Daddy at bed time.”

It’s a cool way to see what’s going on in his developing mind and to teach him the power of gratitude. A friend of mine does her gratitude practice with her family during dinner time. They go around the table and say what they’re grateful for. Her girls are a little older than my boys so she says she hears some cool things from them about what they’re up to at school or what they consider fun.

I encourage you to practice gratitude daily, too, not only on Thanksgiving. We all have so much to be grateful for. In fact, I want to take the opportunity to tell you that I am grateful for YOU!

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