Thanksgiving was just a few days ago, and I encourage you to maintain that spirit of gratitude! The end of the year is approaching, and it’s a great time to review your 2022 to see what made it great, and what you can do without.
Grab a pen and some paper (or start an email to yourself!) and let’s make a Grateful List for 2022.
Who are you grateful for?
Are there certain friends or family members you’re particularly grateful for this year? Spend a few minutes writing down why you’re grateful for them. Were they extra supportive during a hard time? Did they help you with something? Are they just really fun to hang out with? Putting it into words can solidify their impact in your memory, and make you appreciate them that much more. Let them know how you feel, too! Expressing gratitude for people we care about makes everyone feel warm and fuzzy.
What are you grateful for?
Maybe it’s the roof over your head, or your car. Maybe it’s a big mug of hot chocolate! Writing down the things in your life that make it better is another good exercise. When we appreciate what we have, we’re less likely to buy stuff we don’t need.
This list doesn’t have to be just physical objects, either! Maybe you’re grateful for walks along the beach, or meditation. I’m always grateful for time spent cuddling my dog. Writing down which experiences and feelings are important to you also creates a list of things you can do to enrich your life that don’t take up any space or cost any money!
What AREN’T you grateful for?
2022 wasn’t all sunshine and roses, and making a Grateful List isn’t about toxic positivity. To let go of negativity, you have to first acknowledge it. Evaluate your life, and see what would be better left in the past. Some things–like taxes, traffic, and bad weather–there’s not much to do about but get through. But in creating your UNgrateful list, you may be surprised by how many things it IS possible to let go of!
One thing I feel no gratitude for? Junk mail! Instead of accepting that it comes in and hangs out in piles around the house, do something about it! Go through those piles and recycle what you can. Opt for paperless statements for banking and utility payments to stop paper from coming to your mailbox. Put a recycling bin right by the door so the junk mail gets no further than a foot into your home. Or learn how to do origami, and make cool junk-mail art!
If your closet is so full of clothes that you can’t keep up, let go of that laundry stress by doing a clothing purge. Donate what you don’t like or wear often to someone who could use it, and enjoy more closet space and less folding. If you get stuck, give us a call and we’ll help you through it!
What are you bringing into 2023? What are you leaving behind? Tell me in the comments!
Leaving behind a narcissistic people who tell me that I deserve nothing and I should have I think causing me to have too much to prove a point…. I will gladly leave that Desire to have a lot behind Along with those that caused it.
Yes! You deserve to have kind and supportive people in your life.
I love that you shared this important reminder! We all forget to be grateful.
It’s essential to be specific when determining what you are grateful for.
Some years ago, I did a gratitude journal during the year, and wow, I was impressed with how much I was grateful for and how happy I was throughout the year.
It’s such a nice mood boost to list what’s great in your life!
I love a good gratitude list! But with that, your suggestion for an “ungrateful” list is brilliant. Because those things create stress in our lives, we can do something about it once we identify what “it” is. That might include letting something go so we can move on.
Yes! It’s hard to make change when you don’t know WHAT needs to change.
I write in a gratitude journal every morning. I try and keep coming up with different things, which is getting harder since I’ve been at this for years. But it is pretty amazing how there are always positive blessings, even on the hardest days.
What am I not grateful for? Cold wind. As soon as the cold sets in, I start looking at real estate in Florida. Not that I’m seriously in the market, but it is a nice distraction. In the meantime, I sit near my Sunbeam HeatDish, which makes me happy (and for which I am thankful LOL!).
Haha, stay warm Seana!