The one thing you ought to know about me is that I have a penchant for books, and blog posts on personal development. If you follow me on Instagram (@sakuamanda), you would know that I went all out at the Big Bad Wolf book sale last year, and got myself plenty of self-help books. In reading them I noticed a common theme: gratitude.

Gratitude simply means being thankful, and acknowledging your blessings. It involves a mental shift from a focus on what is lacking or what is wrong with life, to what is going right and what is  available to you in abundance. The author of 'Positivity', Barbara L. Frederickson, maintains that the mere act of counting your blessings each day can increase positivity. It can transform what seems like mundane everyday aspects of life into events that make your heart skip a beat.

Furthermore she suggests that positivity, and in extension, gratitude opens our hearts. This creates an urge to give back, and engage in acts to 'pay it forward', thereby inspiring others and nourishing our social relationships. However a conscious mental shift to acknowledge the positive and find creative means of transforming the negative into positive is necessary.

I figured, if writing down a few things I'm grateful for in the morning would make me a more positive person, why not try it and see. After all, hypotheses testing is what we do. The results from that short amount of time were resounding and hence were worth writing about, in my opinion.

How I did it:

While there are ample journals available online, I found them to be somewhat overwhelming for a beginner. Hence I created a simple template for a journal entry for each day with just two slots to fill out (apart from the date and an inspiring quote). This way I also have no excuses for not completing the daily entries.

How it went:



The first day was admittedly tough. I had no idea what to write about, and hence wrote vague sentiments about feeling grateful for my family, and friends. In the next few days I learned to be more specific about what I was grateful for, like the support of my friends or the unconditional acceptance I receive from my parents. I noticed how I was more perceptive of the subtleties of every day things, especially the ones taken for granted. For example, I noted how much I appreciated my mom making me a cup of tea in the morning (she makes the best tea!).

In recapping my day, I found that despite a few negative incidents I had plenty of reasons to be happy. Something as simple as a compliment from someone, or an epic meme shared by a friend made it into the highlights of the day. I realised how easy it was to dwell on the negative aspects of life, maybe a put-down from a coworker, or experiencing difficult emotions like anxiety about an impending presentation. Being completely absorbed by the darkness of these events, it'd easy to forget to appreciate the more beautiful and positive moments of the day. This reminded me of my favourite quote by Dumbledore, that  'Happiness can be found even in the darkest times if one only remembers to turn on the light'.

Would I develop this as a habit?:
Absolutely! If anything, this little experiment served as a reminder for me to be more appreciative of what I have. As poetic as it sounds, I now find it relieving to take a few minutes to look at the pink-orange sky in the evening to be thankful for everything that I have.
I urge all of you to try this, even if it's just for a week, because you WILL see a change in your life. You can find a gratitude journal online, or simply download this worksheet and fill out the slots to compile your own gratitude journal.