Gratitude Box for 2016

In my never ending quest to cultivate more positivity in my life, I’ve been toying with the idea of having a gratitude jar or box for quite a while. I’ve seen countless posts on pinterest from people who made positivity jars or gratitude jars. Basically, you decorate a container of some sort and every day you write one thing that you’re grateful for and toss it in (this can be anything at all, your family, your friends, an ice cream cone- whatever your heart pleases!)

At the end of the year, you take out all the notes and read through them to revisit all the beautiful moments you were grateful for the past year. For 2016, instead of making resolutions and not keeping them, I decided to take on this little project and see where it goes. The posts I’ve seen online typically use mason jars or some glass container for their notes but because I’m a worrier and I have little siblings, my mind immediately wonders “what if it fell and broke?”  

So for my gratitude project, I actually chose a box to put my notes into. It’s sturdier and quite a bit bigger. I’m a rambler so I’m going to have long notes and 365 of those will take up some space! I picked up my box from Michaels and my idea of decorating it was putting a little label in the handle that says gratitude box. That counts right? (lie to me and say it counts ^_^) It’s a very pretty little box with a vibrant red lid and covered in a London-esque theme, so it doesn’t really need decoration. My gratitude box is for 2016 but I couldn’t wait for the new year so I started it a few days ago because why not right? It’s never too early to start being grateful for the good things in life.

Every night before going to bed, I sit before this box and think about my day. When I’ve selected a moment (or few) that I’d like to express gratitude for, I grab a pen and write it all down. As I mentioned, I’m a rambler so I go on for a while and just write down whatever comes naturally. Then I fold it up and place it in the box with its little fellow notes and head off to bed. Even though I’ve only been doing it for a few days now, I can't help but notice an immediate upswing in my mood when I do this little exercise every night. I go to bed feeling very peaceful and content, I’m quite enjoying it! It’s also starting to shift the way I perceive things. When I have a negative experience, instead of complaining about it, I find myself feeling grateful because it could definitely be worse. I suffer from anxiety (which comes and goes) and this little project has also helped me deal with it when it rears its unpleasant head. On the whole, I thoroughly recommend doing this. It takes barely five minutes every day and the benefits are so worth it. 

I thought I’d share my little project with you, lovely reader, and possibly motivate you to start one of your own. It’s a fun little exercise to do with children or by yourself every night to remind yourself just how good you have it. It’s so easy to get caught up in tiny insignificant worries and make enormous, intimidating mountains out of them. We forget all that we have going for us and focus only on the minor disturbances. It’s important to take a step back every now and then and appreciate all that we have. 

I’d love to know what you’re grateful for today, tell me in the comments! :)

P.S. In the interest of honesty, this is what my box usually looks like with a pen and scraps of paper thrown right in so I don't have to hunt for them. I took them out for the picture above to make it look a bit neater and more aesthetically pleasing. Oh what shallow creatures we humans are!