2 regular practices that positively impact my life

I have 2 regular practices that I have found really impact my life in a positive way.

And to remind me to do them, I have 2 notebooks permanently by my bedside table:

1. A Gratitude Journal
2. A Learning Journal

They’re both very simple practices, but I’m amazed at what a difference they make.

Here they are :

1. Practising Gratitude

This is exactly what it sounds like – it involves, at the end of the day, remembering what good things happened that day that I can be grateful for. It can be anything from :

• sunny weather (we don’t get a lot of that in the UK!),
• to a surprise gift a friend gave me,
• to feeling grateful for our little dog, Chocolate.

What took me by surprise was that it taught me to FOCUS ON THE GOOD in my life, rather than dwelling on the negative, and has had a positive impact on my overall feelings about my life.

When we LOOK FOR the good things, however small, it is amazing how easy it is to find things about our life that we can be so thankful for.

I don’t do it every day, but as often as possible. Try it – just look for 3 THINGS that you can be grateful for, and write them down in a journal.

What also amazes me is how quickly we forget the good things that have happened – and a wonderful consequence of writing them down is that I get to go through my journal and read them again. And of course, I then get to remind myself that life is better than I sometimes think it is.

 

2. Journaling My Learnings

This involves becoming more aware of the lessons that each day can teach me – how quickly we can forget these too!

It may be :

• a nugget of wisdom that I gleaned from a book I was reading that day,
• a quote,
• a bible verse,
• or something someone said to me.
• It could even be a pearl gleaned from Facebook – who knows, right? 😉

What I then do is briefly write down the gem that I learnt that day, something that struck me in particular and added value to my life. Something that inspired me in some way. Or something that teaches me how to improve an area of my life and I don’t want to forget it, to make sure that I implement it instead of just reading it and not doing anything with that useful information.

Soon I have a collection of these pieces of wise advice that I can also look back through, and remind myself to apply to my life.

 

So what about you? Do you have daily or weekly practices that have enhanced your life? What are they? I’d love to hear!