Catherine Corley - Gratitude!

A new year and a new beginning!  Last year, my resolutions included getting healthy, losing weight once and for all, and keeping a gratitude journal.  

This coming year is only my second time in my adult life that I won't have to make weight loss a New Year's resolution!  Wow, that feels pretty great.  I still need to get healthier, but that is a process.

So today I am going to talk about gratitude.  One of the greatest things you can do for your own mental health is to keep a gratitude journal.  I have a journal called "Journal 10+."  Actually, I have two of them.  One to use as a regular journal and one to use as a gratitude journal.  You write on the same page for each date for eleven years, about four lines per day so it's easy to keep with it.  (Google it, it's worth the $40.)  There are carry-over pages in the back for days when you want to write more.  So each day you can see what you wrote that day on every year before.  It's really cool and a great way to remember where you have been and how far you have come.

Studies show that people who keep gratitude journals or lists of things they are grateful for live happier and healthier lives.  I didn't do the study, obviously, but I know in my own life, if I wake up every morning and one of the first things I do is write down five to ten things I'm grateful for, my day starts on a happy note.  I try to do it every single day without fail.

I read a great book at the end of 2011 by Debbie Macomber called "One Perfect Word."  She has written a few great non-fiction books, but that one was so important to me.  She said to choose a word for each year (I often choose a secondary word for each day).  I chose my word then for 2012, which happened to be "Gratitude."  By the way, I would be very grateful if I could meet Debbie Macomber, her non-fiction books have inspired me to be a better person.  Meeting her is on my bucket list!

Gratitude - The quality or feeling of being grateful or thankful.  A small word but it packs a punch.  

I have met my 2012 New Year's resolutions.  I lost the weight I needed to lose.  I got a healthier, if only by a portion (some things are out of my complete control).  I kept my gratitude journal and I know what I am grateful for each day.

I'm grateful for my faith and the incredible members of our church (which I am happy to be back to having grown up there).  I'm grateful I was raised by amazing parents who loved me unconditionally, I still miss them every day.  I'm grateful for the love of women in my church who nurtured me as a teenager to help me become the woman I am.  I'm grateful I have life-long friends who I still keep in touch with or see on regular occasions.  I'm grateful for new friends I've made who make me laugh, smile and keep on going!  I'm grateful for the people who read my blogs and who care what I have to say!

But, most of all, I'm grateful for my loving, wonderful, insane blended family and the fun we have together.  Jim, Kate, Jon, Molly and Ruth!  I am so grateful for each of you and how you take such good care of me -- emotionally and physically.

I'm grateful for hope.  I'm thankful I found love.  I cherish all my memories.

I'm grateful I understand gratitude and I hope I never take anything I have for granted.

Take care of your health!  And start working on your emotional health be beginning a gratitude journal of your own!



Please check out my other blog SimplePathsForward.blogspot.com where I am going to start posting fitness and weight loss advice