One of the unfortunate quirks of the human brain is that it’s much easier for us to fixate on everything that’s bad in our lives than it is to see all the good (aka the ‘negativity bias’).
We ruminate endlessly on our mistakes, constantly overthink, and get ourselves down about everything we’re not good at or haven’t achieved yet.
This causes sadness and frustration, and so far, gratitude is the only thing I’ve found that washes that negativity away.
Taking a moment to acknowledge what’s good, what is working, and to allow yourself to enjoy it makes a profound difference to our ability to be creative and productive.
If I’m beating up on myself all the time, I just want to sleep and hermit. But if I can find things to be grateful for, it creates a virtuous cycle.
Being grateful makes me creative. Being creative makes me productive. Being productive results in good things happening, which in turn, makes me grateful.
It’s just another reason I’m so big on journalling.
Keeping a written record builds an absolute treasure trove of things to be grateful for: things that have improved over time, good things that happened unexpectedly, risks that paid off for you, hard choices that have made things better.
So today I’d like to invite you to spend some time writing about what’s good in your life. It doesn’t have to be exhaustive, you don’t have to spend hours on it. Just write down what you’re feeling grateful for today, and why. Your future self will thank you for it.