Kind Promise: I will appreciate blessings.
My discomforts shoulder their way into my consciousness. They demand action and they want it right now! At their insistence, much of my energy is diverted into imagining how to fix and improve myself and, unfortunately, my loved ones. My entire family should have a better diet and our finances should be in better shape. I should exercise more. I shouldn’t judge or criticize anyone (except, apparently, myself). Once in action, the fixing and improving monster takes no time at all to roar into high speed and stay there.
Gratitude takes my foot off the gas and allows me to coast. I am filled with gratitude for what brings me joy, so my Delights of the Day habit is really a gratitude journal. My only task is to notice when my shoulders relax and the corners of my mouth turn up. I can feel joy bubbling up inside me. It’s a short distance from beauty to delight to gratitude.
Posting my Delights every Friday seems self-indulgent, but it’s an important piece of the process for me. Realizing that I will share my delights online provides an extra reason to collect them.
At the beginning of each week, I make space in my Journal for my delights list. Most mornings, I write a delight for the day before. Sometimes I forget and write delights for the previous couple days. Sometimes I REALLY forget and have to practice forgiving myself.
Happily, there are no shoulds in gratitude. Gratitude does not demand anything that isn’t there. No fixing. No improvements. Just gasps of wonder and sighs of appreciation.