Gratitude Jar
This world. It’s great isn’t it. We have all the mod cons. All the stuff our ancestors could never have imagined. All these opportunities we receive, all the love, the recoveries from illnesses….the blessings we have. We often forget them. It’s human nature (unless you actively rewire your brain) to concentrate on negatives rather than positives. Call it society. Call it normal. Whatever you want to class it as it’s an active block in your life.
My personal journey with GRATITUDE is I keep a gratitude diary. I fill out the diary with three things I am thankful for everyday. I’ve been doing this for a while now. It’s been a part of my own personal developmental journey. You see until you can see what the good stuff in your life is you cannot dispel the negative. Your thought process needs to move to positives. You need to concentrate on the good. The light. And then multiply them.
It’s Laws of Attraction. Like attracts like. You think about the good, you concentrate on the good. You focus on the good.
You then manifest MORE of the same/similar.
We’ve all had negative experiences where we’ve got out of bed and the day has started rough. We’ve muttered ‘flippin’ great’ and the next thing you know you’ve poured coffee down your white shirt, your toast is burnt, your car engine has overheated and you are late for your annual review. You then have to combat the rush hour traffic on public transport. You open your post and there’s an invite to your exes Wedding. Because at the start of a less than happy day things started a rough and we were like “what else can go WRONG” and the universe answers your vibes that you are sending out in the way you are manifesting via your attitude.
So to increase goodness we concentrate on GOOD VIBES ONLY.
As a Muslim gratitude is attitude. We’re taught to be thankful for the blessings and also count the lessons. And what doesn’t kill is it teaching something to us and we need to grow from it.
Rather than allow my daughters to get into the habit of concentrating on the negative I’ve introduced a Gratitude Jar into the weekly family activities. The idea is to get everyone in the family to think of at least one thing they are grateful for over the week and write it down. We then place it in the jar. Then when the year is done we will read our slips and put them in an envelop for future reference.
The idea is to get into the habits of expressing gratitude and acknowledging the good in life. It’s also a way of reflecting on our lives (I’m a firm believer in reflection to improve ourselves). And the more we thankful the more we attract of the same good stuff.
It’s a great activity to do as a family and it costs next to nothing to do.
Materials needed:
Paper (we use coloured craft paper. We’ve got A4 size mixed colours. The pack cost £4.00 and will last us more than a year.
A jar-I upcycled a jar by writing on it a verse from the Holy Quran
(If you are grateful I will give you more 14:7).
We use various pens to write out our slips.
And apart from that you don’t need anything else.
So go on; increase your gratitude as a family and see how the positive attitude brings in more positive vibes for you all.
