Join me in my plan to make a Gratitude Adjustment

Every once in a while at The Happiness Plan, we address the issue of gratitude as it relates to happiness. If you need a refresher, happiness experts and research preach that practising regular acts of gratitude or thankfulness for things and people in your life can increase your level of happiness. It’s a subject I’ve touched on many times (like here) and I have promised to start practising this myself.

But — like many things in my life — I need an incentive and strategy to make it happen: after all, I don’t run unless I’m training for a race and I don’t write unless I’m working towards a deadline. But, like you, I’d like to be a happier person, which is why I’m using this space to kick off The Gratitude Adjustment today.

What is The Gratitude Adjustment? It’s my plan to start practising gratitude for the things in my life on a regular basis. Actually, while I’m doing it myself, I’m hoping to also help boost the gratitude levels in my kids to help them become happier people as well.

Here’s my plan: I do most things electronically these days and have simply set up a journal-style file to start writing down regularly what I’m thankful for in my life. While it’s something I’d like to get to daily, I just don’t see that happening and instead have set more modest goals of writing my gratitude thoughts down once a week. To ensure I don’t forget, I’ve also set up as a weekly reminder in my e-calendar. As for my kids, they’ve already got too much paper, notebooks, etc. all floating around so instead I’m hoping to do it more casual conversational-style over dinner, asking them: What are you thankful for in your lives? I've got another e-reminder for this — it’s in my calendar to ask them at dinner so it doesn’t slip under the radar of our busy lives.

So where do you come in? Well, two weeks from today I’ll share some initial thoughts of some things I am grateful for and tell you a little about why I’m grateful for them. And I’m hoping my disclosure will encourage your disclosure as well — I’d love for readers to share what they’re grateful for in their own lives, or if they too have made a Gratitude Adjustment-style plan in their lives and how it’s working, or whatever you feel like sharing. And then in two weeks, we’ll choose a submission to feature here on the blog.

How can you share with us? Drop me a line below to share your story. Or share with me on Twitter (@AstridVanDenB) or on Chatelaine’s Facebook page. Looking forward to hearing from you, and good luck with your own Gratitude Adjustment!

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