The Gratitude Jar

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At this beginning of this year I shared with everyone my desire to work on gratitude. Well here we are, a quarter of the way through the year (isn’t that crazy?) and I’d like to give you an update.

So when I started off on this journey, I had no idea how to go about adding more gratitude into my life. I knew that it wasn’t going to be something I could just add to a to-do list and check off. No. It was all about changing my mindset. Making my brain default to finding the good in situations, or the things that I should be thankful for. And this, I knew, was going to require some rewiring.

I knew in order to do this, I would need a physical reminder. Something that I could see, something I could touch, something that would remind me that I needed to be grateful.

Around this time, I ran into an article about a woman who had made a jar of happy moments. She added to it throughout the year, and then she’d open it at the end of the year. When I read this I said ‘Aha. I’ll make a gratitude jar.’

First, I needed to figure out how to make this jar. Below, I’ve created a table listing all of the equipment that I’ve been using to create and maintain this jar, along with a note about why each piece was helpful. Trust me, this isn’t a huge crafty undertaking, so if I can do it I know you can.

Next I needed rules. These are what I came up with.

1. Each Saturday, I’d write something on a slip of paper that I was thankful for and put it in the jar.
2. The thing I wrote had to have happened to me during the week.
3. The thing couldn’t be vague. So I couldn’t say, I’m happy I have shelter, unless there was something that week, that really drove that point.

That was it.

The goal was to make sure I was actively looking for things to write down as the week progressed. This meant, gratitude should always be on my mind, even when I had to search a little harder for it.

What’s happened since then has been amazing. At first it was pretty easy, because I had a few great weeks back to back. But then I had a rough week, and I found myself obsessing over what I was going to put in my jar on Saturday. But it was funny, because since I was so busy thinking of all of the things that I had to be grateful for, I didn’t have time to dwell on my less than perfect week.

Even better, some weeks I haven’t been able to wait for Saturday to put something in my jar. On those weeks, I’ve put multiple things in my jar.

In short, it’s becoming easier to default to gratitude.

Another benefit is, as my jar fills, it’s become a physical reminder of all the things I have to be grateful for. If I’m having a rough day, I can look over at my jar and say, wow. God’s done all of that for me? And it’s only March!

I’d highly recommend a “fill-in-your-personal-struggle-here” jar to anyone out there. Whether you’re trying to overcome fear or make some changes in your life, this jar can help!

Whatever you are trying to conquer, why not have a visual reminder of every time you have a win? It’ll give you confidence on your low days, and something to work towards on your good days.

Well, I hope everyone else is having success with your goals. Give me your progress reports down below! I’ll be back next quarter with another update.

Make life sweet and learn all you can.