Playful Rooted

Good morning, friends!

I’m not sure how many of you reading this followed me on Instagram back when I was still using it, but I shared pretty extensively there about my struggle with postpartum anxiety. Man oh man. It was a doozy. To sum it up: anxiety is a roller coaster ride you can’t get off of, and I thought I had experienced it before, but I had not. You can’t understand it until you’ve been through it, but it’s absolutely brutal.

Anyway!

Some good did come from the torture of postpartum anxiety because I found a lot of tools and strategies for coping. I had heard about gratitude journals before, but I never actually embraced the concept until three different people who were close to my anxiety situation encouraged me to try it.

I started jotting things down here and there, and it actually did help. Eventually, I decided I wanted to begin a more formal and organized gratitude practice, so I started looking for the right fit. I quickly found it in, duh duh dah duuuuh:

The 6-Minute Diary!

In the introductory text of this journal, the guy who created it says that you shouldn’t worry about spilling stuff on it or whatever because that gives it its own story and personality. A unique, one-of-a-kind creation. Wanna know what the stain is on mine? ………….. It’s breastmilk. It is juice squeezed from a person.

Okay, recovering from that overshare, let me tell you about this fantastic journal!

Before it ever gives you a space for writing down the things you’re grateful for, there are over fifty pages of amazing information on gratitude and positivity and how scientific studies of the brain have proven that these things have a MASSIVE effect. I was honestly riveted by all of this info. Having been through some rough situations in my life, and coming out the other side of them, I 10000% believe that our minds are capable of shaping our reality. The way we choose to perceive and exist in the world is intensely powerful.

But even if that info doesn’t give you goosebumps, this journal is still amazing. It’s called the 6-Minute Diary because it’s supposed to take you six minutes, total, to do it each day; those six minutes are split up into three in the morning and three in the evening. Easy peasy lemon squeezy.

In the morning, you list three things that you’re grateful for, some ways you’ll make the day great, and a positive affirmation. Your affirmation can be the same every day, or you can choose different ones for different days. There’s evidence that either can be an effective strategy in setting you up for success.

So listing three things you’re grateful for every day sounds pretty easy, yes? Your family, your friends, your job or your partner’s job, having food to eat and water to drink, having a warm, safe home, etc. But, once you’ve listed out all those obvious things, it does get a little challenging to diversify. That’s honestly where I’ve seen the most growth in gratitude, though! For instance, once I read a book about a man with aphasia, and it was absolutely heartbreaking how he couldn’t remember the words he wanted to say. So, there you go: I’m grateful that I can express myself the way I want to without even thinking about it. Or my parents’ neighbor was recently struck (stricken? I never know.) with unexpected and heart-wrenching memory loss; I’m grateful that I have all my memories. I’m grateful that my children’s hearts and lungs and brains work the way they’re supposed to. I’m grateful that I can read. I’m grateful that I can take a hot shower with soap and shampoo, whenever I want. I’m grateful that my ears work and I can hear my kids laughing and screaming. And on and on. It’s truly life-changing to notice ALL THE THINGS that you’re so blessed with that you don’t even think about until you realize you could not have them. In fact, many people don’t have them. It’s life. changing. to appreciate those things.

In the evening, you list a good deed you did that day, anything you want to improve upon, and three great things you experienced that day. Now, I will say that doing a good deed every day has been a little bit of a challenge in these wild quarantine times. Often my good deed is leaving an online review of a product or service. Sometimes it’s keeping my cool and not yelling at my kids when I really wanted to. 😉 Whatever works.

In addition to the daily routines, there are five weekly questions. They’re different each week, and they really get you to delve a little bit deeper into your mind and create the positive things you want to see in your life. These questions only take about five minutes, so there’s no huge time investment, but it’s a valuable addition to the daily practice.

Throughout the journal, there are helpful tips (like what to do if you fall off track), habit trackers that remind you to work on the good habits you want to create, and special quotes. I particularly like this one:

Isn’t that such a powerful idea? I just really love this journal. It’s so thoughtfully designed, it’s pretty, and it really has changed my whole perspective on life and gratitude (especially when I was deep in the midst of horrible anxiety).

Even if you don’t use this particular journal, I can’t recommend enough starting a daily gratitude practice of your own! You never know what you take for granted until you actually have a good look around and think about it. We’re all so lucky. We are so, so, so lucky. Let’s be grateful for all that we have.

xo!