For the past couple of years now, I’ve been using The Five Minute Journal consistently as a way of recording what I’m grateful for, thinking about how to make my day as good as possible, selecting a positive affirmation and making a note of the main highlights each evening. There are so many positives about this journalling system, which, as the name suggests, can be filled in very quickly using the prompts given. So, you might wonder why I’ve made the decision to stop using it? Today, I’m going to be sharing my main reasons and also talking about what I’ve started using instead.
Why I’m no longer using The Five Minute Journal
As you can see in the photo above, I’ve worked my way through four of The Five Minute Journals lasting six months each. I’ve mainly enjoyed using this guided journal with daily prompts, but a few months ago, I started to think about trying something else. This was mainly because I felt like my practise was getting a bit stale and repetitive and wanted something that I would really look forward to filling in twice a day. Here’s some of the things which have made me fall out of love with it:
The Gratitude section – I found this first bit really difficult to fill in when half asleep in the early morning. I would have preferred to list what I was thankful for in the evening so I could draw from things which had happened during my day.
The ‘What would make today great?’ section – I liked coming up with things that would make a difference to my day but I also felt like I wanted to explain why and the journal did not allow enough space for this. I think I would have preferred it if the section was a little more flexible so that you could maybe write one thing and provide an explanation or 2 or 3 things without going into detail.
The Daily Affirmation section – I liked choosing an affirmation for the day but I did sometimes struggle with coming up with one and had to resort to looking on the Internet for ideas which kind of made the process take a lot longer than five minutes.
Highlights Of The Day section – I continued to enjoy writing my highlights and often found myself writing a fourth one. I would have liked a bit more room to write in more detail for this part but, this would have taken longer than five minutes to complete if it was longer.
What did I learn today? section – For this part, the idea was to write something that the day had taught you about yourself or your situation, so, for example you could write ‘scrolling the news on my phone makes me feel sad’ or ‘sometimes when I feel hungry, I’m actually thirsty and should try drinking water before turning to a snack’. Often, I found this difficult and would end up writing something general that I’d learnt that day such as a new piece of knowledge or some advice that I’d come across. However, I felt that these ‘learnings’ were not really what the section was getting at. I felt like this became a drag and something I dreaded trying to fill in which isn’t how I wanted to feel as filling in the journal is meant to be a positive experience.
Weekly Challenges – these were something I looked forward to, but, I didn’t always have time on the particular day it was presented on and I often ended up forgetting about it when really, it would have been better to do it on an alternative date. Also, I think I would have preferred it if there was a menu of options at the back of the book and you could choose one which suited you at that time.
Despite me not wanting to purchase another ‘The Five Minute Journal’, what I didn’t want to do was abandon journalling altogether. And, luckily, I found an alternative journal in a garden centre whilst I was visiting family. My new journal is beautiful to look at, great to write in (much better quality paper) and allows more flexibility with what you can write about. I create a morning and evening entry and I would say it takes me no longer than ten minutes in the morning and no longer than fifteen in the evening. It’s helped me to fall in love with journalling again and I’m really enjoying filling it in. It also has an extra little prompt each day which changes regularly and, every now and then, it has something different on the next page which you can choose to fill in at some point during your day.
My New Journal
Below, is the journal that I’ve just started using partway through this month. I picked it up at Easter time and was really looking forward to getting going with it. I’ve also photographed some pages to give you an idea about the morning and evening prompts and also some of the extra challenges that are dotted throughout the book. You’ll also see that it has some gorgeous illustrations too which definitely adds to the appeal!
Photo credit: Laura Jones for Keeping It Creative
Photo credit: Laura Jones for Keeping It Creative
Photo credit: Laura Jones for Keeping It Creative
Photo credit: Laura Jones for Keeping It Creative
Final words…
Any regular practice in life can sometimes get a little boring and become hard to maintain interest in, so it can really help to shake things up every now and then. I’m interested to know if other journallers have ditched a particular form of journalling and tried something new. Sometimes change can be scary but often, it can also be invigorating too. I would love to hear what you think of my new journal and if it appeals to you too so let me know in the comments.
The Summer is here bringing sunshine and blue skies plus my three monthly life check in and a short update. I encourage all of my readers to give this a go, either as a blog post or handwritten in a journal. They’re great to look back on over the months and years to see how life changes.
Currently reading…
… 5 books at the same time! This is unusual for me as I usually read a fiction book on my Kindle in bed on a night and a non-fiction self development style book in the morning with my coffee but my Five Minute Journal weekly challenge last week was to revisit a previously loved book and I’ve been dipping in and out of two of Amy Tan and Abbey Sy books over the last couple of months. I’m enjoying all of my current reads:
The Midnight House by Amanda Geard
Walk: The Path to a More Mindful Life by Sholto Radford (re-read)
The Art of the Travel Journal by Abbey Sy
Twelve Moons: A Year Under a Shared Sky by Caro Giles (a beautifully poetic memoir)
Craft a Life You Love by Amy Tangerine
Currently creating…
… helpful BuJo spreads for our trip to Norfolk. So far, I have a map showing our route and estimated journey time (a screenshot from Google), information about our accommodation, a list of places to visit such as National Trust properties, wetland centres and the broads, plus veggie and vegan cafes and restaurants nearby. Next to create is my packing list which I hope to get done this afternoon.
Currently journalling…
… in my handmade TN insert of a recent trip to Raby Castle for a walk around the grounds and deer park, photos of our new hanging basket and cute yellow hanging tin container, plus a bit about the sun and star necklace that I treated myself to with some of my wages from my uni work (I might have purchased it three weeks before I actually got paid!).
Currently enjoying…
… watching the wildlife in our back garden. Yesterday, there was a huge party of about 15 juvenile starlings on our lawn dipping their beaks in the grass searching for tasty morsels. Out new sunflower hearts seed feeder is very popular with the sparrows and the fat balls are a firm favourite with all of the birds. After dark, I love sitting on our bench, watching a pair of bats hoovering up months and occasionally I catch a glimpse of a visiting hedgehog crunching on his nightly saucer of biscuits. If the hog comes late, we can always check our wildlife cam footage the next day too.
Currently learning…
… more about gardening. So far, I’ve read up on plants for shady areas, how to deal with green and black fly without chemicals, how to grow my own rainbow chard and more about our recent plant purchases. There’s always lots more to learn and websites like the Gardeners’ World and RHS ones are full of helpful information. Also, my mum has been a keen gardener for many years now so has a wealth of experience to draw on to help us.
Currently eating…
… lots of salads and vegan poke bowls as it’s too warm to have the oven on. We had our first poke (pronounced poh-kay) bowl in Vienna and they’re amazing. Plus you can add a rainbow of veggies which makes them super healthy as well.
Currently drinking…
… Pimms and lemonade with fresh strawberries and pineapple mint from our garden. Well, when I say currently, I don’t mean I have a glass on the go right now at 2pm but later in the evening sat outside in the garden is perfect. I also love flavoured cider at this time of year and my favourites are Brother’s Toffee Apple and Strawberry & Lime from Aldi.
Final words…
That’s it for my life update. I hope you enjoyed reading what I’m currently up to. Let me know in the comments if you give this kind of journalling a go and where you choose to write your lists.
This month I finished reading The Art of Making Memories: How to create and remember happy moments by Meik Wiking. I actually started it last year, but I put it to one side and picked it up again around the middle of October. I’d forgotten many of the key points and ideas, so I re-started from the beginning and spent 20 minutes each morning, reading and highlighting. This has now become part of my early routine and takes place in a super comfortable chair by the window to give myself a good dose of natural light. And, as one of my current affirmations on my vision board is ‘I use self-development books to help me grow’, I’m working hard to apply my learning and decided it would be a good idea to share some of the ideas on here too. I’m also going to talk about some of my own suggestions for memory keeping such as journalling, photography, scrapbooking, memorabilia displays and memory boxes, plus a few more ideas I found online.
Why are memories important?
Rather than provide my own thoughts on the above question, I collected a few ideas from others to share:
Happy memories are essential to our mental health. They strengthen our identity, sense of purpose and relationships.
Rangan Chattergee
There are important moments that make up our life’s narrative. We remember the defining moments in our lives, the moments that made us who we are, the moments where we became who we hoped we could be.
Meik Wiking, The Art of Making Memories
I love those random memories that make me smile no matter what is going on in my life right now.
The moment may be temporary but the memory is forever.
Bud Meyer
‘Happy memories form the cornerstone of our identity, and can help with combating depression and loneliness,’ says Wiking. ‘They influence our happiness in the current moment, as well as providing a framework for our hopes and dreams about the future.’ Nostalgia makes us happy, increasing self-esteem and strengthening social connectedness, so the more vividly we remember the good times, the happier we are overall.
Meik Wiking
Memories are timeless treasures of the heart.
So how can we create a life full of happy memories to treasure?
Following extensive research conducted by the team at The Happiness Research Institute in Denmark, Meik came up eight keys ingredients for creating happy memories whether they’re of important events such as births and marriages, everyday events such as drinking good coffee and eating delicious cake in a cafe with a friend for the first time in ages, adventures such as moving to a new city, climbing a mountain or going abroad for the very first time or struggling to finish a big assignment but then being delighted with the feedback given by the course tutor. Here’s a brief explanation of each of these elements:
Unforgettable firsts
This is the idea that the very first time you experience something is likely to be remembered much better than subsequent very similar experiences. So, for example, you’re likely to remember your first time on an aeroplane, your very first pet, your first job, your first kiss etc. A great idea then, is to seek out new and novel experiences on a regular basis, the more extraordinary the better. You might like to schedule an evening in your diary or planner to find out what’s available to you and explore different options – you might organise a holiday, choose a new restaurant for a family meal (trying a new food or dish will make it even more memorable), sign up for an evening class (I recommend beginners ceramics) or plan to visit a museum is a nearby town or city.
Make it multisensory
In the classroom, during my years as a primary school teacher, one of the important ways of ensuring all children learnt well and enjoyed activities was to create multisensory experiences. These are the kinds of lessons which stay with them for years and they can still remember well after they’ve left school. This can be applied to memory making too. Don’t just experience things with your eyes, try to make sure you use all of your senses (not just sight) to take everything in. Consider if there are any particular aromas in the air, like the smell of freshly roasted coffee, the scent of cinnamon and winter spices in a pot pourri at Christmas time. Be still and listen for near and distant sounds (either pleasant or unpleasant) such as the drumming of a woodpecker in a faraway tree, the roar of the ocean or music drifting on the breeze. Take time to explore different textures such as soft knitted blankets as you get all cosy after a chilly winter walk, or smooth pebbles on the beach and you sit on the sand. Maybe as you relax and take everything in you become aware of a range of sensations, the chill of winter on your skin or the warmth of the Sun on your face in summer or the crunchy autumn leaves below your feet. Perhaps new or favourite tastes complete the scene -succulent strawberries, crunchy, salty popcorn, the sharp tang of the lemon slice in your chilled glass of Pimms and lemonade. And, as you attend to every detail of your experience, you’re engaging in one of the key aspects of mindfulness which is wonderful for your mental health too.
Pay full attention
It should come as no surprise that experiences are best remembered if you invest your complete attention on them. So, for example, if in the summer you went on a Sunday afternoon boat trip to see puffins, but you spend most of the time thinking about all of the work you have to do on Monday, you’re unlikely to remember key details like the warm sun as it sparkled on the water, the interesting facts the captain shared as you headed towards Coquet island, the joy of spying a line of cute seals bobbing in the water making sure that the boat didn’t get too close, the thousands of noisy puffins flying overhead and diving down into the water to catch sand eels, and the hundreds more birds basking in the warmth after a busy morning fishing. However, if you remain attentive during whole cruise, you’re likely to be able to recall all of the magical trip and how you felt for many years to come.
Keep it meaningful
Meaningful moments in your life are those which are of great significance or value to you, where positive emotions such as gratefulness, love, happiness, pride, warmth, peace and often, a sense of connection with loved ones is felt. These could be ‘big’ milestone moments such as finishing college or university, starting a new job, the day you got married, the birth of a child or buying your very first house. They could also be smaller events or happenings which are really important to you and your personal values, for example, for me as a wildlife and nature lover, sitting quietly with my husband in the hide at Kielder Forest, watching and listening to the woodland birds and then suddenly spotting a red squirrel taking a snack from a feeder is one of my favourite memories which I will cherish for a very long time. As well as making exciting plans to celebrate each of our birthdays and our wedding anniversary, my husband and I also make sure we schedule in plenty of other pleasurable activities and adventures for our weekends such as visits to nature reserves, riverside walks in different parts of the Northeast, trips to the theatre, lunches in various vegetarian cafes and overnight stays in quaint villages or vibrant cities.
The emotional highlighter pen
According to Meik, emotions act like a highlighter pen so experiences involving heightened emotions will stick fast in your memory. That’s why we never forget the exact details of times when we’ve felt really embarrassed (no matter how much we’d like to). ‘An emotional reaction will make experiences and moments more memorable, so the art of making memories means making the emotional highlighter pen work for you.’ This also works for exhilarating, joyful, scary, traumatic, sad and shocking events too. Next time you’re planning a holiday, try to add a few activities to the itinerary which are bound to be emotional highlights.
Peaks and struggles
Some of the milestones mentioned above such as completing your university degree, buying your first home or getting married are highly memorable events, but the struggles, stresses and hard work involved to get there is likely to be unforgettable too. There’s so much involved in planning your wedding day that working full time and having a long to do list of preparations months and weeks before can be so stressful and exhausting that when the day arrives it’s such a relief that it (mostly!) went to plan, and you can enjoy what should be one of the happiest occasions of your life.
Meik shares these happy memory tips:
save the best for last – e.g., if giving a few gifts to your partner for their birthday or Christmas, save the most precious / exciting one until the end, when creating a holiday itinerary, do something with the ‘wow’ factor on the last day etc.
make the journey part of the experience and try taking the long route – for example, go on a gentle and relaxing boat trip along the river to the other side of the city or hire a bike for the day to cycle around the various attractions, rather than jumping in a taxi.
plan something for your weekend that helps it to end on a high note
Share your memories as stories and regularly have ‘remember when…’ conversations
A memory model known as The Ebbinghaus Forgetting Curve shows that over time our retention of memories decline, unless we take action to keep them. Knowing about and understanding the forgetting curve can be important when we are trying to learn new skills or absorb vital information but how does it help us with remembering happy memories? Well, according to Meik, regularly sharing your happy moments with others as stories can help immensely. This could involve helping loved ones to hold on to past events by retelling anecdotes, having ‘remember when?’ conversations or even sharing funny or interesting experiences from your own childhood. Regularly reminiscing has also been shown to help combat memory loss as we get older too.
Outsourcing
The final ingredient for maintaining happy memories is to outsource them. In business, as some of you may know, this generally means asking a third party to take care of a particular job or task. In memory retention, however, we can outsource memories by taking photos, collecting mementoes, keeping a diary or journal or by sharing to social media, such as Instagram, Facebook or even a blogging platform.
Most of us take thousands of photos each year which are generally stored on our phones or online using ‘the cloud’. Flicking through these images can certainly spark memories but personally, I prefer to use a range of memory keeping strategies and I especially love creative journalling.
Memory keeping ideas
Monthly memory pages
I’ve created a few of these in my bullet journal to help me to remember what happened during the month. I’ve tried to summarise each event in a few lines so I can fit plenty of memories in. Some of them are dated, whereas others are just something that occurred over time such as watching a particular TV series.
Mementoes
A memento can be defined as an object kept as a reminder of a person or past event. It can spark memories or feelings of happiness each time we see it. For example, when my nan passed away, my mum selected two ornaments from her Royal Crown Derby Cottage Garden Collection – a sleeping kitten and a cute little Dormouse, to give to me to keep. They remind me of my nan, her many ornaments which she had displayed around her home and my grandparents’ pet cat called Tibbles. Also, I like the animals which were chosen and the decor on each piece so they’re things that I’m happy to display in my own home.
Other mementoes you might consider include:
something from each of your holidays such as a fridge magnet
a photo in a frame of special occasions e.g., wedding days, child’s first day at school in uniform, the stunning view from a hill you walked up, the bespoke birthday cake that was made for someone’s 80th etc.
hand or footprint casts – you can even get one done of your pet’s paw!
your child’s first tooth
your child’s first artwork
a souvenir from some of your ‘firsts’ holidays e.g., a mini Eiffel Tower
newspaper clippings from something important to you that made the local news
Photographs
You’ve probably heard the adage ‘a picture is worth a thousand words’ which basically means that one single image can often convey multiple ideas, messages and meanings more effectively than a long verbal description can. Therefore, you could write pages and pages describing particular experiences in your life but sometimes, photographs can be enough to spark your memory. Similarly, if you selected a particular photograph from one of your albums (or located one on your phone) you could use it to tell someone else the story of that particular occasion or spend time recalling the event in detail with whoever you shared the moment with.
Set up a private social media account
Many of you will have an Instagram account which features carefully cropped photos with perfect lighting, filters, captions and emojis. This is the stuff you’re happy to share with people online for likes and comments. What Meik suggests is creating another account for everyday memories which might not be Instagram ready bits and pieces you want the whole world to see but are still part of your experience and would give you pleasure to look at.
Creative journalling
Personally, I like to combine lots of different memory keeping tools and techniques in my creative journals. I use a traveller’s notebook size and like to record days out, holidays, special events, clothing, accessory and home decor purchases, craft and art projects, wildlife sightings, new dishes, snacks and sweet treats tried, anything really, but especially new and novel experiences (as per Miek Wiking’s power of firsts). As well as including journaling and photographs in various sizes I also like to stick in related mementoes such as restaurant menus, tickets, receipts, packaging, lists of wildlife or nature spots – anything that adds to the memory.
December daily
December Daily is a project idea created by memory keeper, Ali Edwards and is a way of documenting the 25 days leading up to Christmas. A few years ago, I had a go at creating a Christmas journal using a range of papers I picked up from my local Lidl supermarket making my own traveler’s notebook size insert. I made a page or two for each day
This year, I’ve bought a Chistmassy 8×8 album and a range of different pocket pages which can be filled with photos, bits of journalling and anything which will spark off festive memories. I’m busy building a collection of stickers and ephemera to use and am enjoying watching different approaches to the project on YouTube. I’ve also printed off lots of different prompts I found online to make sure I record lots of different aspects of the month of December and don’t run out of ideas.
Memory playlists
I’ve not tried this one myself, but it sounds like a really nice idea. In January, you start a new personal playlist e.g. ‘Tunes of 2022’, to which you add your current favourite songs throughout the year and tracks which evoke particular memories. When you listen to your playlists you are transported back in time, recalling memories based on music. Although I’ve not specifically done this, I know that when certain songs come on the radio I’m reminded of nights out at university, hitting the dancefloor, writing out or printing lyrics and learning every single word to sing along, wedding night songs including our first dance, favourite bands and artists we’ve been to see, trips to the theatre, movies we’ve enjoyed and many other fun times throughout the years. In fact, I read some information online this afternoon which suggested that playlists can be a particularly useful tool to create for elderly loved ones to help elicit memories of times gone by.
1 second everyday – video journalling
This is a video recording app (1SE for short) which enables users to create a video journal by recording meaningful one second movies for a myriad of everyday aspects of their lives. Each short video is stitched together sequentially to create a seamless record. So, for example, you might create a series of video during the month of November featuring a book cover of a novel you’re particularly enjoying, the crashing waves at the beach whilst on an Autumnal walk, your nails after applying a pretty nail polish, a finished craft project, coffee and cake at a new cafe you’ve tried, the smile of a friend during a good catch up, the rain lashing against your window that started just after you got home, a new recipe that you’re about to give a go and all of the ingredients lined up along the countertop etc.
Line a day journal
This can be a spread you do in your bullet journal each month which you fill in each day or you can purchase a special notebook that usually has space to record five years’ worth of memories. Whichever format you choose, it is meant to be something that you can quickly complete at the end of each day to summarise things such as events, experiences, things you are grateful for, purchases made, something nice someone said, something kind you did for a friend or a stranger etc.
Final words…
I hope you’ve found today’s post interesting and useful and that it’s prompted you to think about the different ways in which you can create wonderfully happy memories, keep and cherish them. Some people prefer to keep digital records whilst others, like myself, prefer to create tangible journals which can be flicked through and talked about with family members or friends. If you’re interested in finding out more about making and remembering memories, I definitely recommend you check out Meik Wiking’s book. He’s recently re-released it under another name ‘Happy Moments: How to Create Experiences You’ll Remember for a Lifetime’ but the content is the same. I like to buy this kind of book rather than purchasing the e-version as then I can more easily highlight parts I particularly want to remember and then flick through the pages whenever I wish to.
Do you enjoy creating journals or photo albums full of happy memories or do you find yourself flicking through digital albums on your phone and thinking about how you should really print a few of the photos off in case you have an issue with your cloud storage one day?
Spring officially starts on Saturday 20th March but there are already so many signs that the season is on its way. It’s a pretty chilly 3 degrees here in Sunderland today (warm coat and scarf weather), but last weekend, the temperatures rose to highs of 13 and it felt like Summer had arrived (never mind Spring) when my husband and I took a coastal walk in the bright sunshine and under cloudless blue skies! The warmer conditions have meant that lots of things are starting to pop up in the garden including early flowerers such as daffodils and tulips. One of our regular hedgehog visitors has even been tempted out of hibernation which is pretty early in comparison to previous years. There might still be lots of worries with regard to Covid around at the moment, but I think its super important to celebrate the small stuff and remind ourselves that there’s still lots to be grateful for right now and plenty to look forward to in the not too distant future. With that in mind, today I’m sharing some practical and pretty journal spreads, for your BuJo or your TN inserts, that I’ve created this week and really encourage you to try.
Spring flowers collage spread
This bright and colourful collage spread was created using pictures printed from Google images following a search for early Spring blooming flowers. They depict shrubs and bulbs which we actually have in our garden but most of which are not yet out. I copied the text in the left hand corner of page one of the double spread from an article which I found on the Woodland Trust website as I thought it was particularly fitting for the theme. The stickers are some I had left over from the Blooming Lovely collection and I discovered I had matching washi tape in my stash too. Both of these pages make me feel happy every time I look at them and I revisit it most days.
A pretty quote page
This was a free printable from https://www.bluemountain.com/blog/ I’ve printed it twice and put one copy in my bullet journal and a slightly larger version on the wall in my craft room. I found the quote by typing ‘spring quotes and sayings’. There’s lots to choose from and as long as you’re just printing them for personal rather than commercial use, you can add them to any of your journals or a prominent place in your home!
Garden jobs for Spring
This spread is purely practical, although I did add a few cute stickers! My husband and I sat down and listed some garden jobs that we would like to get done this month as a useful reference to see what needs doing and to see how much we’ve achieved. There’s not much on it yet, but by the end of the month, I reckon the list will be much longer (hopefully with lots crossed off!).
Time spent in nature
I love to document days out which my husband and I enjoy and, even though we’re limited to the local area at the moment, due to lockdown, we still go out for a walk each day. Last weekend, as I said earlier, it was really warm so we headed to our local coast. It was really busy there but as we’d had lots of sunshine, the grass was dry enough to walk on and it was easy to keep socially distant from others. I took a screenshot of the temperature on my phone as we couldn’t believe how warm it was for the end of February!
Shoots and leaves
There’s lots starting to emerge in the garden and so I took my phone out there and snapped a few signs of growth. It’s exciting to see things popping up even if some of them are weeds! The photos aren’t wonderful as I wanted them to just be quick pics but it will be good to compare how things look now with how they look in a few month’s time.
Plant and flower factfiles
This is something I started doing as part of last year’s garden related spreads. Basically, it’s just info from the plastic card you get stuck in the pots when you buy a plant or details which are included on the seeds or bulbs packet. It’s handy to know the exact variety you have and what they will look like when they come into bloom. Also, doing a little sketch of them is quite relaxing and therapeutic too! I messed up the lettering on the page so have stuck a piece on I cut from a page at the back of my journal. IRL, you can’t see it as badly as you can at the bottom of the header as you can in the photo.
Final words…
I hope you are tempted to have a go at at least one of these spreads – I guarantee they will make you smile when you look back over them if you do. I would love it if you would take the time to add your thoughts or your own ideas in the comments below. And, as always, if you’ve created any Spring spreads and shared them online, leave the link and I’ll be sure to check them out.
This month, as I mentioned in my vision board post, I want to focus on the positives in my life despite the awful situation that we as a nation find ourselves in currently. In order to do this, I decided to make a one-line-a-day gratitude log in my BuJo. I also remembered that I bought a little book from Paperchase a while back which is a little journal called ‘5 Minutes Before Bed’ and in it you record thoughts of the day. I hope my post will inspire you to do something similar and, with any luck, it might lift your spirits at this difficult time.
A quick check on the Paperchase website has shown me that the book is no longer available to buy but it would be really easy to do something similar in your bullet journal using sentence starters such as Today…, Thinking about…, Happy about… Dreaming about… etc. You could even add your own brush lettered messages and decorate them in different ways.
It might seem that, in the current situation, with Covid-19 and all of the anxiety and sadness it has brought, that there might not be much to feel grateful for right now. However, if you focus on thinking about the good things in your life, despite all the bad, you can definitely find at least one reason to be thankful each day. Here’s a list of some of what I’ve come up with this month so far, in no particular order:
I’m grateful for…
– The NHS staff who are working tirelessly and putting their lives on the line every day
– The bright sunshine and breeze which dried my washing on the line
– My husband for supporting me in everything I do and being so understanding
– The shop which was open and had an artist’s board and a flat wash brush so I could do my watercolour painting successfully
– The staff at my local supermarket who are working harder than ever to keep the shelves stocked and serve me with all of the items I need
– My little collection of gorgeously scented Body Shop soaps that have kept my hands clean
– The cute moorhen chicks in the park that brought a smile to my face
– The blog readers who enjoy my posts and give them a like or a comment
– The memories of days out in the past which I can talk about with my husband
– WhatsApp and Messenger so I can keep in touch with friends and family
– My hamster, Rosie for making me giggle with her antics
– The mental health nurse who listened so carefully during my telephone therapy and provided such helpful advice
– Watercolour painting tutorials on YouTube that I’ve used this month to develop my basic skills
– The funny clips about the current situation that have made me laugh out loud
– The kindness volunteers have shown to people in need at this time
I hope you have enjoyed reading my short list and it has made you think more positively about the current situation. I’m not saying life is all wonderful right now but there are so many things to be grateful for, including the fact that we’ve all come together to do our bit to stop the spread of this awful virus. I would really encourage you to write down or draw a gratitude list or do some reflective journaling each evening as a way of improving your mental health and wellbeing during this difficult time.
Keeping it creative 