Journal writing was never one of my strong suits. As a teenager I would write in it periodically, basically whenever I found it in my room. Now that I am a mom I have maybe only written in it a handful of times. Whoops!
Since I do not like making New Year’s resolutions I have chosen to focus on one word for the year. This year my word is “gratitude”. In the spirit of the new year I thought I would work on a keeping a gratitude journal. It is always hilarious to read what you wrote about in the moment when you were young and naive. So 2018 would be the year I actually write down some thoughts on motherhood and marriage.
It seems like lately my life seems to be very chaotic and has made time fly, but my ‘mom brain’ prevents me from being able to remember much. I don’t think I would have remembered half of my life this past month if it hadn’t been for writing down one thing I was grateful for each day. During this past month of keeping my gratitude journal, I learned three things.
3 Things I Learned from Keeping a Gratitude Journal
1. Family Time
My family time was my saving grace. It kept me anchored during the chaos. It brought a smile to my face reading about the time that was spent together. The memories are documented and my mom brain will not forget them now.
2. Communication
My to-do list every day kept on growing and appeared to be infinite with tasks that needed to be completed. This taught me that communication was vital when trying to tackle any task. Without the communication between my partner and I, it would have never been possible to tackle half of the things on there.
3. Appreciate the Small Things
Personally, I dwell on the negative or big items, which 90% of the time casts a shadow over small moments. By keeping my gratitude journal, I was able to write down these small moments of appreciation and actually remember them.
Overall, documenting my life for a month went over well, and I’m excited to keep on writing daily what I’m thankful for again next month.
What are ways that you journal to help preserve your memories and day-to-day life?
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