My husband’s family celebrates Thanksgiving here in the Philippines (as they lived for a long time in the United States). It has become my favorite holiday because it includes all the things that make life worth living—a buffet table groaning with turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce, sweet potato casserole, the gathering of family, a blessing before the meal and most importantly, gratitude for the food, our family and the year that was.
The attitude of gratitude doesn’t need to happen only one day a year. A consistent gratitude practice is one of the simplest life-changing moves you can make.
Gratitude shifts your thoughts towards positivity and makes you realize how abundant your life truly is—no matter how complicated the world seems or the trials that you’re facing.
The process is easy: Just write down five things you’re grateful for at the beginning or end of your day.
To take this a little further, I’m doing another challenge this month: 30 days of gratitude. I will be posting something I’m grateful for every day in November on Instagram. A new book I’m reading, catching another sunrise, an unexpected dessert, a lunch with a friend, the rows that I’m knitting—these are the simple pleasures that fill my heart.
Please join me in my Instagram challenge. No pressure, just fun. I’ll pick three of my favorite photos* at the end of the month and give you sweet little prizes:
- A beautiful gratitude journal that I picked out in Kikki K. (an adorable stationery store) specially for this challenge during my vacation in Hong Kong
- A hand-lettered postcard set by Abbey Sy
- A novel, When Sparks Fly, by Ines Bautista-Yao
*To win a prize, you don’t have to post every single day. I’ll just pick the photos I find the most charming. Prizes are available for Philippine-based residents only.
If you want to play along, please tag your photos with #novembergratitude2016.
This is the note I sent to my e-newsletter subscribers this month. If you want to receive a monthly Joyful Little Note and a copy of Your Heart-Crafted Life workbook, then subscribe here.
Photo by Ben White, Unsplash.com.
