Gratitude Jars

Firstly, I want to thank all of those who reached out to me about my post yesterday and shared their experiences.  It is certainly nice to know that I am not the only one who has had these feelings and fears.  I sat on the fence for a bit yesterday deciding whether or not I should share yesterday's babbles.  Ultimately I decided that I needed to.  When I first was aware that I had an anxiety disorder, I kept it a secret as much as I could.  I didn't want people to think less of me or think I'm crazy.  When I started to feel a bit better I started to open up more about it.  Low and behold, the more people I told, the more people told me they had similar issues.  Go figure!  I decided then that I was no longer ashamed of my issues and would share them when needed.  Obviously this blog is no different.  Although it would be nice if if were all happy go lucky posts full of positivity, I know that is not reality.  I will fight this disorder my entire life and to think I will never have set backs is unrealistic.

At any rate...Gratitude Jars.  Last year I came across a post on Pinterest about a Gratitude Jar.  It bothers me that every year around this time people claim that the year they are in was down right shitty and they hope next year is better.  Every year.  People (and I'm guilty of this too) focus way too much on the negatives and tend to forget about the positives.  Yes, I understand that bad things happen to everyone every year, but I'm willing to bet it wasn't 365 days of crap.  A gratitude jar is a jar or container that you keep out (Mine says "Life is Good") and starting on January 1st you write all the good things that happen to you on little pieces of paper and keep it in the jar.  I also included trinkets like my shoe tag from my first Warrior Dash or my Maroon 5 ticket.  I make sure I write the date on my notes because I plan on continuing this every year and this way I can keep all of the old notes in one place and not have to separate them into different boxes.  On New Year's Eve, you open your jar and read all of the good things that happened to you that year.  I always try to reflect on all the good things that happen to me through out the year on NYE but I think this is going to be a lot more fun.  My jar is pretty full and I'm very much looking forward to seeing everything I wrote.  I use scrap book paper so it looks pretty in the jar.

I challenge everyone reading this to try it this year.  You have a few more days to go out and find a jar or container of your choice.  I have a large mason jar, but the one I made for my niece for Christmas is a clear glass vase.  Decorate it as you choose.  Like I said, mine says "Life is Good" on it, but the one I made my niece simply says "Gratitude Jar".  The choice is yours.  Keep it in view so you remember to add to it.  It may take some reminding at first but before you know it you'll be looking forward to getting home to add your good memories to it.  I look forward to hearing your experiences!

Much Love and Light~

Tammy