#21daysofgratitudepractice2018

From November 1st we are going to start practising gratitude. Each day there will be a suggested action that you can take. You could make a Gratitude Journal or you can include some art on the way if you wish. I originally set up a separate blog called The Art of Practising Gratitude in 2014 which included suggestions for art journaling. I have removed the suggested art techniques this time round but if you want to use them then click on the link to the original blog.

Please read this blog post Practising Gratitude to see why I set up suggested actions rather than just having an attitude of gratitude.

So how will this work?
Each day for 21 days in November there will be a blog post with links and prompts. To ensure you get each post sign up for emails by putting your email address in the subscription box. Or follow along in whichever way you normally follow blogs.

Each post will include:

A Theme
Rather than just leaving you to think up 3 or 5 things that you're grateful for on that day I have chosen a daily theme. Each theme is a verb so it involves an action of some kind.

A Quote
There will be a quote either related to gratitude or more likely related to the day's theme. Some will be serious and some will be a bit off-beat.

A Bible Verse
As a Christian myself I want my Gratitude Journal to be about thanking God and so I have included a Bible verse each day. However just ignore it if it doesn't mean anything to you.

Inspiration
Where possible I have found videos, blogs or websites to provide inspiration for the day's theme. Some might be a bit silly.

A Gratitude Link
This will be a link to a blog or a website about gratitude.

A 'To thin about' Prompt
There will be questions for you to think about on the day's theme. You can answer them or just use them to get you thinking.

An Action
Each day there will be a suggested action for us to take to practise gratitude.

Facebook Group
There is a group on Facebook (which was set up in 2012) where you can share your work or ask questions. Or if you are a member of EveryDay Journals and Living Your Word of the Year please share any pages you do or thoughts you have there.

PDF
There will be a PDF each day to download (and print) with all the day's information and links so that you don't have to be continually looking at the blog.


For information about how you might make your Gratitude Journal click on the link below to see my previous post. It can be as simple as getting a small notebook and writing down things that come to mind as you read the blog. It need be no more than that. Or you can get involved in the techniques and challenges.

Make Your Own Art Journal

Remember the only rule is: this is your journal and you do it the way you want to. Other than that there are no rules.

If you are sharing your gratitude practice on social media please use this hashtag: #21daysofgratitudepractice2018

I do hope you will join me on November 1st.
Bernice

Being Continually Thankful

This post first appeared on the Jubilee Church blog yesterday.

We are a few days into the New Year and already many of the resolutions people made on January 1st will have been broken. I don’t make resolutions. I choose a word for the year that describes what I want to see more of in my life. Last year’s word was ‘connect’ because I wanted to have more connection to my family and friends, to my creative work and to God.

This year’s word is gratitude or thankfulness.

In the United States, Thanksgiving is celebrated on the last Thursday of November. Recently the whole month of November has become synonymous with thankfulness and people have been encouraged to keep a gratitude journal. But thankfulness should be a year-long habit – a lifestyle – not something we keep on one day or for one month.

There have been many studies done on the value of being thankful. It turns out that gratitude is good for our mental health.

We don’t need to keep a gratitude journal although writing things down always helps. (There are also Apps available.) One thing we can all do at the end of the day is think of 3 things that we are thankful for. We could start the day that way too. And having thought of the things, we can thank God for them.

Thanking God in prayer is powerful. We can thank him for what he has given us already and we can thank him for things he has yet to do in our lives. We can thank him for the promises he has made us that are not yet fulfilled.

You might like to do a study of the words thank, thanks, or thanksgiving in the Bible. There are many examples. Let’s ‘Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name’. Psalm 100:4

New Year’s resolutions or contemplation of lifestyle changes almost always consist of activities we must do or change usually around diet and exercise. We say to ourselves: ‘This is THE year when we will lose that weight or improve our core strength’! But thankfulness is a habit we can easily incorporate into our lives. And instead of rushing to add even more activities to our hectic lives why not quiet down and be thankful. Becky Webb recently shared with us about incorporating rest into our lives - here's the link to the podcast.

We can be thankful as we rest. Let’s make 2018 the year we learn to be continually thankful.

Thanks for joining me today.  And thank you for your support last year.  I hope you will keep visiting my blog through 2018.
Bernice

PS: You can follow my journey with my word of the year here on my blog.  If God gives you a word for 2018 why not join us in the Everyday Journals # Living Your Word of the Year Facebook group.

Gratitude

Today in the United States it is Thanksgiving.  Happy Thanksgiving to all my US readers.

Over the past few years I have run Gratitude art challenges.  The first one was in November 2012: An Attitude of Gratitude.

 

The second in 2013 was also An Attitude of Gratitude challenge.

However by 2014 I realised it was no good just having the attitude you needed to take action.  And because I wanted to promote the idea that we should be thankful all the year round I posted the challenge in May: The Art of Practising Gratitude.

Each of these challenge blogs is still available and you can work through them at your own rate.  They have prompts, technique challenges and quotes and bible verses to use on your pages.

Have you ever made a gratitude journal?  Leave a comment or better still, you can link your blog page, Instagram photo or flickr photo using the Linky below.

Thanks for stopping by.
Bernice

Gratitude and Thanksgiving

On the last Thursday in November people in the United States celebrate Thanksgiving.  In the crafting world in particular, November has become synonymous with giving thanks.  I have organised art challenge blogs in the past to produce Gratitude Journals.  You can find links to them by clicking on the Art Challenge Blogs link at the top of the page.

After being away in Australia for over 3 weeks and the recovery time since I had not done anything creative and just as I was wondering what I could do to kickstart my creativity Shonna released a new class at His Kingdom Come.  I hadn't planned on making a gratitude journal this year but Shonna was using techniques I don't usually use so I thought I would give it a go.

The journal is 7 inches square and as I don't draw I used various of my autumnal stamps and used watercolour paints to colour the pages and the stamps.

The cover

The pages

Some of the stamping didn't come as well as it might.  Here are some diappearing dandelion heads.

And finally, assembled with the book rings and some fibres.

Now it's ready for me to use.  If you are thinking of making a gratitude journal you might like to check out my Pinterest board where you will find quotes, journals and pages.

Thanks for stopping by.
Bernice