Welcome back and Happy Friday!
This is a great day for me because for the second blog in a row, I don’t have to do anything. I can just sit back and read the words of a dear friend who is kind enough to do my work for me. How great is that?
Christy Birmingham has graciously agreed to write today, so I’ll turn it over to my favorite poet from Victoria, British Columbia.
How to Write a Gratitude List: 5 Tips to Creating a Great One
Guest post by Christy Birmingham
A gratitude list provides a great way to offer your thanks to people or things around you, which hopefully helps you live life in a full and meaningful way. To write your own – and make it a great one – here are 5 tips:
1. Set Aside Regular Time
Make time on a regular basis, whether it’s once a day or once a week, to make of list of things you are grateful for. By incorporating the writing activity into your routine, you are more likely to keep with it and less likely to consider it bothersome.
2. Make the Decision to Be Grateful
Set your mind to being more grateful about your life, and you’re more likely to keep an amazing gratitude list! The reasoning here? You are more likely to go through your day with a positive outlook and pick out details from the day that made you happy.
3. Use All of Your Senses
Don’t just live your days halfway! When you go for the full experience by invoking all of your senses, you’re going to have richer details to fill your gratitude list. You’ll likely start to notice sights and sounds that you hadn’t even realized were there before.
4. Grammar Be Gone
Don’t worry about grammar, spelling or other language rules as you write. It’s okay to step outside the rules for your gratitude list as it’s all about helping yourself feel more alive than being correct in wording. Your focus, the reason why you’re writing the list, is to increase your positive outlook and that’s what’s more important here.
- Don’t Force it
If you’re not feeling in the mood to write a list today then don’t force yourself to do it. There’s no point in faking happiness as it will show right through your words and won’t help you feel better around you surroundings. Instead, give yourself time to relax and rejuvenate.
These are a few tips for creating a great gratitude list that hopefully will help you feel happier about your life than if you didn’t write it. Remember to enjoy your surroundings and yourself as life really does go quickly and there’s so much to be grateful for!
Christy Birmingham is a poet, author and freelance writer in British Columbia, Canada. Her debut poetry collection Pathways to Illumination is available exclusively atRedmund Productions. If you haven’t been by her blog Poetic Parfait yet, check it out. You can also find Christy on Twitter.
MY THANKS
What a great writing exercise, Christy! Thank you my friend.
MORE ON TUESDAY
I’ll be back Tuesday and yes, I have another guest blogger on that day. Melanie from South Africa, will take over then. This is like a magical mystery tour of writers all on one site. How cool is that?
Have a great weekend and thank you so much for joining Christy today.
Bill
“Helping writers to spread their wings and fly.”
Billybuc
Artistry With Words 
So happy to see yet another one of my favorites in the form of Christy here today and can’t thank you both enough for the topic of gratitude, which I do try very often during the week to be and aspire to be grateful to all (you too are always included) for in my life. so, thank you for the gentle reminder and truly am grateful and appreciate you more then you even know! Happy Friday again to both of you 🙂
Now we need you to guest blog, Janine…hint, hint
Bill, once the girls go back to school in September I am all yours for sure if you will have me!! 🙂
Awe, Janine 🙂 Thanks for the kind words and I’m honored to be on Bill’s blog today! Happy Friday to you both!
Great tips Christy…
Thanks you very much Billy for sharing this post featuring CB .
Best wishes, Aquileana 😛
And thank you for stopping by, Aquileana!
Thank you for taking time to read and comment… and most of all for your wonderful support, Aqui!
Hugs!
You bet I’ll have you, Janine.
Aww, thank you Bill 🙂
Great ideas for keeping a positive outlook on life. There really is so much to be grateful for. It never hurts to remind ourselves of that.
Thank you, Bill! So happy to be here today! Bring on the gratitude and great friendship I have with you 🙂 Thank you again for the posting opportunity.
Reblogged this on Poetic Parfait and commented:
I am pleased to guest post over at “Artistry With Words” today! Come join us 🙂 My post on Bill’s site provides tips for how to write an awesome gratitude list.
Smiles to you all!
Christy
Thank you again, Christy. You are a doll and a valued friend. Hugs and Happy Weekend to you.
Excellent advice on keeping gratitude list! I especially like “Use all your senses”…mindfulness is the key to noticing all the reasons for gratitude.
Thank you Judith. I have written a couple articles about the importance of using our senses. It was interesting that Christy said the same thing.
Oh yes Judith, mindfulness helps us truly enjoy life, doesn’t it? I was honored to be at this site to guest post and appreciate your comment here!
Wow! Great advice coming from another grounded blogger friend, Christy.
She is a wonderful soul, and these words of wisdom coming on a site hosted by Bill makes it a double score 🙂
Thanks Bill for sharing this sound advise with us. I agree gratitude gotta come from inside and no editing is required for that!
Thank you Ruchira. I was thrilled to have Christy post this blog.
What a great experience being here, Bill! Thanks Ruchira for such a great comment 🙂
I follow Christy on blogs and other sites, she is a fantastic writer and great all round person. Her positive attitude is contagious. I love her thoughts here on grammar usage.
I totally agree with you, Dianna. She is a quality human being and I’ll always follow her.
Thanks so much, Dianna! I love positivity and am so glad it comes through 🙂 Thanks Bill for your kind words too!
Nice post from Christy and a good reminder for us all to be grateful.for what we have everyday (even if we don’t always write it down).
Thank you, Deb, and obviously I agree completely.
All for gratitude! Thanks Deb and Bill!!
Hi christy , so nice to see you all over the blogscape (if I may use that coinage) . an attitude of gratitude is what we all need to wake up with and go about our tasks everyday ; the positive vibration that we radiate will in turn attract more blessings into our lives . grateful am I to have you as a friend…
Rajagopal, thank you for stopping by and supporting Christy.
Awesome tips. Since last year i have been writing in a gratitude journal and I do it daily. The results of being grateful are veryp powerful. I only learnt about it after reading “The Magic” by Rhonda Byrne. Thanks Christy. 🙂
Thank you for your comment, ladyelenauk…good to have you stop by.
I like the article about the gratitude list a lot because I am grateful to a lot of people for a lot of things and sometimes it isn’t all that easy to think of this stuff on your own. Thanks a lot for a great article.
I appreciate you stopping by, John, and I love your profile name.