When life gets busy, we forget to appreciate the beauty that surrounds us. We get trapped in our rushed schedules, we run from one place to another, pressured by time to complete task after task. The end of the day finds us exhausted and unhappy and we go to sleep only to continue the next day with the same mindset. If we could take 10 minutes every day to slow down and breath, our lives would get so much better.

The mind is everything. What you think, you become.

I designed this Gratitude Journal to help others develop a grateful attitude, to determine them to step aside and see the good things that already exist in their lives. We usually look outside ourselves for things to help us improve and we don’t realize how much power we already have within us; we don’t realize that the best tools we need to achieve our dreams are actually ourselves.

Self-care is important for our well-being and self-esteem. Practicing gratitude increases the feeling of positive emotions and it trains us to keep a positive mindset even at our lowest points. It’s impossible to feel happy all the time. The stress that we go through day by day creates blockages in our lives, but the more we try to exercise and remind ourselves about the good things in our life, the easier it becomes to see how beautiful life is.

Practicing gratitude improves motivation and may help us find meaning and purpose in life. It opens our eyes at what we already have in our lives right now. Gratitude is an extension of positivism and self-care and practicing gratitude makes us see that we already have enough, it brings us in alignment with who we truly are. Not being grateful for what we have throws us into a never-ending cycle where we are constantly dissatisfied, always wanting more and stressing about not having enough.

The actual act of writing may help us see more clearly, introspect deeper and analyse what we need to do in order to achieve our dream life. When we have an optimistic attitude, it gets easier to attract good things toward us. Keeping a gratitude journal provides insight in our lives and helps us set better intentions.

Each page of this journal is split into four parts. You can either write in it in the morning so it can improve your day making you feel more inspired and motivated or you can use at the end of the day to remind yourself about the good things that surrounds you. Set the tone of the day with a motivational quote. The power of thoughts is one of the greatest tools you can use to achieve your dream-life. A positive mindset attracts positive things. In the first part, writing down everything you are grateful for helps you start the day with a grateful attitude and makes a path for setting intentions. The other three parts of the worksheet deal with self-improvement. Listing the highlights of the day and thinking about solutions or actions that could’ve made the day even better brings a sense of control. You realize that you are behind the wheel of your own life, you are the only one that can shift directions and chose a better path. Self-esteem and confidence are extremely important if you want to achieve your dreams, therefore writing about what made you feel proud about yourself may boost these traits.

The back of the page provides a note/conclusions sheet for more introspection or to simply write ideas, if there is something you would like to add.

This journal is designed for everyone’s use and I hope it will help others find the magic that already exists in their lives. Being mindful and grateful reduces consumerism and promotes decluttering, both in mind and in physical surroundings. It can reduce stress and depressive symptoms because it helps you see the beauty around you. For the future, I intend to make a journal that can help with anxiety and depression and create layouts that can help ease these symptoms.

A gratitude journal would be a great asset in an Author’s Lounge, bringing everyone closer and acknowledging everyone’s power to create.

If you are interested in my work or my writings, you can find me on WordPress at Living Life in the Shadows and you can find my other notebooks, and more others to come, on Amazon at Astrid Sorea Author Page .