Did you know it was my momma who gave me my very first gratitude journal.? The story goes like this:
Teenage Marie wakes up on Christmas morning. She opens gifts with her siblings and at the end of the unwrapping festivities, her mom instructs everyone to wait because there is one more gift for each person. What is visibly a notebook wrapped in holiday paper, is opened by all and pondered over.
Okay that sounds dramatic but basically our mom made 3 composition books into individualized journals with our names beautifully written on the front cover and a letter to each of us inside outlining the importance of gratitude. It was my first gratitude challenge. My mom was asking us to try and write out 10 things we were grateful for every night until we filled up the journal. As a teenager, I knew this was something important and definitely wanted to see what journaling like this could do, but I was also a teenager and was more eager to blame the world for my problems than take time for self reflection. SO , I did it, without realizing the influence it had begun to take at such a young age.
Fast forward some years and I’m trying to get into graduate school and getting rejected or waitlisted from 5/6 of the places I applied. I felt like I had failed myself and everyone around me. Enter my sweet mom- reminding me that there is so much to be grateful for. She encouraged me to begin practicing gratitude again and be grateful for all the things I currently had. So I did. After about a week of fervent journaling, I felt better. I had accepted the rejections and decided I would take another route to getting my Master’s- even if it took me longer. I accepted the change to my plan, got re-energized and excited, and was ready for anything. Then I got the 6th letter - an acceptance. Once I let go and grounded myself in gratitude (my mom’s lessons), I found a new appreciation for my circumstances. Obviously my higher power then changed the plan again, either way I was grateful because I’d set that foundation.
One year later and 365 days or more of falling deeper into my self reflective practices, that power of gratitude built up my confidence enough to take myself out of a very unhealthy relationship that was damaging me emotionally, physically, and mentally. My mom was by my side in it all reminding me of who I was and teaching me the lessons of self-love she was also learning as her 50th birthday approached.
And five years later, here we are. With journals and everything to share that message of gratitude in the hopes that the power of gratitude can help YOU manifest all the goodness life has to offer.
When people ask me how this whole #saythanksmore thing started, I have one simple but BIG answer. My mom. Mother’s. day is everyday in my world but I am here to celebrate her as big and loud as ever with this power of gratitude that was gifted to me first, by her.
I love you forever, mom. I like you for always.
Love, Marie Andrea