Your Lifestyle Practice Is Called Positivity Journal
Every day, you will write use your reflections as a sort of positivity journal, noting 3 positive things – things you’re grateful for, things you appreciate, or just things you notice:
- Give yourself a “yes” in the Lifestyle category on the SAME DAY you write the reflection
- The 3 things must be written in your reflection to get credit for the Lifestyle practice
- They can be in any form you want – even just a list if you like
Appreciation and gratitude. Hallmarks of being present. They almost go hand in hand. You really can’t have appreciation and gratitude without being present. And you probably can’t be present without having appreciation and gratitude.
And you know the saying “fake it ’til you make it?” I often think of that as just a fancy way of saying “practice.” Practice could be thought of as a way of faking something. You focus on the thing, even though you can’t currently do it, and you do it as if you could. You give yourself over to it.
So, as a practice of being present, we’re going to practice some appreciation and gratitude, known in this context as positivity. It’s a practice in finding your way to what you are really grateful for. And just like a 90 mile an hour fastball starts out as a lob at home plate, finding these things might be slow and awkward at first.
On the other hand, you may have already practiced some and find it pretty smooth. Who knows, maybe you’re just a prodigy and it’ll come flying right out! Either way, you want to come at these things from all angles. Being present may give you appreciation and gratitude, and pulling appreciation and gratitude towards you is a practice in being present.
Photo Credit: “Journal Entry” by Joel Montes de Oca – Flickr. Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons