Write It Down

Write it down. Today I am grateful for pen and paper, fingertips and keyboards, thoughts and ideas. I am also grateful for clean water to make fresh coffee which I am now enjoying sitting in my recliner with mu husband Darcy a few feet away in his.

Write it down. Take note. Pause for a moment and breathe in, breathe out. Consider right here, right now what is going well, what is currently a gift. I hear cars go by our house. My ears work. I feel the cool air coming in through the open window.

“Only the disciplined are free.” This is often attributed to Epictetus or Pythagoras. Either way, it’s a centuries-old quote applicable in any place and time. I needed to become disciplined in my gratitude practice for it to evolve to where it is today: a mindset of living gratefully and with mindful presence. (That’s my goal anyway. I am not always there, but I do now how to get back there when I get lost.)

I will always find clarity and intention by putting pen to paper in my gratitude journal. I did this daily for many years. Now, I do it several times a week. I also use an app on my phone called Reflection.app. It can be an online journal, but it also provides prompts and quotes to get the juices flowing.

Pen to paper. Fingertips to keyboard. There is a thoughtful discipline in each. The key is action. Action solidifies intent. Intent creates mindset. Practice makes progress possible.

This is the cover on my current gratitude journal. How fitting. Write it down. Capture the spirit of gratefulness and it lingers in one’s head and heart for the hours ahead. Have a good day!