By Zainab Susi
It’s hard to believe that 2024 marks 7 years of keeping a gratitude jar. Seven years ago, when I first started,it was simply a New Year’s resolution. My intention was to focus on all the things I was grateful for, small and big for the whole year. Then, on the last day of the year, I would open the jar with my family and read all the notes. My girls and I enjoyed reading notes about memories collected through the year that we had forgotten about. Even when I had forgotten the events of the year, the notes in the jar reminded me of how good the year still was.
This is how the jar works. Whenever anything small or big happens that I am grateful for, I write it down on a piece of paper with the date and put it in the jar. I keep the jar on my desk so it is always within reach and as a constant reminder of how many things I am grateful for. It’s very easy to focus on the negative and we tend to dwell on negativity longer than we should.
As many of you know I have a habit of keeping a journal and I am proud to say that my family has adopted this habit too. On the last day of the year, we all take out our journals and privately look back on the whole year. If we want to, we make realistic new year’s resolutions. It has become our year-end tradition.
When 2023 first started, like many others I was excited about the year and eager to accomplish my resolutions. I created my thankful jar and named it “Gratitude”. We all know how many sad events took place in 2023. But, in the midst of all that, my thankful jar kept getting full. Believe it or not the 2023 jar was more full than the previous ones.
It’s a choice we make every day to be happy and positive, or unhappy and negative. You don’t have to spend a penny to start a gratitude jar. It’s free of cost. I use my empty salsa jar and any paper I find in the house. You can use anything in your home. The only rule I made for my jar is that no matter how bad my day was I will always find something to be grateful for. The most important one is that each morning I am grateful to be alive.
It’s a very powerful jar and keeps me grounded. I’m looking forward to continuing the tradition in 2024.
“Be thankful for what you have; you’ll end up having more. If you concentrate on what you don’t have, you will never, ever have enough. Oprah Winfrey”
Life is beautiful!
