The Glass is Half Full

I'm not big on New Year's resolutions. I feel that any time of year is a good time for making a positive change, so I don't hold myself to attempting them annually. But this year was different. I decided to try a year of positive thinking. Remember Stuart Smalley from SNL?

Seriously, though, I wanted to lower my blood pressure and ease my stress. What better way than taking some time each day to think about the things I was grateful for? Sunshine, a walk in the park with my son, chocolate, cuddly dogs and cat, a thoughtful husband, friends, coffee. Sometimes it's easy to focus on the negative rather than the positive. So I started a gratitude jar (or vase, in this case).

Isn't it cute? Next I channeled my inner kindergartener and cut up construction paper into small strips. Every evening, I've jotted down a couple of things that made the day pleasant and tossed the paper into the vase. It brings a smile to my face, which is nice, but here's the surprising thing... I find myself thinking about little moments during the day and saying to myself, "Hey, I should add this to the vase later." I've been focusing more on the positive. Holy cow, this works!

I've been doing this for a mere couple of weeks. I'm curious about the long-term effects. I'll be sure to give updates on the experiment from time to time as the habit becomes more ingrained in my everyday life.