JOANNA CAREW

Where are you currently at? A cup half full or a cup half empty?

Did you know, if we practise gratitude daily, we actually reprogramme ourselves to notice more goodness – by engaging in this practise we actually become cup half full people!

Gratitude Journalling

I’ve journalled daily for the past 12 years, and over the past year I added gratitude journalling into my nightly writing. This is so simple: you select your top 3 things about the day and jot them down as 3 bullets.

Of course, the joy comes in selecting the top 3!

It is hard to whittle down as anything is game for the list, no matter how small or insignificant. Across the day I often think, “ooh that needs to be on the list!” This generates a feeling of happiness, gratitude, and joy to live such an amazing life in a beautiful world.

Reading this back it does sound a bit airy fairy, but please do TRY IT.

Try it out for a few weeks and see if you feel any different.

Expressing Gratitude

When you have a sunnier outlook it helps you to see the good in people, actually, it does more than that. You feel compelled to express the goodness you see. One way I do this is by championing others. I see something good or great and comment. Then often find even more joy watching the person receive my remark and the happiness it sparks within them.

Vice versa, when others express gratitude to me, I get a warm fuzzy happiness. Just to be appreciated is reassuring and validating, plus being in a great mood makes you want to pay kindness forward.

Thanking Others

I have spent much of this week thanking people. In writing, in person, and even via video message. I have given considerable headspace to thinking about the amazing things other people have done this year, and then thanked them for it.

Try pausing for a moment and thinking about a few people in your life. What they might’ve overcome, the generosity they showed to you or someone else, and the brilliance of them.

I spent time thinking about my work team, how special they all are and how their actions, individually and collectively, make my business thrive. As business owners, we’re so incredibly lucky that others give their hearts and souls to build our businesses! So, I wrote passionately and individually to each of my team, thanking them and congratulating them for their successes over the past months.

The messages I have received from them in return have me smiling from to ear, and I feel even more grateful than before!

Elite Dental Leaders

My ideas on gratitude have been reinforced during the Elite Dental Leaders course that I am attending. During module one both of the course leaders spent time discussing the power of gratitude, and how they practise expressing it.

Sameer Patel spoke about letters he writes to his staff from time to time, and showed us an example. All of us had an emotional response and I especially loved how Sameer signed the letter: “From your bosses and friends …”

Hassan told us of the gratitude games he plays with his young child and the discussions they have at meal times and story times about great stuff they’ve encountered across the day.

Appreciation and Expectation

Appreciation goes a very long way, we all love to be appreciated. However, we need to be careful of our motivations when carrying out a kind act for someone. If we hold an expectation that the receiver will be grateful, but they don’t express any gratitude, we can wind up being annoyed at them and all the good feeling rapidly dissipates.

Do you have an experience of this? Where you did X, “… and they didn’t even say thank you.”

I am working very hard on dropping these expectations, I remember realising I was falling victim to this when I read Unf*ck Yourself, by Gary Bishop. He promotes acting because you want to, and not holding any expectations about how the receiver should behave.

Nowadays, it is the doing that makes me feel great, then if thanks do come, they’re a big unexpected bonus.

Christmas and New Year

As we rapidly head into the Christmas holiday period, a lot of people are stressed out, running around like headless chickens, and wanting to make the celebrations perfect for their loved ones. Why not pause and tell them you think they’re great, share the load, and remove some of the pressure they’re placing on themselves.

I am so grateful to head into the period surrounded by family and friends, experiencing full health, and having lived through one of the most exhilarating years of my life.

Finally, I’d like to thank you for reading my blog, and to extend my warmest wishes of love and happiness to you this holiday season ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️