Feeling Thankful and Grateful: A Gratitude Self-Care Practice to Feel Your Best

A gratitude list to get the thanks going this thanksgiving

There’s a reason why gratitude is such an important term in the self-care world: It reminds us of all the good things we have in life, even when we’re feeling frustrated and overwhelmed. In fact, Alicia Nortje (Ph.D.) of PsychologyToday.com says practicing gratitude increases our overall feelings of happiness and satisfaction.

With these benefits in mind, and of course with thanksgiving just around the corner, we thought this was the perfect time to take part in this form of self-care. We’ve put together a complete gratitude self-care guide that gets you into the headspace to identify everything that makes you feel grateful and to feel like the best version of you. After all, “self-care is giving the world the best of you instead of what’s left of you.”

Did You Know?
According to Oxford Languages, the meaning of gratitude is defined as: “the quality of being thankful; readiness to show appreciation for and to return kindness.”
This makes adding this gratitude practice to thanksgiving feel just perfect!

How can you practice gratitude?

With this 3-step gratitude journaling practice

We love to recommend creating a whole atmosphere and mindset when it comes to self-care, including for this gratitude practice. So, go grab your self-care journal, your favourite pen, your favourite candles, your diffuser, favourite drink and your favourite scented products to help you unwind (anyone else thinking about our Relax & Restore Set?) and follow these three simple steps.

Step 1 – Calm your mind

Before opening your journal, finding some calm is essential.

To start this practice, we recommend beginning with an at-home spa experience like the one we outlined here. This will leave you completely relaxed and more open to the things that make you feel grateful.

But, we know that you may not have enough room in your schedule for a full day of pampering. So we also put together a few suggestions for calming your mind that take less time:

Find a comfy, quiet area where you can sit and write
Light your candles or start your essential oil diffuser
Massage your hands and body with a calming Lavender Body Butter
Mist with a Rose Water Face Mist to gently relax and soothe your skin and mind
Take some slow, deep, calming breaths

Did You Know?
Lavender essential oil has relaxation abilities and skin nourishing abilities.
This popular oil is traditionally used to help relax, relieve stress, and relieve headaches. In addition to these things, it offers benefits to your skin. It plays a role in healing burns and wounds. Try out our Lavender Body Butter to enjoy the benefits of this oil.
Other naturally relaxing scents include lemongrass, rosewater and rosemary. These relaxation essentials can be found in products like our: Lemongrass Balancing Mist, Lemongrass Body Butter, Rose Water Face Mist, and Mark & Scar Therapy.

Step 2 – Start writing

Taking a look at gratitude journal prompts after doing a quick Google search, we were inspired by publications like Happy Healthy Impactful and PostivePsychology.com.

We’ve put together prompts inspired by these publications to help you get started on your gratitude journaling and your gratitude list! (Also can we all add Google to our gratitude list? We’d be lost without it!)

3 Things I am grateful for today…
3 Things that happened this week that I am grateful for are…
3 Things that happened this year that I am grateful for are…
What’s the best part of your morning routine?
What’s the best part of your evening routine?
What type(s) of self-care are you grateful for?
What’s the last thing you treated yourself to?

Step 3 – Enjoy the positive feelings that come with identifying things you’re grateful for

There’s not much else to say for this step except, enjoy!

Conclusion

With the business of our schedules and with things like the pandemic constantly changing our “norm,” it can be hard to spot the things to be grateful for. Thankfully (no pun intended), when you take a minute to pause and give it some thought, there are plenty of things we can add to our list!

If you’re looking for ways to add more self-care into your schedule, take a look at these relaxing products infused with essential oils that soothe, relax and restore (both your skin and mind!):