A three week challenge

One of the inspirational articles I read recently suggested you could "retrain" your brain in part by keeping a gratitude journal and listing three original, non-repetitive things for which you're grateful, for three consecutive weeks.

Now, a gratitude journal (my "happys," I used to call them) isn't anything new to me, and we all know the benefits of practicing gratitude. So I took up the challenge on November 24th and have been going it faithfully for nine days now.

However, I'm finding it surprisingly difficult to come up with different things for which to be grateful on a daily basis.

Sure, the regulars are easy: health, paycheque (and/or job, if you enjoy your work), food, clothing, shelter, loved ones (two and/or four-legged)...that's all the "normal" stuff that the majority of us in our country have, albeit to varying degrees. But in my day-to-day life...That's harder, because I can't repeat myself. I get to write "cats" only once. Bus pass, coffee, microfibre thermal layers (lol), chocolate, lattés and so on, only once.

Would anyone else find this challenging, or are you already so filled with conscious gratitude that it would be easy and natural to do?

Image from SimpleReminders.com

I must add this, though. It's almost entirely dark in the afternoon now, when I get home from work. Yesterday, as I was walking up the short driveway, I looked up to my bedroom window and could just barely make out Nicki on the cat tree at the window, looking out. It filled me with such happiness, because I remember that Annie used to do that often, keep watch out. I'd wave up at her as I was coming home. Seeing Nicki up there somehow was a real gift and it lightened my heart.

Peace.