As I was browsing my Facebook News Feed on New Year's day, I came across a post from HelloGiggles entitled "Why You Need to Start a Gratitude Jar Today". This intrigued me as one of my resolutions is to be more positive in 2015 (and beyond) and this idea sounded like something that would help with this particular resolution.

The idea of the gratitude jar is to take a moment out of each day (or however frequently you choose) to write down something you are happy about or grateful for each day and store it in a jar or container. It can be anything from "happy that I got to see my best friend" to "happy that I paid off my credit card" to something as simple as "happy that there is only one more sleep until the Game of Thrones season premiere". It can be absolutely anything. At the end of the year, you can read through them and have nice reminders of the year that has just passed us by. 

As soon as I read the HelloGiggles post, I was adamant about having a Gratitude Jar in our home. I searched through the house for a container to use as my Gratitude Jar. You can use anything really: a shoe box, a mason jar, a vase, a tupperware container, a Ziploc bag or whatever you may have lying around the house. .I chose to use a Bookers Bourbon signature wooden box that was sitting there waiting to be used for some sort of DIY project (my husband Perry works at the  Liquor Store and he is always bringing me home wine crates and wooden boxes to use for projects...so I am sure you have something in your home that can be used as a container). For the paper, I just cut some Post-It notepads in half (again, you can use any paper you desire). I started my first note immediately and am currently on day three.

I am really excited about this project and, each day, I have looked forward to writing my note down. I asked Perry to participate in this project with me and after much hesitation, he agreed. It will be fun to go through them at the end of year (and perhaps even years to come) and think back to days and moments we otherwise would have forgotten about. I am even thinking of allowing visitors to our home to participate and add to our Gratitude Jar. There really is no harm in reflecting on your day and thinking back to all the good things that happened rather than focusing on the negative. The way I see it, it helps us to appreciate what we have and to complain a lot less. At the end of the day, no matter how bad our day seems to be going, there is always going to be someone out there in the world (usually a lot of someones) whose day is a thousand times worse than ours and we really need to be more appreciative of what we have. 

I hope I have inspired some of you to start this project. To get more ideas on Gratitude Jars, just complete a Google Image Search or browse through Pinterest for inspiration. 

What are your thoughts on this Positivity Project? Is it something you are interested in trying out?

Check back in the next few days for more Positivity Projects to help you be more, well, positive!

Happy crafting and happy reflecting everyone!

I wasn't a huge fan of 2014 but I think this is because we didn't travel as much as in previous years and didn't even go on a plane. Not 1! The previous year, we went on 10 that I can recall! Travel withdrawal is not the end of the world though and one of my resolutions this year is to be more positive and eliminate negativity as much as possible! There were many great things that happened in 2014 too. We witnessed many friends get married, many friends give birth to beautiful healthy babies, we went on a couple of pretty great road trips....BUT I am very excited for the new year. I have high hopes for 2015 and feeling extremely positive about it. With ringing in the new year with some of my favorite people, to Tottenham kicking Chelsea's butts in a Premier League match and our first plane ride since 1.5 years ago coming up in one month (for a quick getaway to England), this year is already off to a fantastic start and I am looking forward to all that's in store for us!

As mentioned, a major focus this year is to be positive. As I was decluttering and purging earlier this week, I looked back at photos and mementos from my teen years, including my journals. They were filled with such simple and positive words and I definitely saw the world in a better way back then. Yes, as adults most of us are not as carefree as we were in our teens and we have a lot more responsibilities, but this doesn't mean we should allow the responsibilities and routines of adult life get in the way of us looking in the world in a more positive light and being optimistic and happier ourselves. 

I have a few other resolutions and goals for this year as well:
- hike at least two times a month and spend more time outdoors
- meditate twice a day for at least 5 minutes
- learn to drive
- read more
- blog at least twice a week and generally write more and be more creative
- exercise at least three times a week
- and the usual: stress/worry less, declutter, stay organized, spend more time with family and friends, don't be judgemental etc etc (just be a better person)

I believe that being positive will help me achieve these goals and also sticking to these goals will help keep me positive and ultimately help to clear my mind and keep the stress levels down. I have already registered for a meditation seminar and class and am really looking forward to exploring this practice.

I also have some simple tools that will help keep me positive and I will be sharing these in the next week.

What are your goals, resolutions and hopes for this new year?