Every morning starts the same way for me.
A cup of hot tea—it’s great for the gut—& five quiet minutes with my journal. For the past year, five out of seven days, I’ve written down three things I’m grateful for.
I started this ritual during one of the darkest chapters of my life. Not the explosive kind of dark. The quieter kind. The kind where nothing is technically wrong, but everything feels off. I knew I wasn’t fully committed to the life I was living, but I didn’t yet know how to step away from it. It felt like standing at the edge of something deep without knowing how far down it went.
And let me be crystal clear, I was not waking up radiating gratitude. I was waking up confused.
A close friend & my therapist both suggested the same thing: consider what you already have.
At first, it felt annoying. Very performative. I thought maybe I just wasn’t a grateful person because nothing felt deep-seated. I’d write, “I’m thankful for my mom.” “I’m thankful for my friends.” And it felt… flat.
But I kept doing it.
