The Medicine of Sunshine: 101 Words of Gratitude

One of my goals for the new year, all of which I wrote about at the start of January, was to appreciate more. To notice the gratitude I felt, particularly towards the smaller moments in life. I have been writing a few points every couple of days in my new bullet journal, but I felt like it could be beneficial to sometimes expand on these points, and stay with the thought for a while, to truly appreciate those moments instead of just jotting them down and forgetting about them.

Expressing gratitude has been connected to increased wellbeing, and through my own experiences I feel like training my brain to pick up on the good things, no matter how small, makes me more susceptible to noticing positives in everyday life. It’s a pretty simple addition to my daily routine but it has potential to keep my head above the water in which low moods live.

I thought limiting each gratitude thought I wrote about to 101 words would help keep the focus on a small aspect of life, rather than becoming a diary entry. If this is something people enjoy reading, I’ll occasionally post these thoughts on here, to remind others to appreciate the little things.

Without further ado, here’s a moment of gratitude I experienced a couple of days ago.

20th January 2018

The weak but persistent warmth of a winter sun brushes my body, seeking exposed skin with the friendly nudge of a needy cat. My hands, my neck, my face, particularly my eyelids, soak in the long-awaited vitamin D of a January morning. This must be one of the first days since autumn in which the rays seep heat, rather than just producing watery light. I’m sitting atop a gate, amidst nature and overlooking part of the city: the many houses containing many people with many moods, going about their lives like ants. I hope they pause to appreciate the apricity too.

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