I know I talk about gratitude a lot and I do because I truly believe everyone should practice gratitude every day. But with Thanksgiving coming up I feel like people tend to think about gratitude more often. I thought I would do a short book review on the book that was in the October Joy Box because it is all about gratitude.
The Gratitude Diaries, How a Year Looking on the Bright Side Can Transform Your Life, by Janice Kaplan is a very easy read. At the beginning of the year, New Year's Eve actually, Janice decided to spend a year focusing on gratitude. She breaks down the year into months and focuses on just one area of her life every month and talks to experts about how focusing on that area can truly change your life. You soon realize once you start focusing on one area it bleeds into more areas and you keep building up more and more gratitude.
The first month she focuses on her relationship with her husband and how she needs to focus more on the positives and be grateful for their relationship and the person he is. I don’t want to give the whole book away because I really want you to read it, but she goes on to focus on her kids, money, career, “stuff”, health, connection, etc.
I found that I could relate to a lot of her stories, I had a lot of “aha” moments, where I too could improve my view of situations and be more grateful in more areas of my life.
Right now, is a great time to grab the book if you aren’t a Joy Box subscriber because this would be a great goal for 2023, to come up with your own 12 focus areas to find more gratitude throughout the year. I know Christmas is right around the corner, this would be a great book to give as a gift as well.