Want to shake up your gratitude practice in 2014? Me too! Change is fun. I’ve been writing weekly gratitude lists since 2007, and I love the practice. The simple act of taking a break from a negative head-churn to list out 10 things I’m thankful for can completely change my mood around.

Given how good it makes me feel, it makes sense that I’m always on the lookout for more ways to incorporate thankfulness into my life!

“Feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it.” (William Arthur Ward)

I heard about this idea on Pinterest, and it’s pretty much foolproof. I certainly cannot take credit for the idea, but I love the concept so much that I had to share it with you! (I’ve also seen this called a joy jar, a memory jar, or a good times jar.)

Making a gratitude jar is mind-bogglingly simple: On slips of paper, scrawl down the things that make you happy as you experience them. Fold them up, and put them inside a big glass jar. Ta-da!

This is a great way that you can make your gratitude practice feel real and tangible, and as you create more memories or have more wonderful moments, you can literally see them piling up in front of you!

There are a lot of other ways you could make your gratitude practice more tangible, too. You could tie your slips of paper around tree branches, hang them on a piece of twine with teeny-tiny clothes-pins, or cover a wall with chalkboard paint and write down everything good that you feel.

For extra magic, read them aloud with the other people in your house on the 31st of December… Then burn the slips of paper in a fire, to clear the way for all new things.

What could be better than that?

Love always,

Photo by Amanda Mabel.