A Blessings Journal Can Change Your Perspective on Daily Life

In 2001, Martina McBride released a Greatest Hits compilation album and on that album was a song called, "Blessed." The song was so loved that it landed at the top of the Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks

In the song, Martina sings about the blessings in her life,

I have been blessed

And I feel like I've found my way

I thank God for all I've been given

At the end of every day

I have been blessed

With so much more than I deserve

What is a blessing? According to Dictionary.com, a blessing is, "a special favor, mercy, or benefit." All of the time I see people write about various blessings on social media and just as quickly, keyboard warriors leave snarky comments about how say, finding $5 in a coat pocket isn't a blessing. But that's where they're wrong. It is a blessing.

A blessing doesn't have to be something huge to count, it can be something good and of any size. I think too often we associate blessings as being major things, but if we stop and really count the small positive things that happen to us each day, we find that we experience dozens of blessings each week and each one is worthy of giving thanks for.

This year has been horrendous and it's been so easy to get sucked into the muck, but I don't want to go down that way. I don't want to let the negative win and lose sight of the good in my life and so I've started something new: a blessings journal.

Each night before bed I write in my journal the good things that happened to me that day. Then, when I'm feeling suffocated by all the garbage life plops on me I pull out my blessings journal and look back at all of the wonderful things that have happened. It puts the bad stuff in perspective and reminds me that there is so much better in life than there is bad and when we focus on the good and give thanks for the good, the bad seems much less heavy.

If life has been beating you down and you feel yourself sinking into a hole of sadness, I would suggest maybe keeping a blessings journal of your own. Big things, little things, things that you think are insignificant. Write them down and look back on them and you too will realize that life is more beautiful than you sometimes credit it to be.