Happy Thanksgiving week to my friends in the United States!
In honor of the holiday, I want to share one of my favorite gratitude practices with you. The gratitude jar is a fun twist on the gratitude journal. While it can absolutely be effective as a solo experience, this practice is also a great one to enjoy with others. Though I typically think of it as a cozy fall or winter ritual, it can be done anytime, using only materials you likely already have at home.
The idea is pretty simple. Write down some small, specific things from your day that bring a smile to your face, put that list into a designated jar, and choose a regular time (once per week, once per month, etc.) to draw a piece of paper from the jar and revisit those pleasant moments.
This is a great practice for boosting mood, increasing positive emotions, and encouraging reflection and perspective. It can be practiced by adults, teens, and kids alike, and it can quickly become a relaxing weekly ritual. All you need are some basic household items, and you’re good to go.
Materials:
Empty container (jar, bowl, bucket, top hat…)
Paper
Writing utensil (pen, pencil, etc.)
Art supplies for decorating the jar (optional)
Time:
About 5 minutes per sitting
Goals:
Increase Positive Emotions
Boost Mood
Foster Connection
Lower Stress
Directions:
Find a Container
Find some sort of empty container to use as your “gratitude jar.” I cleaned out an old cashew container for mine, but you could use a large mason jar, a Tupperware container, a bowl, or nearly any other vessel that you have easily accessible. No need to buy anything fancy here, though of course you can get as fancy as you’d like. Whatever floats your boat.
For a bonus activity, feel free to decorate your jar. If the thought of doing something crafty has you breaking out into a cold sweat, feel free to skip this part. However, creativity can be therapeutic (and fun), so feel free to embrace your inner child (or perhaps recruit your actual child) and make that jar aesthetically pleasing.
If it’s aesthetically pleasing, you’re more likely to keep the jar in a visible place. If the jar is in a visible place, you’re more likely to remember to use it.
Choose a schedule that works for you.
There are so many ways to customize this practice, so I recommend some experimentation until you find a rhythm that you like. Here are a few options to get you started:
Make your gratitude lists several times per week, then at the end of the week, dump out your jar and review the moments from your week that made you smile. Make it a nice Sunday night ritual to review your gratitude, and start fresh each week.
Write a gratitude list once per week. Then, at the end of each month, review your month in gratitude.
Use the jar sporadically. Keep it in a visible place and write a gratitude list whenever you think of it. Likewise, draw a piece of paper from the jar to review whenever you think of it. If you’re ever feeling down, grab a handful of paper from the jar and read some of the gratitude lists as a nice pick-me-up.
Decide if you’d like to work solo or make it a shared ritual.
While many mental health tools work better as personal practices, I find that this one can be a nice opportunity for connection. Personally, I enjoy sharing this as a fall/winter ritual with my husband. A few times per week, we will sit down together and each make our separate gratitude lists to put in the jar. Sometimes we will discuss what we wrote, other times we won’t. It just depends on the day. Then, at the end of the week, we’ll dump the jar out and share our gratitude lists for the week. We have different enough handwriting that it is easy enough to tell our lists apart. However, if you are sharing this ritual with someone else, feel free to keep different jars or use some sort of color coding or labeling system to keep your lists distinct.
Practice and customize.
I don’t believe in one-size-fits all protocols, so I invite you to try the gratitude jar and make any desired adjustments as you go to make it work better for you. The goal is simply to create a fun, relaxing, and mood-boosting ritual, and I encourage you to experiment and customize.
Some Final Tips and Ideas:
Feel free to review my article here to remind yourself how to get the most out of any gratitude practice.
Consider writing the date on your gratitude lists so you can more easily remember what was going on the day that you wrote the list. This allows your gratitude jar to feel like a mini time capsule.
Some people prefer making bullet point lists with numerous items, while others like to write a paragraph or several sentences about one or two items. I invite you to experiment with different ways of doing it until you find a method that you prefer. As long as you are taking the time to remember small, specific details and savor the positive emotions associated with the items on your list, you should get some benefit.
Use your five senses to make this ritual feel special. Put on some relaxing music, curl up with a blanket, light a (non-toxic) candle, sip on a nice warm beverage, or do anything else that would help make this time feel special and relaxing.
Gratitude jars can be a great (low-cost) gift! If you’d like to gift a gratitude jar, fill the jar with slips of paper describing your gratitude for the person to whom you are giving the jar. List qualities that you appreciate about them, favorite memories, etc. This can be a thoughtful birthday or holiday gift, or it can be an excellent pick-me-up for someone going through a rough time. Plus, creating the jar will likely boost your mood too!
Have you ever tried using a gratitude jar? Are you planning to? Share your experience or ideas in the comments, so we can all learn from each other.