Monthly Gratitude Calendar
If you’re a creative like me — or if you wish you could be more creative — then use your skill or your desire to come up with new ideas for your happiness journey.
I’m going to share just one of my ideas with you in this post. Recently I tried something new which I’ve rather blandly named my “Monthly Gratitude Calendar.” Don’t let the lackluster name dissuade you from trying it, though! I had a lot of fun with it. :)
The basic idea and implementation is simple:
Print out a monthly calendar for the current or upcoming month.1 You can use the calendar you already keep your schedule on (e.g., Google) but I chose a very simple printable calendar so I wouldn’t have to clear my calendar to get a clean copy. There are calendars of various styles at Microsoft’s template library. I’m sure you can find others, as well.
Each day write ONE thing that you are grateful on that day. Because of the small space on the calendar, you will necessarily have to keep it succinct.
Be CREATIVE. Use different colored pens. Try writing differently each day. Draw or doodle instead of using words.2 There are no rules, so use whatever ideas come to you.
That’s it! Pretty simple, huh? And very easy, too.
Here’s how my first attempt at this exercise came out:
If you’re a reluctant gratitude writer, this could be the perfect exercise to get started on a habit of writing gratitudes. You may graduate to something that requires more writing as your proficiency with gratitudes increases, but you can stay with this exercise as long as you enjoy it.
Even for more advanced gratitude writers, I feel that this exercise contains a lot of opportunity. I’ll return to it because there are several aspects that were appealing to me:
Visual Record. At the end of the month, I had a visual record of a variety of things that I was grateful for. Looking at my calendar reminded me of what a great month I’d had. I kept it so I can review my joy from July 2023 at a future date.
Reminders. Since some of my gratitudes were specific to a particular experience I’d had on that day, this made my calendar even more of a “keepsake” and another reason to save it to review in the future.
Creative Confidence. I loved being able to use different colored pens and markers. My first month wasn’t particularly creative, but it was a starting point for me to explore further. As a reluctant visual artist, this simple exercise increased my creative confidence and made me motivated to do it again.
Short and Sweet. As one who is used to longer gratitudes, I did find it more challenging than I’d expected to write only a few words. This was a pleasant puzzle for me to solve.
If you try the Monthly Gratitude Calendar exercise, make it your own. Integrate whatever resonates with your talents, interests, and aspirations.
While the ideas are endless, I’ll give you a few more to get you started if you’re stuck:
Buy an attractive, printed calendar. It could be a wall calendar with photos (of cats?!?) or a pocket calendar to carry with you, or perhaps a book like those used for scheduling appointments.
Use different media, such as paint, fabrics, glitter, buttons, beads, cutouts, or whatever you can find to describe your gratitudes visually.
Print your calendar on card stock to give it more heft. Or, try a colorful paper or something with a texture or design on it.
Try not to repeat the same gratitude within the same month. When I took on this challenge, I noticed that it took me longer to come up with my gratitudes, but at the end of the month my brain was even more impressed by how many things I had to be grateful for!3
Feel free to draw outside the lines! Add drawings, color, or other designs in the empty space in and around the calendar itself.
Can you think of other ideas for keeping a Monthly Gratitude Calendar? Share them with me by responding to this newsletter or by sending me an email at tinarenee@substack.com.
In future newsletters, I’ll offer additional creative ideas to aid your journey. Be sure to subscribe and read each newsletter so you don’t miss an idea that will enhance your happiness!
It’s fine to start in the middle of a month! Begin as soon as is practical for you.
I’m not confident at drawing or I’d do more of it. If you’re a visual artist, I’d suggest trying an entire month of drawing your gratitudes rather than using words. The tiny space will require a special type of creativity that logo designers have honed. If you’re already a logo designer, what a great way to use that skill to come up with symbols for your gratitudes!
From my understanding of how happiness science works, you want to strive for a task that is not so challenging that your brain struggles with it, but it must also provide enough challenge that your brain is impressed by the result. The latter makes your brain think “Wow, I am so lucky/blessed/happy!” which is part of the rewiring process that I mentioned in a previous post.