The 10x3 Gratitude Practice

Hello, dear reader! Today I want to share another lesson from my Self-Growth Summer Series. This lesson is about using a gratitude list like a yoga class. This is part 2 of 6.

Since June, I’ve been adding a gratitude listing practice onto my daily Interval Journaling, which I explained in part 1 of this series last weekend.

In short, you write ten things you’re grateful for, just a brain dump, whatever comes to mind, then you repeat each two more times to make three. By the time you finish, it’s like you’ve done a whole yoga class, or at least that’s how I feel. It has a surprisingly strong effect. I’d liken it to 20 minutes of meditation or box breathing, or thirty minutes of restorative movement, only it’s much easier.

I named this the 10x3 Gratitude Practice.

I’m not sure where I first learned of this practice. I know I heard it discussed somewhere, but it works to calm the mind, and it induces happy, peaceful feelings.

For as fast as it is, it feels like a contentment cheat code.

Here is what I do in more detail.

1. Right after I finish my daily Interval Journaling, I do the 10x3 Gratitude Practice, and for me, I do the gratitude list in the same document as my daily journal entry so that when I review my daily journal entries at the end of the week, I’m also glancing at my gratitude lists.

2. This is how it works:

   1. Write down ten things you’re grateful for in this format:

      1. I am grateful for X.

      2. I am grateful for Y.

      3. etc. (See the image above.)

   2. Then repeat this list a second time in this format:

      1. I am grateful for X. I am grateful for X.

      2. I am grateful for Y. I am grateful for Y.

      3. etc. etc.

   3. Then repeat this list a third time in this format:

      1. I am grateful for X. I am grateful for X. I am grateful for X.

      2. I am grateful for Y. I am grateful for Y. I am grateful for Y.

      3. etc. etc. etc.

   4. Do this every day. Don’t think too hard and don’t worry about repeating what you’re grateful for, just let it flow.

I don’t know why this works to generate so many good feelings, but it works. By the time I finish, whatever mental state I begin in, I’ve switched to serenity. In just a few minutes, it resets your nervous system and creates calm and happiness. It’s truly miraculous! There is something about the repetition of items that makes your brain keep returning to a place of happiness, and then the brain is like, Oh, right, I should just be happy all day!

Also, since you’re doing it daily, once you exhaust the first things that come to you, the most obvious things, like your children, money, health, and your dogs, etc, you find you’re grateful for so many things you wouldn’t normally take the time to appreciate, like Target and guava pastries!

At the end of each week, I take note of the many, many things I’m grateful for, as every seven days, you’ve written 70 things. Likewise, by the end of the year, you will have noted 3,650 things you’re grateful for! Quelle joie!

Let me know if you try this practice and if it has the same positive results for you.

Do you do any other type of gratitude practice or meditation daily?

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Thanks for reading, and stay tuned for the next installment of my Self-Growth Summer Lessons Series.

The next post will be about the deliberate repetition of something wonderful that you’d previously assumed would only happen once. I’m still trying to think of a good word or phrase to use for this practice. Maybe Déjà Fun. (like Déjà vu)

That’s all for today! See you soon.

XXXOOO

Charlotte Dune