Gratitude List Getting Stale? Here's Some Suggestions To Spice Things Up

Here's some Gratitude List ideas for when the micro-horrors seem to be unceasing

So firstly I must admit that I am a very ungrateful person. Please tell me your are too and that it’s not me that’s a petulant ingrate.

I just find it very hard to remember how good I (and let’s face it every other person who isn’t experiencing real trauma right now) have it.

Now, as a spoilt little fucker, you’d think that I’d be devoted to gratitude lists to remedy this ‘Spoilt Little Fuckery’ I am afflicted with but no, I am very off and on with the old Gratitude List. And maybe you are too. In fact, maybe you despise the whole idea of the Gratitude List. Perhaps you only opened this email to scoff at whatever wellness, whoowhoo Gratitude List shiteology I was pedaling. Well fear not, I am absolutely not here to convert you to the Gratitude List except to say that… well… if you can get past the inherent cringe of the Gratitude List, it actually does help to make note of the things that are not too shit in one’s life at any given time.

I first got into the Gratitude List idea when I got sober in 2018. My main route through alcoholism and early recovery has been via AA meetings. Now again, this might be the point in this letter where you X out with a scoff and accompanying eye-roll. A lot of people have very mixed feelings about AA, sometimes because of real issues in the program and sometimes because of assumptions people make about the program. The biggest reservations I hear regarding AA is the misguided take that it is a religious organisation. It’s not. It is a spiritual one so there’s some talk of a higher power but no religion is espoused or shouldn’t be if you’re going by the Big Book (yes, that really is what it’s called!). There is a bit of God-mentioning that, at first, I struggled with but other AA texts recommend that if you are struggling with the higher power aspect just go with the idea that your higher power is the other people in the group and that helped me a lot starting out. Anyway I swear this is not me doing the hard-sell on AA especially if you have no problem with alcohol! I, on the other hand, very much did – I once smashed the top of a bottle of Absinthe and instead of just accepting this and calling it quits with the bottle, I drank it through my cardigan to STRAIN OUT ANY GLASS.

So here’s me getting to a point that does relate to the Gratitude List:

In AA there’s a bit of daily paperwork involved, this is called the personal inventory (just so you know, there’re kind of two personal inventories – this is a simplified explanation because I don’t want to get into the weeds on AA here, no one come for me in the comments!). So the daily personal inventory is a bit of a review of your day. You ask yourself if you owe anyone an apology (probably) or if you spent the day only thinking about yourself (yes) or if you have been selfish and self-seeking (ALWAYS!!!). You basically review your actions and try to reset any attitudes towards other people that are shitty.

Now, obviously it being a daily journalling practice, I am fucking shit at it. But when I am in a good flow with it, I also always list three things that I am grateful for. And much to my initial wellness-hating disgust… the damn Gratitude List actually does help the old Mad Brain™. It’s so annoying when you discover that the stupid simple things like drinking water and occasionally touching grass and being grateful actually work.

Anyway, recently there I was having a quick bit of depression – I say ‘quick’ not to brag but simply because I have bipolar II which means that I cycle up and down super fast –yay! It’s a very relentless existence. Up-down, up-down, up-down. You do be wrecked from it. Anyway in my recent down, I was struggling to come up with stuff for the Gratitude List and it was getting very monotonous: My kids, my health, my dinner bla bla bla. So BORING.

So I started to try and think outside the box and here’s some stuff I’ve come up with that maybe you might feel grateful for too.

• I am grateful for the fact that no one can MAKE me shower. Boom. I am an adult and you simply cannot force me in there.

• I am grateful for the fact that I have my beautiful, sweet, loving phone. Phone gives me little holidays from life when I go for a delicious scroll in bed. Phone knows me better than anyone – as evidenced by how much niche Titanic and Cannibalism-related facts it gifts me every day. Phone asks me how I am (when I’m using the Flo app). Phone doesn’t judge my Google search history. Of course, occasionally Phone betrays me by allowing me to open the camera with front camera on but Phone and I will never be parted.

• I am grateful for the fact that I am now (self diagnosed) peri-menopausal. I love peri-menopause because it explains everything about how I am feeling at any given time. Tired? That’ll be the peri-meno. Sad? It’s peri-meno at your service. Happy? Probs the peri. Confused? Peri-meno for the win. Of course, every time I try to bring up my conviction that I am peri-menopausal to my psychiatrist and detail my symptoms, he’s all like ‘eh no babes, you’re just bipolar remember?!’ Rude. Being peri-meno seems way more fun than being bipolar and there’s supplements and exciting hormones I can inject for peri-menopause. Plus peri-meno actually has an end point unlike that aggro bitch bipolar that will plague me till I fucking dieeeeeee.