Set Up Your Environment To Encourage Gratitude

We know that many are impacted by their environment. Clutter and dark colours can be especially distressing. Whereas tidy, bright areas bring joy and peace.

On the 11th day of Thanks Living I choose to decorate my spaces to encourage gratitude.

Since our environmnet can be so powerful, why not use decor to influence gratitude?

Put out throw pillows with “Give Thanks” stitched on them.
Hang a plaque that says, “Be Grateful.”
Arrange an item on your fireplace mantle that says, “Grateful. Thankful. Blessed. “
Use festive paper napkins that say the same.
Wear a tee shirt that has a similar sentiment.

Robert A. Emmons, gratitude researcher and author, wrote Thanks: How The New Science Of Gratitude Can Make You Happier. In it there is a chapter on Practicing Gratitude. He gives us 10 different techniques for developing and experiencing gratitude. Organizing our environment is one way we can do this.

Emmons says “two of the primary obstacles to being grateful are (1) forgetfulness and (2) a lack of mindful awareness.… Awareness is a precondition for gratitude.” Emmons support the idea of using décor to cue us to gratitude. As we carefully observe what’s around us, these cues can lead to thoughts of gratitude.

I want to purposefully put things in my home, office, and car that prompt me towards thankfulness.

Recently, I bought a picture for my mantel that says. “Let our lives be full of both thanks and giving.”
This week I will gather six photos from the past year that highlight God’s faithfulness. I will put them in a collage frame.
I’d also like to do something with the words from the hymn “Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing.”

Your Turn …