Reading Purge: Rehab Diaries and interviewing author Nicole Johns last week has made me more aware of body image—a touchy subject for most of us, man or woman, boy or girl—and the many ways in which it affects us. How often I, for instance, look into a mirror and see only the unwanted bulges, bumps, and wrinkles on my body. The frequency with which I complain about the fit of my clothes or the numbers blinking at me from my digital scale.

At the same time, I am looking forward to Thanksgiving, a time of family gathering together, sharing stories, laughter, food, and more. Thanksgiving reminds me to be more cognizant of all that is good in my life. Including my body, though lately I have taken for granted how well it serves me.

Therefore, this week’s journaling prompts and related short exercises—as much a reminder to me as to you—are about gratitude and body image: using gratitude to affect body image and to help us see ourselves in a more positive light.

1. How do you typically relate to your body? Do you think it’s too fat, too thin, too flabby, too old, or something else? Take a moment to stand in front of a full-length mirror, noticing the thoughts you have. Then freewrite for ten minutes about what you experienced. If you want, make a list of all the things your body was “too much” or “too little” of.
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2. Engage in a mild physical activity for five or ten minutes. As you do so, be aware, beginning at your toes and moving upward, of how your body works for you. Think about how your muscles and skeleton supports you in your activity. Feel your heart pumping blood through your body, your lungs expanding and contracting as you breathe, your muscles contracting and stretching as you move. When you’re done, sit down and write a brief thank you letter to your body. Thank each body part that functioned well. And if you experienced any pain or dysfunction, thank that body part for the message it’s providing you about your health, and the surrounding body parts for supporting the weaker ones. How do you feel after completing this exercise?
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3. Stand in front of a small mirror, reflecting just your face. Pretend you are a stranger and you are meeting yourself for the first time, curious about this person you are meeting. Look at the shape of his or her face, hair, and look deeply into his or her eyes. What do they tell you about this person’s personality? What aspects of this person’s face and expressions attract you? Now, still pretending you are this stranger, write in your journal about the person you just met. Write in great detail about those of his or her features you liked.
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4. Repeat #3 with a full-length mirror, taking the whole person into consideration.
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5. Make a list of ten body parts—seen and unseen—for which you are grateful. For each body part listed, write why you feel gratitude.
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6. Pick three “negative” qualities you wrote about for prompt #1 and, for each quality, complete the following sentence, more than once: I am grateful for ________ because … . For example, if I wrote that my hips were too wide, I could now write: I am grateful for my wide hips because they made childbearing so much easier … or because my lover thinks they’re sexy … or … they make my waist look smaller.
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7. Select one area of your body that you have consistently resisted and battled with over the years. It could be weight, the shape of your nose, narrow shoulders, whatever. (First, if you didn’t do #6, or you didn’t address this issue using that prompt, complete it now with this body area mind.) Using your gratitude statement from #6, write at least one affirmation for yourself, written as though you are speaking to someone else. Using my example, I could write: Your hips are beautiful because they are sexy and shapely.
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   Then, each morning and each evening, stand in front of a mirror, look into your own eyes, and repeat this affirmation three times. Do this for one week, then write in your journal about how you feel about that area of your body. Has your perception of your body changed in any way?

I invite you to leave a comment and share one discovery of gratitude about your body this week.

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Image Credit: Kate Ware
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This time of year is a great time to begin a gratitude journal. And since it takes at least three weeks to form a new habit, I’d like to challenge all of you would-be gratitude journal writers to a 31-day challenge.

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The challenge is this:
Each day, from December 1st through December 31st, write down five things, people, abilities, or events for which you are grateful.

That’s it.

Just five things.

If you need some motivation, watch this video on the Power of Gratitude.
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According to researcher Robert A. Emmons, studies have shown that a practice of gratitude — and by that, he means keeping a gratitude journal — reaps the following benefits:

Physical
• Stronger immune systems
• Less bothered by aches and pains
• Lower blood pressure
• Exercise more and take better care of their health
• Sleep longer and feel more refreshed upon waking

Psychological
• Higher levels of positive emotions
• More alert, alive, and awake
• More joy and pleasure
• More optimism and happiness

Social
• More helpful, generous, and compassionate
• More forgiving
• More outgoing
• Feel less lonely and isolated.

So what say you? Will you join me on December 1st through 31st for
31 Days of Gratitude?

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Image by Louise Docker
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A FRIEND recently told me that she keeps a journal only during the tough times and that she finds it difficult to write when everything seems to be going well. And she’s not the first person to have told me that.

I’ve noticed that when things are difficult, we’ll write the things we can’t find the courage to talk about. But when we’re happy, we lose the sense of urgency that needing to resolve problems creates, and we lose motivation to write.

This website is named Writing Through Life because that is exactly what I propose doing — this means writing through all the times, positive and negative, that we experience. So how do we stay committed, inspired, and motivated to write even when things are going well?

We can write through our gratitude. It’s easy, too. All we have to do is begin by making a list of things for which we’re grateful in that moment. The list doesn’t have to be grand and inclusive; it can contain simple things (mine often does), such as hot coffee, paper to write on, an ample supply of pens, a cool breeze on a hot day. It can also contain the “larger” things in life: the love of our family, physical health, the ability to walk, relative prosperity, etc.

Once you’ve created a list, you can use each item on the list as the basis of a writing prompt, using the following format:

I am grateful for ________ because …

Then expand that sentence and the thoughts it brings with it.

Example: I am grateful for my new mattress because it eases the chronic sciatic pain I used to experience. I get a better night’s sleep which helps me to be a better person to those around me. It’s interesting, how a thing like sleep makes such a difference in my disposition. And it helps me to understand that sometimes people aren’t grumpy by disposition but by pain or lack of sleep. I think about all the ways I have judged others — and myself — in the past for not being kind or gentle enough. Maybe all we really needed was a good night’s sleep.  …

Well, you get the picture. Now, it’s your turn. What are you grateful for, and how does that thing or person or feeling affect your life? And how do you feel after writing about it?