Celebrating 20 Years of Using a Gratitude Journal

I often joke that Oprah was my first spiritual guide. Her afternoon program was more familiar to me than the stories of the Bible, and some of her guests offered inspiring stories that made me feel like I could grow up to be inspiring too. Twenty years later, I barely recall most of what I watched. But if there is anything I took away from my teenage years watching Oprah, it was the one simple practice of a gratitude journal. Back in 2003, I was a 13 year old girl living in a small city on the east coast of Canada. My story probably matches a lot of other disenchanted youth; a bit socially awkward, horrible anxiety, daydreaming about being anywhere else more exciting. I had been bullied a lot in that first year of middle school, and that, coupled with my anxiety, had turned me into a young pessimist. <a href="https://medium.com/@ashely.crouch/celebrating-20-years-of-using-a-gratitude-journal-3b5dd0b18997">Read More</a>