“Gratitude turns what we have into enough.” – Aesop
When you start focusing on what you have instead of what’s missing, you are one step closer to finding peace. A gratitude jar is a well-being tool that can remind you of the little things (which are actually bigger and more important than you think). Today, it’s all about gratitude and how to make it a part of your life, so we’re going to channel our efforts into giving you more insight on the topic, as well as some really awesome gratitude jar ideas.
What Is A Gratitude Jar?
In our daily hectic lives, we often find ourselves complaining at the end of the day about everything that went wrong. Stress and anxiety sometimes take over, and in the middle of the chaos, we neglect the good things that are actually happening. Taking stuff for granted is, sadly, a part of human nature, but what if we started being more grateful for the good things going on? That’s how the idea of a jar for gratefulness came to be.
A jar like this is exactly what it sounds like: a recipient with gratitude. That means that it literally contains a person’s thoughts about what makes them happy. It’s about giving thanks and remembering the good things that are going on in one’s life, and writing them down for later reading. It’s also a super easy DIY craft project you can do any time!
How To Use A Grateful Jar
Think about this jar like a keepsakes box but instead of trinkets, it contains little notes in which you write about being thankful for something you remembered from a while back or something that has recently happened and you find it to be good.
In her book called “The Gratitude Jar: A Simple Guide to Creating Miracles”, author Josie Robinson talks about a formula that we can use to give thanks and show gratefulness using this wonderful well-being tool called a gratitude jar. It is basically a six-step formula of instructions that will help you realize what are the things that you can write on your gratitude cards:
- The very first thing is thinking about the stuff you’re grateful for. This could be anything from being healthy, having pets, getting recognized at work, having a best friend who means the world to you, etc.
- Keeping an open mind is the next step. The problem that plenty of people encountered when they tried to write about stuff they are grateful for is that they believe some things are too small to be mentioned. There are high chances that something you find small now can actually be something that you will be really grateful for later. Think of it this way: months ago, we were never really grateful for the freedom of walking through the park at any time at day or night. In current times, this has become a joy and something people are grateful for.
- The next step is to dig deep inside yourself and allow yourself to feel gratitude. Why did you think of that particular reason? Does it fill your heart with emotion?
- Grab a piece of paper and write down the reason why you’re feeling grateful. The formula is generally “Today, I am grateful/thankful for _____” but you can change it to sound different if that’s what you feel like.
- When you’re done formulating the idea, put it inside the jar. Whether it’s one you made yourself or a store-bought one, the gratitude jar is a symbol of the heart that holds inside it all things dear (the cards themselves and the thoughts they have written on them).
- The last step is sharing gratitude with someone else. In general, people choose a significant date for gratitude card reading (like Thanksgiving, New Year’s, or perhaps one’s birthday). When you pull out card by card and read these thoughts out loud, it will create powerful moments of gratitude.
Gratitude Jar Ideas
1. Quart Jar
If you’re blessed with a big family, you will need a larger gratitude jar that can fit everyone’s thoughts and thanks throughout the year. This one is a quart jar that’s perfect for people who want to have plenty of room to add their gratitude cards and share their thoughts about what makes them thankful in life.
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2. Thankful Donation Jar
What if, instead of writing the things you are grateful for, you made a small donation each time you have something to be grateful for? It’s a great way to save a bit of money. You can establish a deadline for opening the jar ( like once per year, on your birthday ), and you can use that money to buy yourself a gift.
3. Gratitude Glass Jar
This lovely grateful jar is basically a complete set with everything you need to start digging deep and writing down the things you’re grateful for. The set contains 365 gratitude cards, one for each day of the year but you can just write one card per week if one per day seems like too much.
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4. DIY Jar For Gratitude
As you may have noticed, making your own gratitude jar isn’t just easy, but it’s also super fun. You can basically turn any empty jar into a gratitude one, but make sure that you decorate so that it has a special meaning and it entices you to actually write down your ideas and put them inside.
5. A Jar With A Message
If you’re looking for a more stylish jar, feast your eyes on this beauty. It is an opaque vase-like product with a really rustic and beautiful giant cork lid. It comes with an inspiring message that inspired us to focus on the things we have more often, and it encourages us to fill it with messages of thanks and happiness.
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6. Grateful Jar For Children
Encouraging your children to make their own gratitude jar is actually deeply inspiring. It gives them a fun project to focus on but also pushes them to introspection at a young age. This way, you can train your children’s mindset to focus on the positives and appreciate the things they have instead of having them waste energy on superficial things.
7. Grateful Jar Gift Set
Remember Josie’s gratitude book that we mentioned earlier in this article? It is an inspiring read that will teach you how to create meaningful gratitude messages and encourages you to redirect your energy towards happy thoughts. This set right here includes a copy of that book, as well as a beautiful mason jar with the label “gratitude”, perfect to hold your messages of thanks.
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8. “Grateful For” Jar
A project perfect for the whole family: decorate a jar and print out small cards with the “grated for” message. By making the cards this small, you will encourage people to formulate really precise thanks, and while they’re focused on shortening the text, they will also have to analyze the reasons why they are thankful for in depth.
9. Thanksgiving DIY Grateful Jar
With a large jar, a glue gun, some rope, and some double-sided tape, you can make a simple, yet very effective gratitude jar. You can print out whatever message you want to be on the label and use the tape to place it on the jar. The glue gun is used to fix the rope around the neck of the jar, giving it a traditional, almost vintage-style look.
10. Family Jar
This is yet another perfect example of how you can turn a regular jar into a decorative masterpiece. In fact, you can pretty much a gratitude jar even out of a candy dish, which can be fully transparent, painted with water-resistant paints, labeled, glittered, decorated with rhinestones, or whatever other elements you feel would encourage the entire family to participate in the act of writing down their thanks.
11. Red Jar For Gratitude
It is amazing to think that an object as dull as a jar can be turned into such a beautiful decorative piece. This red jar, for example, is combined with a golden motif and the word “gratitude” written on it, inspiring you to place in a visible spot and hopefully be reminded to write down your thanks every time you see it.
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12. 12 Days Of Gratefulness Jar
Setting up a gratitude jar in a classroom is one of the best ideas yet. If you are a teacher, you can inspire children to focus on the good things going on in their life, no matter how small they might seem. The idea of the project is to take a few minutes each day before the Thanksgiving holidays and have everyone stop to reflect on some of the things they are thankful for.
13. Stylish Jar For Gratitude
It is amazing to see how a label with a nice font and some rope can create so many amazing gratitude jars with different styles. They’re almost like decorative items, and not just basic jars meant to hold notes. If you add a little perennial plant into the equation, it really is the perfect centerpiece to hold your most dear thoughts.
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Conclusion
How many times a week do you stop to think about the things that are actually going well in your life? How much energy do you waste on negative thoughts about the things you can no longer change or that are out of your control? With a gratitude jar, you will be inspired to collect pleasant thoughts about things that mean more to you then you think. What are some of the things in your life that belong in a gratitude jar? Let us know in the comments!
