Day 2: Your Gratitude Blocks (Part 1 of 2)

Journal prompts to explore what's blocking you from gratitude

Welcome to Day 2 of our Gratitude Reset journaling practice! Today is Part 1 of our exploration into what I’m calling Gratitude Blocks. These are the beliefs or perceptions that often prevent you from fully embracing gratitude or that make you feel resistant to starting (and maintaining) a meaningful practice.

Below you will find the audio file and transcription of the intro to Day 2. The journal prompts are also listed below, in case you don’t want to listen—though I recommend listening to help create the full meditative journaling experience. (Before the journaling session, I lead you through some grounding/breathing to welcome in insights.)

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I hope you enjoy today’s session!

Lesson 2: Your Gratitude Blocks, Part 1

Welcome back. Today we will begin to look at common gratitude blocks. Since this is a bigger topic and I ended up writing more journal prompts for you to explore, I decided to split it over two days. My hope is that this will make the blocks exploration a little more digestible for you, but if you feel like you want to move through it in one sitting, please feel free to do this session and the next one back-to-back, if your schedule allows. The choice is yours.

The main common blocks I have identified when it comes to gratitude are feelings of unworthiness, guilt, and fear. And I'll explain what I mean by each of these.

Sometimes, we might believe we aren't worthy of expressing gratitude. This could be for a variety of reasons. You might be caught up in your past and past mistakes, feeling as if you don't have the right to have the good things you do have, and so it is hard to express gratitude for them. But this often closes the door on letting in more good things.

You might also be so focused on the future and what you want to achieve, and not having yet achieved it, you subconsciously don't even feel worthy of what you have now. You're basically holding your breath until you reach the next goal. You think "I'll be happy or grateful once I reach this goal or that goal." Or, "I'll have time to celebrate and express gratitude once I reach this milestone." But as soon as you reach one achievement, you're already onto the next, and the cycle continues. We don't realize though that if we actually pause to be content with the moment, to celebrate and feel worthy of each achievement, we might reach those next goals with greater ease and joy.

And sometimes a gratitude practice can seem a little fluffy or overly positive (or at least it did seem like that to me for a time). And I think some ways it is portrayed do make it seem that way, as if we're all just running around declaring how amazing everything is and how grateful we are for all our blessings, while meanwhile others in the world are struggling or suffering. It can seem like we're ignoring reality, veering into the realm of toxic positivity or spiritual bypassing. And you might feel like you had to have gone through something major in order to earn the right to openly express gratitude and to give time to expressing gratitude.

I first learned to feel guilty for what I have as a child, and perhaps you can relate to this. My mom would say things to me like "You're complaining about homework and a test. What some kids would give to just be worried about that! There are kids out there who don't have enough food or a safe home." While this is 100% true, rather than lead me to feel grateful for what I had, it mostly just lead me to feel guilty for it, and ashamed of my less than positive emotions about my circumstances.

But after some reflection on this, I realized that it's important to have gratitude for both the blessings we have and the little day-to-day challenges they bring, and we'll get more into gratitude for challenges on Day 7. While I might have thought that focusing on gratitude was a way of avoiding the reality of other people's struggles, for me to not express gratitude for the gifts I have was also a form of avoidance, and neither are helpful. Like with most things in life, we have to strike the right balance, we have to have awareness of both ends of the spectrum.

You might also subconsciously have some fear or anxiety around expressing gratitude. You might think that if you acknowledge what you have and give too much attention to it, especially if it is something you worked long and hard to get, it might suddenly go away. This leads you to tiptoe around what you're grateful for, always waiting for "the other shoe to drop." But often what we fail to realize is that being grateful for what we have can actually open the door for more support and blessings and good things.

These are just a few common blocks I have identified, and you may have found more or encountered others. If so, I encourage you to explore them in today's journal prompts.

Journal Prompts:

• Do I feel worthy of expressing gratitude? Why or why not?

• When I feel resistance to expressing gratitude for my life and any blessings that come with it, what do I feel is the root or source of this resistance? Is it guilt? Fear? Worthiness? A combination of these? Take a moment to explore the source or sources of your personal resistance.

• What might help me release these blocks, any feelings of unworthiness, guilt, or fear, that I have around expressing gratitude? (These can be baby steps toward changing your perspective)

What do you think most often blocks you from expressing gratitude? Was it one of the things I shared above, or something else? Share what these prompts brought up for you.

And remember, there is a special gift for anyone who completes all 8 days of this course by the end of the year: a free month of the paid subscription to the Soul Journaling Sessions. All you have to do is leave your reflections below or restack this post to Notes with your reflections or insights.

With much love & gratitude,

Marcy