In 2021, during COVID, Tammy was dealing with challenging situations happening personally and in the world. She wanted a way to pause, reflect on positive things, and not dwell on what was not going as well as she would like.
She grew up in a religious family where they practiced prayer, and with prayer came sharing what they were thankful for. That was probably the earliest form of expressing gratitude for her.
It really was in response to hardships during the COVID/post-COVID period; she felt she needed to give herself more grace and intentionally take a moment to recollect and convey gratitude. She knew she would not express thankfulness naturally. Without a tool, she would just keep going about her day, busy and doing her thing. She needed a trigger to build a habit around this. And that’s what the Gratitude app was able to do for her, compared to just having it be random; it reminded her to feel some gratitude daily.
“I think that positive thinking and taking moments to reflect from a positive mindset and express gratitude really help keep us from getting mired down by heavy things.”
~ Tammy
It helped her recognize small things, like an interaction with her dog or a person on the sidewalk. Those little moments reminded her that we are all just humans. She also found gratitude in simply being able to go to the grocery store and buy what she needed. She remembered what it was like in college, not knowing how she was going to pay for something to eat or make rent. Pausing helped her recognize the financial level she had reached. She dedicated 15 minutes at the end of each day before bed to find a moment to be thankful for and quiet her mind.
She found she really liked the prompts and the challenges in the app. She discovered the feature to create a vision board. She always thought vision boards were a bit unrealistic, but she defined four buckets where she wanted goals: financial wellness, personal health, family, and travel. Taking the time to focus on what she wanted helped bring those things to life instead of them just being a “maybe someday.”
Her last journal entry was in February 2023, right after her divorce was final. The dedicated tool was helpful to her during that major life change. Once she hit that period, she went into a different mode. She leaned into travel and focused on her career, setting her personal self-care aside. Recently, she talked with her therapist and realized she wanted to be more balanced. She decided to revive her practice, build a new vision board for her new life, and add the app back into her toolbox. She thinks that for her, though, she does require some kind of tool or process to slow her down, truly express gratitude, and reflect on it because she won’t do it naturally.
“Don’t assume you’ll get in a habit of it; it’s like any other habit, right? You have to build it intentionally. Just like if you have a bad habit, you have to break it intentionally. Gratitude is the same.”
~ Tammy
When she downloaded the app again, she was surprised that it restored her saved data from Google Drive. Looking back at her 2021 vision board, she was amazed by how much her life had evolved since then. Some of her goals had to change after the divorce, but she just figured out a new way forward. Her travel goals also evolved, shifting from family camping trips to exploring new places in ways that reflect this next chapter of her life. She still has her eyes on one big goal on the 2021 vision board, which is pending. She has a long-term hope of spending extended time living somewhere new as her next chapter unfolds.
Looking at herself five years ago versus today, she is a much more relaxed person. Expressing gratitude helped temper feelings of worry, anxiety, and the Sunday night blues. She is more apt to assume positive intent and give people grace. Currently, she is learning Mahjong, a complex game that requires consistent daily time. If she hadn’t been intentional about doing that, she wouldn’t know that she would get the value out of it because, like anything else, it would just be like something she randomly does once a month or every couple of weeks if she suddenly has a moment and thinks of it. So she did it with intention, even if it is just five minutes a day. She is ready to update her vision board and continue the practice.
Tammy’s story teaches us that gratitude is not something that just happens automatically, it is a habit we must build with intent. Even when life gets busy or takes an unexpected turn, it is okay to lose our balance for a little while, as long as we are willing to pick ourselves up and start again. Her journey is a reminder that taking a few minutes to write down what we want and what we are thankful for can actually change the reality we end up living.
Share this story with someone who is trying to build a habit, to remind them that small steps with intention matter.
This is Tammy’s story, told beautifully by her and curated in its truest form by me to share with you.
I would love to hear your story. Write to me at preeti@gratefulness.me ✨
Every story is a reminder that a grateful heart is a magnet for miracles.
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