May you have fun today! In just two weeks, my book, Spirituality Is for Every Body: 8 Accessible, Inclusive Ways To Connect with the Divine When Living With Disability, will be released to the world! 🎉 (confetti emoji). Can you tell who’s excited beyond words?!
If you have already bought a copy of my book, thank you so much!! I love teaching inclusive spirituality and your purchase of my book helps me continue doing what I love and what I feel called to do.
If you haven’t purchased my book yet, please consider doing so. You can click on any of the following links to be taken to my book’s page on that retailer’s page: Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Target .
To celebrate the upcoming release of my book, I decided to do a series of posts called: “3 Ways To Make Spirituality Accessible.” The info in each of these posts can be found in my book. Today’s post is the second in the series and focuses on making gratitude journals accessible to those living with disabilities.
Have you tried keeping a gratitude journal and felt it just wasn’t for you? Do you want to keep a gratitude journal but have difficulty writing because of a learning disability or a mobility disability or for another reason? Perhaps, you’re open to starting a gratitude practice but traditional journaling just doesn’t work for you. Well, keep on reading!
One of the spiritual practices that I enjoy doing the most is my gratitude practice but this wasn’t always the case. Years ago, I learned about the benefits of keeping a gratitude journal and I wanted to keep a gratitude journal myself. So, I got a gratitude journal, did what my teacher taught and, you know what?
I didn’t feel much gratitude. Instead, I felt pain and fatigue whenever I wrote in my gratitude journal. Due to cerebral palsy, I have reduced control of my hands so writing or typing in a journal causes spasms and cramps in my hands and arms. So, even though keeping a traditional gratitude journal helps some feel more grateful, it only reminded me of the things that my muscles struggle to do.
A few years later, I was studying with a different teacher and learned a different gratitude practice. This technique worked with my body, was easy and fun, and actually left me feeling more gratitude(you can read all about this technique in my book)! After this experience, I became even more passionate about helping others with disabilities discover accessible ways to engage in spiritual practices.
Before I give you 3 tips to make gratitude journaling more accessible, let’s talk about why having a gratitude practice is so awesome. Expressing gratitude enables you to become a magnet for all good things. Have you heard the saying “what you appreciate, appreciates?” This quote means that whenever you’re expressing and feeling gratitude for all that you have, you receive even more to be grateful for.
In chapter 6 of my book, Spirituality Is for Every Body, I explain why this is. Here’s a brief excerpt.
We all have two minds: the conscious and the subconscious. The conscious mind is filled with our thoughts, opinions, likes, dislikes, etc. In short, it’s our “thinking brain.” We use it to make plans, think through options, and the like. It’s quite proactive. Our conscious mind transmits signals and messages to our subconscious mind. The subconscious mind is active when we sleep and dream, among other times.
Many people believe they make things happen with their conscious minds. After all, that is the mind responsible for making plans and decisions. However, and this is a gargantuan however, the subconscious mind is responsible for creating the experiences we have in our lives. So the best way to create what you authentically desire is to align your subconscious with the Divine, and one way to do this is by feeling and expressing gratitude. When you express gratitude, your conscious mind is registering a simple “thank you” shared in conversation or written on a page, but you are also sending a signal to your subconscious mind that you have received something. Your subconscious mind absorbs that signal and creates circumstances in which you receive. The more gratitude you express, the more you fill your subconscious mind with abundance, love, joy, appreciation, and openness to receiving. Such a mind is in complete alignment with God, which causes blessings to pour upon you like a monsoon.
~Excerpt from Spirituality Is for Every Body
by Allison V. Thompkins, Ph.D.
So, now that you know why feeling and expressing gratitude are so important, let’s talk about 3 ways to make gratitude journals accessible to those with disabilities.
TIP #1
If you find writing sentences difficult but enjoy creating visual art such as drawing or painting, spend ten minutes, or more, creating a visual representation of what you are grateful for as often as possible.
TIP #2
If writing or typing in a journal is not possible, make a mental list of what you’re grateful for or say or sign(using your preferred sign language) what you are grateful for. If you’re interested in this technique, I recommend keeping your eyes closed during your journaling process so that you can maintain your focus.
TIP #3
This tip is for those who communicate using symbols on communication cards or an AAC device instead of spoken or typed words.
 a. Get a decorative plastic bowl or keepsake box.
 b. Either draw, or print out, images that symbolize gratitude to you.
 c. Attach these images to the outside of your bowl/box. You have created a gratitude container.
 d. Get a deck of communication cards that you will use only for your gratitude practice. When you want to express gratitude, choose the card(s) from your deck that reflect what you are grateful for and put the card(s) into your gratitude container.
Well, those are my tips for making gratitude journals accessible. I hope they help you along your spiritual path! If you’d like even more guidance about how to make various gratitude practices accessible, consider buying my book. Have a wonderful two weeks! I’ll see you soon!
Love, blessings and purple,
Allison
