One of the principals in magic is that like attracts like. The idea behind listing things you're grateful for is that it invites you to recognize more blessings or good things for which to be grateful. This exercise is also good for mental and emotional health. When you make a point of listing good things that happened or things you accomplished, then you start to validate your own successes. It's healthy to be proud of getting through the day if it was hard. Go you!
At the end of the day, sit down with your self-care journal and write these things:
1) Three success.
You define what success is. If you deal with a chronic illness, accused can be "I got out of bed: or "I ate breakfast." Maybe a success is remembering to take your multivitamin or remembering to hydrate enough to finish two refills of your water bottle at work. The key is that you have to consider it a success within the context of the kind of day you had.
2) Three things that brought you joy.
Again, you get to define what a joy was on that particular day. Did your favourite song play on the radio on the way to work? Did this month's issue of your favourite magazine subscription land in your mailbox? Did you see a cute cat on the way home? If it made you happy, write it down.
3) Three things you're thankful for.
Were you grateful for catching the early train so you had a bit of extra time to settle in before class started? Was there a computer server issue at work so you got to come home early and sit in the sun with a good book? Were you there when a friend needed to touch base today? Write it down.
Is coming up with three things hard to manage? Start with one thing in each category, then move up to two, and finally to three. You'll find that it gets easier the more you practice it.
After doing this for a few days, you may notice that your mood in general has improved, because you're focusing on prositive stuff instead of the bad things that happen to you. The negative things tend to stick with you more easily than the positive ones; when you finally manage to put the bad things out of your mind, something will remind you of them and--guess what?--they're back. Practicing daily gratitude by choosing to record good things instead of bad means that. you are consciously choosing to search your memory for positive energy. It's another form of requiring your brain and redireting your thought patterns. And apart from that, it just makes you feel good to remember the nice stuff that happened.