Jars are often filled with good things from a garden—succulent little jams in the smallest containers, relishes and tomato and pumpkin sauces in midsized jars, and juicy peaches and pears, and green beans, corn, and all manner of squash preserved in large ring-top canning jars. Dining on this bounty in the dead of winter helps bring in some of summer’s warmth and memories that are sure to bring you joy.
When your garden bounty is through, put your trusty pen to paper and cultivate a bounty of gratitude. Nail a particularly challenging yoga pose and feel over the moon about it? Write it down. When your significant other brings you chocolate and flowers just because, write about how happy he or she made you. After a period of meditation from which you emerge spiritually charged, note how blessed you feel. Write out your gratitude. All these notes get dropped into your garden jar of gratitude.
Make your ritual into three parts: Pay attention to what shows up in your life. Notice how events, people, circumstances, and objects color your emotions, especially when something generates joy, peace, confidence, trust, and appreciation. Take time to write at length about these things through the lens of gratitude and then drop your notes into the jar.