A Simple Thing ✨ no. 1
boost your mood, strengthen immunity, and sleep better in just 5 minutes a day
Greetings from a fresh new week and welcome to the very first A Simple Thing—a weekly series designed to introduce small but impactful actions we can implement to enhance our day-to-day lives. My hope is that we’ll take a moment to pause the scrolling and scurrying (guilty!) and reflect on simple things that can lead to meaningful change. We’ll touch on topics familiar to Brittany’s Notebook—lifestyle, sustainability, self-care, and home—so let’s get to it!
A simple thing to do this week…
✏️ Write down 5 things you're grateful for every night for a week.
Taking a few moments at the end of each day to jot down what you're grateful for can have a profound effect on your mental and even physical well-being. You can write as much or as little as you like (I like to keep it simple with a list of 5 things)—the magic happens when we shift our focus to what’s good, instead of letting our minds linger on challenges (our brains love to do this as a survival mechanism). Doing this at night also sets you up for a positive mindset before you rest, amplifying the benefits even more.
My best tip for turning this simple thing into a habit: Every morning when you make your bed, place your notebook or journal on it. That way, when you crawl into bed at night, you’re reminded to reflect. If you use decorative pillows, try placing your journal on top of them as a reminder to put it on your bed in the morning. Essentially, you want to temporarily forget that your nightstand exists.
P.S. If you're like me and get caught up in finding the perfect notebook, let's put that aside this week. Just grab whatever you have on hand (tell me I’m not the only one with a collection of slightly used notebooks…). Once the habit is in place, you can always upgrade to a notebook you love (because I’m not above the dopamine hit of a new notebook), but for now, it’s the habit of gratitude we are focused on.
If you're planning to give this week’s simple thing a try, give this post a heart. And if you feel inspired, I'd love to hear in the comments—do you already have a gratitude practice? What benefits have you noticed? Or if you're new to this, how many days in a row are you aiming for?
I’m grateful you took the time to read this. 🫶 See you next week for another A Simple Thing—
I use a 5 year journal, and usually do 3 sentences that I learned from Neil Patricia—1. What am I grateful for? 2. What am I letting go of? 3. What am I looking forward to?
When I was deep in postpartum/early COVID, my therapist suggested a 5 year journal, and I started doing a line a day before bed. In year 3, I pivoted to trying to focus on only the highlights of my day, even if they seemed small, and it’s been such a positive game changer for my overall mindset!