I must admit, for a couple of nights this month I did forget to have a moment of gratitude and write in my gratitude journal. This meant the next day was an extra long moment of gratitude, thinking of both the current day and the previous day. I also realise, reading back on this, how much food seems to make me happy and how grateful I am that eating and food in general bring people together.

I also noticed how much brunching I’ve been doing, meeting up and catching up with old friends and old colleagues who I haven’t seen in a while: food for the body as well as food for the soul. So, here is my gratitude journal for October:

1 Birthdays: it was a colleague’s birthday today and there were doughnuts and brunches, a nice day filled with food. Grateful for the sweet goods and the savoury sustenance.

2 Family: the in laws came down today and we had a lovely meal together, it was nice catching up and chatting, as we hadn’t done so in a while.

3 Evening drinks with colleagues: grateful for an impromptu drinks this evening to wind down. Food was also very good.

4 Restaurants: had a lovely meal out with the family, great company, great food, great service, great evening.

5 Friends: met up with a couple of old work colleagues in a lovely pub/ restaurant and it was lovely catching up and chatting about past experiences, future aspirations, and current life news. It was also interesting learning how to play Ludo the proper way. Grateful to have these people in my life.

6 Dogs: reprioritising life and future goals, hubby and I are considering getting a dog and enjoying our time in the place we currently live instead of moving and buying a place elsewhere that we might not be happy with.

7 Work: grateful that I’m stimulated and interested in the work that I do and that I can also leave on time some days, like today. Appreciative that I rarely think badly of my job and grateful that I can say I enjoy what I do.

8 Radiators: grateful for radiators and their warmth, especially in the morning, it makes it a little easier getting up in the morning now that it is a little chillier.

9 Lie ins: grateful to be able to sleep in a little and still manage to rush to get to work on time, grateful to get some rest to recharge my batteries.

10 World Mental Health Day: grateful for work providing us with little gifts and info card about mental health, great to work at a place that is open for dialogue like this.

11 Comedy: grateful to be able to go to a comedy gig where we have listened to these comedians on podcasts but were able to see them live, what an entertaining evening.

12 The Good Place: grateful for this hilarious yet clever show, lots of twists and turns and provided us a fair few hours of entertainment today.

13 Dogs: we went to Discover Dogs today and grateful to meet some adorable dogs and talk to their owners, also grateful for my dog Merlin who was the very best and fluffiest dog there was.

14 Friends: grateful for friends passing on their wisdom and experiences of property purchasing, it has been a great help.

15 Organisation: grateful that my past self was organised allowing my present self to relax and enjoy the evening.

16 Chance meetings: grateful for a chance meeting today where I saw an old friend who had just moved back to the UK from Paris only yesterday. Good timing and a good brief catch up.

17 Food: grateful for a lovely team meal at lunch as a colleague is going on sabbatical very soon and grateful for baking as I baked brownies using an old colleague’s recipe for a cake sale tomorrow, and the brownies are very tasty indeed.

18 Catch ups: caught up with a couple of friends over a lovely authentic dinner tonight and I’m grateful they are in my life, it’s great being able to have a hearty laugh and reminisce about the past and hear new things about the present and future.

19 Friends: visited a friend with a couple of others today, having fun trying on bridesmaids dresses, and grateful to be able to just talk and chill and grateful to be fed lots of tasty food.

20 Hubby: back home with the hubby today, and I’m grateful that he gave me some perspective: some things are inconsequential and therefore do not need to be worried about. Why should I allow myself to be annoyed or even angry at something that I cannot control or does not directly impact me? I shouldn’t and I won’t, or at least try to.

21 Walking: grateful to be able to walk to and from work with the hubby today, who practically almost ran to meet up with me on the way home. It’s nice that we are able to live close enough to work, which wasn’t always the case, so today I’m grateful for that.

22 Pictures: grateful to look through old pictures and reminisce and think about the past, a nice trip down memory lane without wallowing in nostalgia.

23 Creativity: grateful to get my creative juices flowing as I’m blogging again and writing. It’s nice to have a creative outlet.

24 Podcast: listened to a brilliant podcast today where it talked about what was true and what was false, and how destabilising it can be to learn of one false thing in an otherwise true story. Where there are many situations that create doubt and so any story is better than a tonne of questions, how we often make up a story to fill in the hole of what we don’t understand, essentially filling in the gaps. Grateful to hear this, as I am trying to learn to just let thoughts and feelings pass and wash over me, I can understand how sometimes we can hold onto something to try and make sense of things.

25 Food: grateful to be able to eat at this lovely place for lunch, the food is so good, and I haven’t been in a while so it was lovely.

26 Friends: grateful to spend the day with some friends, a couple I saw only last week, but this is probably the first time in more than 5 years where we have gotten together. Also had a lovely dinner with these people and grateful to be able to just sit and talk and eat together once again.

27 Friends and hubby: grateful for a friend meeting me today for coffee and a little brunch, was lovely catching up and sharing information and talking about the industry we both work in and general work things with someone who understands it all as we’ve been through the same or similar things. Also grateful for hubby for walking with me for a good few hours exploring parts of the city we live in to see if we see a future in those areas.

28 Phone call: grateful for a phone call I had today about a property that I’m really keen on and it was good news so far.

29 Colleagues: grateful for a couple of colleagues today who were advising me on property viewings and what to look out for, one of them also sent me a link to a useful and interesting map that I will be perusing.

30 Writing: today I drafted a piece about my mental health experience and as I was writing it I noticed repetitions about things that have happened in my life or things I thought were true in my life, so I’m grateful in doing this task so I was able to step back to see the bigger picture and realise these things. My realisations were of the pressures in my life at certain times: when I was treading water or, at times, drowning; thinking that once I made my bed I had to lie in it; thinking that I couldn’t ask for help when in reality the mere action of speaking out loud what I felt was wrong was catharsis and made me realise that everything was going to be ok.

31 Podcast: grateful to listen to an empowering podcast today where it was an interview with Marie Forleo about her book Everything is Figureoutable, how saying things out loud is more effective than thinking things internally, how repetition leads to neuroplasticity, how people can say no to you but if you have that internal strength to push through it gives you that little extra chance. Empowering listening to this podcast interview and now I really want to read her book.