GLI: Daily Reflective Practice (part 1)
Designing life practices is always an ongoing process. Circumstances change, we change. If we want our practices to stay sustainable and consistent with what’s important, then we have to redesign them as well.
I look forward to writing more in depth about evolution of my morning routine more broadly, but today I want to introduce GLI (pronounced “glee,” thanks to a good friend who recognized the acronym opportunity):
Gratitude
Learning
Intent
I like to keep a small handwritten journal, and I make it a morning (sometimes evening) practice to go through each of these in sequence. The sequence is purposeful. I begin with recognizing what I have to be grateful for from the previous day. Then, I identify something I can take away as a learning from that day. And finally, often inspired by the reflections before, I declare an intent for today.
For me, a key to successfully making this sustainable is that I don’t tell myself I have to do it every day, but I do account for every day. So if I happen to miss a day, when I write the next day I can just take both of the previous days into account. In reality, I find that this is really important to me and I actually do it most days, but I also avoid feeling guilty or pressured when I don’t.
It has worked remarkably well. I’ve been able to keep the gratitude part going for 6.5 years now. Learning and Intent were added to the practice about a year ago. This will be a mini series on the purpose behind each of these, what exactly they look like, and why they’ve worked well and sustainably for me.
Thanks for reading!
Gratitude
This part of the practice serves basically as a gratitude journal. For me, that looks like short bullet points. It might be people, experiences, things. Sometimes more abstract. And they may be unique to that day or not, but usually something that stood out as top of mind. To get started, it can help me to work chronologically at first, but it usually doesn’t end up that way. It’s by no means an exhaustive list, but just what arises while bringing my attention to it for 5-10 minutes.
This started for me one year after returning to the US from volunteering at a summer program in Japan, and traveling with a friend there. I had always had incredibly rich experiences in my summers there. While traveling, I picked up from him the practice of carrying a journal to document the adventures. I would write extensively every day, often struggling to set aside enough time to capture all of the incredible details. There was so much to be grateful and joyful about!
When I returned home that summer, as the glow of a deep experience abroad started to fade, I couldn’t help but notice the contrast. What was it that was so different about that experience from ‘normal’ life? What do I need to change in my life to feel that way all the time?
I was asking myself the wrong questions. The answer to both was nothing. Sure, traveling created a situation where everything was new and different—and thus, I was highly sensitive to those experiences and processing them consciously. But that was it; the difference came more from how I related to those experiences than what they were.
In fact, if I allowed myself the space to pay attention, to increase my sensitivity, then there were an abundance of things in my life to be excited about every day regardless of them being usual.
I was missing gratitude. Gratitude for the miracles of fresh food on my plate, loving friends, sunshine… I realized that if I wanted to experience life as full and wondrous like I was traveling, that’s where I should start. And so I did.
Of course there is a natural excitement in new experiences. And, having this practice in my life every day, I spend less time longing for the next adventure, and more time allowing the daily ups to outshine the daily downs. That’s also something for which I’m grateful.
For those who like examples, here’s what I wrote this morning [names removed]:
a tether unbound
joy in writing
taco rice and chips
[my partner] appreciating my talents
inspirational content from SynBioBeta
guiding a meditation, receiving gratitude for the experience; a peaceful and powerful start to the day; [person’s] support as both colleague and friend
scheduled activity - accomplishing what i want and avoiding guilty relaxation, making time for nothing
freedom
games with the boys, celebrating [friend’s] birthday
