Close your eyes and recall three things from your day for which you are grateful. They can be anything from the kindness and generosity of a friend to the bounty of a meal to the warmth of the sun to the beauty of a night sky. Try to be as specific as you can be in recalling what you are grateful for. Write these three things down in a journal. While you can do this exercise in your head, keeping a list of what you are grateful for has been shown to have many physical and emotional benefits over time. Each time you journal, try to write down three different things. Variation is the key to effective gratitude journaling.

The Book of Joy: Lasting Happiness in a Changing World by Dalai Lama, Desmond Tutu, and Douglas Carlton Abrams

Two hermits planted saplings to grow olives. They needed olive oil for their prayer. One of them took charge of the plant. Prayed to God for rain, for sunshine and for frost. God granted them all. Yet his plant eventually perished. While the other hermit left the plant to God’s care. Asked for nothing. It grew well and yielded abundant olives. So is it with life. Everything in this vast universe works meticulously by some mysterious power. The human intellect cannot conceive it. How the infinite beings and things orchestrate into the melody of existence. One ought not to disturb this harmony by one’s personal egocentric preferences. If you choose to assert your ego, then that unknown power seems to hand over the reins of control to you. You then lose its grace. Whereas, you surrender your ego to that unknown scheme of nature, you would receive its sovereignty.

Vedanta Treatise: The Eternities by A. Parthasarathy