Hi, I'm Emilia Isabelle

Daily Gratitude Lists (And I’m Trying to Earn a Spot on Your List)

Reality. Some days just suck. You wake up already irritated, your coffee tastes like ass, the sky has taken on the personality of  your emotionally unavailable ex, and even your socks feel like they’re plotting against you (why can I feel the seams?)

Even on those days, I’ve learned there’s always something to be grateful for. It doesn’t have to be big. It could be the fact you could afford that ass-tasting coffee or that you managed to get through a conversation without overthinking every single word you said to the point you don’t sleep a wink for a week straight and vow never to socialise again.

Gratitude is magic, but not in a light-some-sage-wave-it-round-the-house-and-hug-a-tree kind of way (though, honestly, do you). It’s a quiet, steady shift in mindset that opens your heart and soul. The more you look for things to be grateful for, the more things start showing up not because the universe is suddenly sprinkling glitter on your life but because you’ve changed the lens you’re looking through.

When I first started practicing gratitude, I kept it simple: 5 things a day. Some days it was stuff like:

• My slippers are fuzzy
• I had oat milk for my tea
• My son and I didn’t argue over getting ready for school
• I was awake when the sun rose
• I didn’t loose my shit today

At first, it felt like a bit of a performance, like I was doing gratitude rather than feeling it. Now, I notice a huge shift. I started seeing more and noticed things I used to overlook. Whenever this feeling would wash over me there would be a strange warmth in my chest when I caught a stranger being kind, or when my body didn’t ache as much that morning, or when my brain finally went quiet for a moment. I’d rush to my mental notebook and smuggly say to myself “that will make the list later.”

Now, I find myself having little mental debates over what makes the list, “okay Emilia, was the new jar of pickles really that good or should we prioritise the sunshine and that unexpected compliment instead?” It’s become a ritual of joyful decision-making which takes place every evening without fail before I close my eyes.

Even the hard days, the ones where I’m exhausted physically and mentally, my mind is foggy and tired or the heavy-hearted days. I still decide to pick one. On the days where you feel like there are none there will ALWAYS be one little thing. That’s all you need. Gratitude doesn’t deny the mess; it just offers you a small clean corner to sit in while you breathe.

This is the bit I don’t share but as a prolific oversharer to those who will listen or in this case read.. In my head, I like to imagine everyone else is also writing a gratitude list each day. I pretend it’s a worldwide thing, and we’re all secretly trying to earn a spot on someone else’s list. So I ask myself, what can I do today that might land me there?

Can I be the person who smiled when someone needed it?
Can I hold a door, send a kind message, compliment a stranger’s outfit, make someone feel heard or seen?
Can I make someone’s day just 1% better or even 0.01%?

This isn’t about being perfect or performative, it’s about living with intention and kindness. It’s about realising that gratitude isn’t just something we feel, it’s something we can give.

So whether you’re grateful for your morning coffee or your dream home, the point isn’t the size of the thing, it’s the act of noticing it. Choosing to see the good even when your brain is shouting, screaming and throwing up about the bad. Be under no illusion gratitude won’t fix everything, but it definitely softens the edges.

It reconnects you to yourself, to others, to this big weird, beautiful, and sometimes wild life. Who knows, maybe today you’ll make it on someone else’s list!

So go be list-worthy today. Even if it’s just by showing up, as you are, with a soft heart and a grateful spirit.