The next one is pictures and storyboards, pictures and storyboards. If you're a very visual person, you will really enjoy this when you could put it on, cutout magazine pictures, or you can create visuals on your computer. Or you could probably most likely have a notebook or a tablet where you draw pictures. But pictures and storyboards may seem silly to some people, as something a second grader might do in an art literature or English class. But people tend to learn and express themselves more effectively through visual stimuli. It's in our DNA.

And so if you're such a person, you could cut out like I said, pictures in old magazines, draw pictures, draw cartoon maps, create art that expresses events and concepts of gratitude. And that form of gratitude journaling can be very powerful to reflect on blessings and good events in your life. And if you put it on your wall as a storyboard, or a vision board, or if you put it on your in your journal, you can look back on it as a reminder of those things too. And reading back through it Even though I didn't put that as a specific practice, reading back through any of these forms is also very helpful. And so it can also help you to cope during difficult times if you're remembering what your dreams are remembering what you're grateful for. And it can also be a great way to believe for positive things that you're hoping for.

And surrendering those to the highest good in your life. storyboarding is also like a graphic novel. It allows you to express a chronological concept of ideas through a series of caption pictures. For example, if you didn't have enough money to cover your groceries at the market, and you find yourself embarrassed as people stand in line behind you, and then the lady behind you offers to pay for the rest of your groceries. That might be something that you could express in a storyboard, you might caption the moment it happened, how you felt what happened in each situation that brought about that series of events. And so you might have to say four to eight captioned sections that show that situation and it really is More than even writing in a journal helps you to visualize it and you think about it more, because you put that together.

And you haven't, you know, you don't have to be an artist. And it may seem silly, but you'd be surprised what such free handed expression can do to alter your consciousness and to enhance the gratitude and spontaneity in your life. So try it, try it and see how it works. The next section of how to cultivate gratitude. Number five is idea maps. And an idea map is a visual form of an outline, you can google idea map and see what it looks like.

And you can also use a traditional outline. And those are traditional forms of brainstorming often used in writing classes, I use them in the writing classes that I teach as well. And so basically, it requires writing obviously, and an idea map is when you draw a big bubble in the middle of your paper, and then you draw lines out in different directions with more bubbles almost like a spiderweb. And then the web has more bubbles out. From those particular bubbles that come out from the original bubble, and so it all goes back to the central root idea, for example, perhaps you lost a job that paid well, and you greatly enjoyed it. And then you look for a new one, you got a new job, but it was not in your field.

And you were skeptical about whether or not it's for you. So you put the event in a central bubble and then put all the positive aspects of that potential situation out from that. And then you can elaborate on your reasoning with examples of positives around the new situation with the bubbles that go out of those bubbles. And so it gives you an opportunity to see visually a concept of gratitude at work. And so it can help you to understand the blessings in a situation and help you to be thankful in creative ways about the situation you can actually see relationships in terms of what you have to be grateful for from that. Now, the next one, like I said, was outlines and it's just sort of a different form of an idea map and it works.

Similarly, though, you may if you're more of a traditional structural kind of person, you may appreciate this, where you form Roman numerals letters, numbers look up outline in terms of Google. And in your PDF, I've actually given you an example of what an outline might look like in terms of gratitude. This may seem silly to, but if you're like the engineer type or the left brain type, this might work better for you than, say, a stream of conscious brainstorm, or journal about gratitude, where you just reflect if you feel more comfortable doing something structured, this would be great for you to try. And so I also encourage people to try the opposite of what they tend to do because you actually find that those experiences can be broadening and enriching as well. And so outlines work similar to idea maps, though they're more traditional. And so let's say you're grateful for your dog safety.

That's your central idea that would be your bubble are your main point and then you put the points and the supporting points. This helps you to basically extract more detail and more reflection on what is good about that situation. So you're grateful for your dog safety, let's say you your major supporting points. She loves me when I feel like everyone else has forgotten me. She's there for me and loves me unconditionally all the time. And those are two things that you come up with.

You have supporting points. She loves me when I feel like everyone else has forgotten me. I come home and no one is there and she wants she is so happy to see me. Her love is always fresh. She gives me kisses. When I walk in the door, we go for a walk just her and me.

And it feels like just pure love and joy for a few moments like everything is right with the world. The second main point, she's always there for me and loves me unconditionally. We spend the day together and she follows me around the house. This reminds me that I'm lovable, almost as if God is reminding me of that myself. This creature sees my love handles my own shaved legs, the bags under my eyes, and she still adores me. And so that's unconditional love as well.

She sees me when I eat too much ice cream when I throw a temper tantrum when I don't get the promotion or when I cry myself to sleep. And she doesn't think anything different of me, she still adores me. She is healthy, and motivates me to get out of the house and move around. And she keeps me warm at night and keeps me company while I work. And so those might be some things in your outline that you could express to support the point that she loves me unconditionally, when everyone else has forgotten me. And so that's an example of an outline.