Most of us know that practicing gratitude has many benefits including greater happiness, better health, and increased productivity. Gratitude journals, where you might list five things each day which you are thankful for, are one way to focus on gratitude, but after a few weeks or several months, this practice can become monotonous.

If you’re looking for other ways of practicing gratitude, then take a look at Crafting Gratitude: Creating and Celebrating Our Blessings with Hands and Heart, published by Viva Editions in 2017. It’s written by Maggie Oman Shannon, who has written a number of books including Crafting Calm: Projects and Practices for Creativity and Contemplation and A String and a Prayer: How to Make and Use Prayer Beads.

The gratitude crafts listed in the book include many which involve multiple senses. Shannon suggests different ways to do the crafts which allow an individual’s creativity to flourish. For instance, gratitude bowls can be filled with running water every morning as a person reflects on what fills them up and drains them or what gives them life and what takes life away. At the end of the day, the water in the bowl is poured out onto the earth, as a signal to rest. A person can use a bowl they already have which has special meaning for them, a purchased bowl made by an artist, or a bowl they make themselves by crocheting, using clay, or decorating a purchased bowl.

For each suggested craft, there are “Inner Inquiries for Journaling and Reflection.” Interspersed throughout the book are quotations and prayers from a number of religious and spiritual traditions. I could see this book being used by a church or spirituality group or some of the crafts being part of a retreat focusing on gratitude.

Author Maggie Oman Shannon is an ordained Unity minister; the Unity Church embraces a progressive interfaith approach to Christianity and accepts and teaches the “universal truths in all religions.” The crafts are not explicitly “Christian” and may be too New-Agey for some if their religious perspective is conservative, but for most the crafts can easily be accommodated to any religious perspective.

A review copy of this book was provided by the publisher.