You can easily find many home decorations that display words or phrases like ‘Give Thanks’ or ‘Grateful’ or ‘Blessed’. Displaying this type of decor is great for reminding yourself to think of these values every day. But what if, rather than displaying word art in your home, you instead displayed a scene or shrine that reminded you to be thankful because its specific objects, symbols, photos or art is meaningful to you personally? What if gratitude decor didn’t have to literally spell out reminders like ‘Gratitude’ but instead symbolized, in a beautiful and poetic way, everything for which you are reminded to be grateful?
What’s a Gratitude Shrine and Why Does it Matter?
A gratitude shrine is a space in your home where you create a visual display intentionally to remind you of things for which you are grateful. Gratitude decor could include people you love, religious or spiritual beliefs or entities, pieces of the earth or places you adore, objects that are used for hobbies or work activities, or any tangible blessing or representation of blessings for which you are grateful. A gratitude shrine could also be considered a celebration shrine. It is a testament to all of the ways in which you celebrate life, yourself, and those around you. It is basically a condensed altar to all things good and worth celebrating. A gratitude shrine is a cousin of the vision board in that it depicts all that you love, except instead of focusing on your aspirations and yet-to-be-realized vision, it focuses on what you already have and are thankful for.
Gratitude shrines are beneficial because they intentionally remind us of the things we like to think about. When we spend our day putting out fires or focusing on negative things – and there are often plenty of negative things in life – our mental state is less than ideal and we emotionally drag. We more easily and unintentionally slip into a bad mood because we are frequently reminded of, in some way or another, things that make us unhappy. If we instead employ gratitude decor as obvious reminders of good things in life, we make an effort to elevate our mood instead. The more joy you can incorporate in your life on a daily basis, despite whatever else is going on, the more likely you are to feel relaxed, uplifted, and in control of your inner space.
Where to Craft a Gratitude Shrine
For some of us, our entire home is like one giant shrine to our interests. When you visit my house, you will quickly and accurately assume that I love the beach. But it isn’t always possible to fashion your entire home in such a way. You may only have a small area to work with, whether due to others’ design preferences or lack of time. If so, a gratitude shrine is especially beneficial because it allows you to concentrate the things you love in a relatively small space. This could be as small as a shelf or as large as an entire room. This space will help root you to your true passions and values. And in any place with multiple family members/roommates, there can be multiple shrines for each individual depending on one’s interests and gratitude decor preferences (typically, this plays out in personal bedrooms).
Difference Between a Gratitude Shrine and General Home Decor
To help clarify what a shrine is, let’s identify what a shrine is not. Home decor that embraces mainstream sensibility with nothing visibly personal is not a shrine. A room that looks interchangeable with something you would see in a furniture advert is not a shrine.
A shrine is personal and, depending on your taste, can be as quirky as you like. It’s probably something your realtor would advise you to dissemble if you were to prepare your house to show. Basically, a shrine is something that is deeply personal and pleases you and you specifically (and/or perhaps other family members or other loved ones with whom you reside, too). The gratitude decor in your shrine would give a new boyfriend/girlfriend a hint at what you might like so they have some fodder for fumbling attempts at an awkward conversation upon first visiting your place (‘I see you like tigers…’).
A Gratitude Shrine for Any Room in the House
While I of course can’t prescribe what ought to be included in your shrine, I can give some ideas. You can keep it simple and have one meaningful shrine in your home, whether in your main living space or in your personal space like a bedroom or office, or you may choose to incorporate gratitude decor in various parts of your home to create multiple shrines – whatever is possible and speaks to you! Below are a few suggestions as to what you may consider including in any given space.
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Living room:
- Photos or artwork of beloved people, animals, places, or things in your life that are meaningful to you
- Any religious or spiritual items, tokens, messages or symbols that carry meaning for you
- Old toys or keepsakes that carry positive memories of a time past, or of another place
Bedroom:
- Calming items or tokens that bring you a sense of comfort and peace
- Any religious or spiritual items, tokens, messages or symbols that do the same
- Anything beautiful that celebrates you, your body, your partnership, your sensuality, or your rest
Kitchen:
- Artistic display of favourite spices, gourmet treats, special bottles of wine, and any other culinary favourites (be sure to replace any item once you use it up)
Porch or garden:
- Favourite stones, tokens, emblems, and any artistic items (whether botanical or ornamental)
Ideas for the Focus of Your Gratitude Shrine
If you like the idea of having a gratitude shrine but don’t know what to include in yours, here are some questions to generate some ideas:
- Where is your favourite place to be? Whether home, a family member’s house, a park, another country, a church, or any destination? It can be a place from your past that no longer exists. Or maybe you’ve never been to a special place but long to visit. It can also be an imaginary place that doesn’t exist but is alive to you in your spirit. Wherever it is, what can you get or make to remind you of that place, or to recreate a miniature version?
- Related to the first question, what sort of environment do you love but can’t feasibly recreate on a larger scale within your home? For instance, a tropical garden? Disco? Beach? Hogwarts? Desert landscape?
- Who is your biggest inspiration? This can include multiple people. They can be real or fictional. You can know them personally or not know them at all. They can exist now or in the past. Or, you can even consider an ideal version of yourself – your own strengths you admire, and characteristics you wish to build on. What can you get (such as photos, etc.) or make that represent that person(s)? If it’s a loved one who has passed away, do you have any relics of theirs you can incorporate? What were their favourite things?
- What is your favourite thing to do or to look at? Again, this can be plural. What are some of the objects or symbols representing that activity? How can you obtain or create some of these?
- What colour(s) do you just adore? Is there any colour scheme that would in no way fit in with the rest of your home decor (be it due to clashing wall colours or curtains, etc.) but which you think is fantastic and would love to display in some way? How can you create a small area where this is on display? For example, if you love bold red but the rest of your home is in muted pastels that would clash noticeably with red decor, consider a gratitude shrine with red things that bring you joy: a smiling red Buddha, a cross, the Eiffel tower, or ‘PARTY’ block letters, for instance.
- Use the mainstream gratitude decor medium that speaks to everyone: words. What are your favourite quotes or affirmations that encourage you and make you smile? You could possibly find encouraging phrases in any art form such as stand-alone decorations or posters, but it is also fun to make your own, whether you buy block letters to spell what you want, or paint or draw.
- What do you like (which needn’t relate to what you’re grateful for) that can symbolize that for which you’re grateful? It doesn’t have to be obvious to other people. For example, perhaps you love candles. You could have candles represent specific people in your life for whom you are most grateful. The candles could be different colours or scents, or they could be plain with just a name assigned to each. It doesn’t have to be candles. You could do this with any object, such as stones or crystals. Or the objects could represent concepts instead of people, such as compassion, courage, forgiveness, etc. Or, each item could represent specific groups of people instead of individuals you know in particular: nurses, soldiers, farmers, or any people group for which you are grateful.
These are just a few modest suggestions, but the idea is to brainstorm what makes you happy. These are the things/people/places/ideas for which you are grateful, and for which you can celebrate. From there, you can incorporate gratitude decor that represents each concept/person/thing.
Keeping Gratitude Decor Fresh and Authentic
Over time, your tastes may change. You may have new ideas or blessings you are grateful for and would like to add to your gratitude shrine. You could change up your gratitude decor however often you please, or simply keep it the same.
Know that there could be so much more for which you are grateful that you don’t include in the shrine. Plenty of people or places may be left un-photographed or symbolized, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t also important. In other words, never feel obligated to include things in your gratitude shrine just to prove that you are grateful. Just because you can’t think of any aesthetically appealing gratitude decor to represent something for which you are grateful doesn’t mean that you are less grateful if you leave it out of your visual shrine. You already know and feel the gratitude in your heart. If you want, keep a journal that you glance at each morning to remind yourself of these things as well.
The Takeaway: A Gratitude Shrine is Decor with Purpose
We know we are grateful for many things, but it’s easy to forget about that in day-to-day life and when we face difficulties. Displaying a gratitude shrine is a fun and easy way to remind ourselves, in a special and visually pleasing way, of those things for which we are grateful. The process of creating one is fun and gratifying, too. Going from brainstorming all of your favourite things in life (which ought to put you in a positive mental state) to acquiring or making things to represent some or all of them to setting up the space is a happy home project you can do incrementally (or all at once) in your spare time. And the more gratitude we can foster every day, the happier we will be and the more positive impact we will have on those around us! Cheers to giving thanks.