By Josie Finlay

Wholesome SCAB

Yesterday we talked about gratitude – the idea that it’s a muscle, and has to be exercised for it to benefit you. Consciously thinking of a few things you’re grateful for every day can improve your outlook and mental health. Marc promised us this, and he sent us some studies that show the scientific benefits of gratitude.

I’ve been keeping a gratitude journal for a few weeks now. At first, I didn’t find it so easy, because expressing genuine emotion – even into a diary – is generally against my nature. So a lot of the things I write about are quite silly or mundane. But actually, I’ve realised that some of the silly, mundane things are the ones that make up the best bits of my life.

So I’m planning on keeping up this gratitude lark for now. After a few more weeks, I hope to be like the people in the illustrations on the papers Marc sent us – standing with my arms outstretched in a field of corn, basking in the golden glow of the setting sun.

Here is an !exclusive! look into some of the things I’ve been grateful for over the past few weeks, from the epic to the downright dumb.

• My coat and the fact it’s a 3 in 1 piece where you can detach the inner from the outer and both look nice
• Ripe plums
• Diprobase cream
• Being asked to do some freelance work
• Good reception on the Insta post I did yesterday
• The opportunity to do comedy school
• Free newspapers
• Ian and Alex’s mentoring meaning that I’m beginning to properly understand how art direction really influences the effect and meaning of work
• My mum giving me a lift to the station this morning
• My lips are getting dry but that means they look quite nice and red
• Living in London where I can do loads of culture stuff if I want
• My commute meaning I can get a few things done before school (like this journal)
• Our Veganuary whatsapp group
• The sauna at the gym
• Making different outfits by trying on different tops with different bottoms (wow)
• The fact that school is in Brixton so I can get to know the area
• Patti Harrison’s Instagram
• Britain’s weird and funny reaction to Brexit
• The Faculty of Horror podcast
• Working with Charles is fun
• Stylist magazine
• Discovering M&S fishless fishcakes
• It’s not too cold at the moment
• Having cute conversations with people in shops
• Pub quizzes
• Our PB1 feedback was better than expected
• A good water supply
• The Fyre Festival Netflix documentary! (especially dick sucking guy!)
• Tupperware
• Tommy Genesis’ latest album
• Being able to leave school to do work in different places like the Southbank Centre
• Having met the hairdresser that encouraged me to go blonde
• Watching the English by Kate Fox
• The fact that it snows
• Adobe
• The fact that the display on my radio has a graphic of weird eyes which open when I turn the radio on and close when I turn the radio off and blink sometimes

That’s enough genuine emotion for today! Stay grateful, mainly for Tupperware.