Creating a Gratitude Journal

I want you to take a minute and think about the thoughts you have each day. How many of them are positive? How many are negative? And how many just keep playing over and over on repeat until you think you’ll go mad?

With the stresses of everyday life, it’s understandable that we tend to get caught up in thought loops. Worries about the future lead to fear and anxiety, and pressure from work can lead to doubting your own abilities. Most of us have some sort of nagging thought that stops us from feeling truly happy.

But what if I told you that there was an easy way to break the cycle of negative thinking and encourage more positive thoughts? Not only does it exist, but it’s cheap, easy, and only takes a few minutes of your day. Usually, if something sounds too good to be true, then it is. This time it’s real though. You can chase away those pesky negative thoughts and increase your happiness by simply keeping a gratitude journal.

What is a gratitude journal?

A gratitude journal is anything you use to keep track of the things that you are grateful for. Some people include it in their daily journal, but others like to keep their gratitude journal in a separate book. You could even create a digital list that is easily accessible from your phone or computer.

If you’re the creative type, you might choose to create a visual board. You could create a separate gratitude-themed board on Pinterest and pin photos of all the things you are grateful for. Or you might use a corkboard and print out photos of things that you want to add.

Some people even prefer to speak theirs out loud. If this is you, you could use your phone to create voice memos. You could even go old school and use a tape recorder. Your gratitude journal is your means of tracking what you’re grateful for and can take whatever form you want it to.

Why should I keep a gratitude journal?

Gratitude journaling has many mental health benefits. These include:

Heightened feelings of self-confidence
Fewer feelings of anger, jealousy, and envy
Less depression and anxiety
Greater ability to forgive yourself and others
Enhanced time management
Increased happiness and life satisfaction

It’s easy to see how expressing gratitude can lead to some of these positive feelings. However, gratitude journaling has also been found to have many benefits for your physical health. Some of these are:

A lower risk of lifestyle diseases such as diabetes and heart disease
Less inflammation in the body
Strengthened immune system
Improved memory
Better sleep and reduced insomnia
Lowered perception of chronic pain

Sounds pretty great, right?

How do I start?

All you need to do to get started is choose your medium. I prefer a journal, but as I said before, you can work with whatever feels right to you. Here are some prompts to get you started:

What are three things that I am currently grateful for and why?
What was the most beautiful thing I saw today?
What are some small things in my daily life that I often take for granted, and how can I actively appreciate them more?
What was something that made me smile today?
What have been some of the most meaningful moments in my life so far? Why?
What was something that made me laugh?
Who are the people in my life who have supported me and had a positive impact on me? How can I show gratitude to them?
What is my favorite thing about my job?
What do I love most about my partner?
What is the most inspirational book I’ve ever read?
What am I looking forward to the most this week?

That’s all you need to reap the benefits, but I’ve picked up some tips that might make it easier to stay motivated.

Be specific

You don’t want to write that you’re grateful for your partner every day. That gets too repetitive. Try writing that you’re grateful for your partner because they supported you through a bad day that week. Instead of writing that you are grateful for your child, write that you’re grateful because your child made you a beautiful drawing to hang on the fridge yesterday. Specificity allows for variety.

Include something nice that someone did

This is something I started adding to restore my faith in humanity. Every day I try to record something nice that I witnessed a stranger do. It doesn’t have to be something that someone did for me; just something I saw. Some days it’s a pay-it-forward chain. Other days it’s someone stopping their car to let a pedestrian cross the road. Sometimes it’s just someone who gave me a thumbs-up while I was out for a run. It’s amazing how much our perspective can change when we look for the nice things that people do instead of being caught up in how angry society is.

I’ve incorporated gratitude prompts into my journaling off and on for a couple of years now. I’m not always consistent with it because I’m not always consistent with journaling. I tend to do it every day for months and then forget about it for weeks at a time.

However, I see a noticeable difference in my mood almost immediately when I do remember to journal. Lately I’ve been keeping my personal journal and my favorite pens next to my computer. Then when I sit down for work each day, I see it and can jot a few things down before my workday starts. I’ve been so happy lately that my psychiatrist was concerned I might be manic.

What do you think? Is gratitude journaling something that you practice regularly? Is it something you want to try? Let us know down in the comments!