What the deal with gratitude journaling?
If you spend any amount of time looking for journaling inspiration, I guarantee you’ve come across gratitude journaling. It’s become rather ubiquitous, but why? Here’s my take:
I first learned of gratitude journaling through the study of Dr. Martin Seligman and Positive Psychology. I love the that the positive psychology movement chooses to focus on an individual’s strengths instead of focusing on problems, issues, or areas that need resolution. Gratitude specifically garnered much attention in this movement as there are numerous studies showing that a regular expression of gratitude helps increase positive psychological outcomes. I believe a big part of this is your brain learning to tune into the positive instead of the negative. I’ve found myself in a depressive or anxious spiral before where it’s so easy to see everything through the negative lens. Gratitude is a great tool to combat the negative sentiment.
One of the tools of positive psychology suggests a daily gratitude journal that lists three things you are grateful for. I believe the most important part of this practice, is specifically writing “I am grateful for…” before each item to reinforce the gratitude component of your list. After that, list anything big or small, it truly doesn’t matter! I try to be as original as I can each day and come up with something new and specific, but sometimes I find myself repeating items. It doesn’t matter…. this practice is for you.
Here are some examples from my recent entries:
I am grateful that we were able to go get our favorite pizza!
I am grateful for my partner filling up my car after borrowing it for the day.
I am grateful for a supportive boss and coworkers.
I am grateful the vet could make a last minute appointment for our new kitten.
I am grateful my neighbor picked up our packages while I was out of town.
Journaling doesn’t have to be time consuming, hard, or expensive to make an impact. Writing down three things you are grateful for each day doesn’t take long, but it can be a power tool to help your mindset!
