Your Gratitude Journal

Learn how to start your own Gratitude Journal and the reasons these journals can improve the quality of your life.

I first became acquainted with the concept of a Gratitude Journal after seeing Simple Abundance author Sarah Ban Breathnach on Oprah. The theory behind a gratitude journal is basic: You write down five things (or more) that you are grateful for every day. As Ban Breathnach explains, “If you give thanks for five gifts every day, in two months you may not look at your life in the same way as you might now.”

“Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow.” ~ Melody Beattie.

Once you regularly express things you are grateful for, it trains your brain to begin focusing on things you like about your life instead of the things you don’t. Often time’s depression comes from a routine of negative thoughts so a gratitude journal re-programs your mind to think more positively. Your whole perspective on life will change.

Of course there will be times, when life seems very dark, that it will seem there is nothing to be grateful enough to write about. Even if all you can find that day to be thankful for is just the food on your table or that you made it through another day, write it down, and sincerely be appreciative of it. There will be nights you have to dig deep, but after you practice, it will get easier to appreciate the simple joys of life.

“Other days–rough ones–I might think that I don’t have five things to be grateful for, so I’ll write down my basics: my health, my husband and daughter, their health, my animals, my home, my friends, and the comfortable bed that I’m about to get into, as well as the fact that the day’s over. That’s okay. Real life isn’t always going to be perfect or go our way, but the recurring acknowledgment of what is working in our lives can help us not only survive, but surmount our difficulties.”~ Sarah Ban Breathnach

There have been several studies on the effects of keeping daily or weekly Gratitude Journals.

In an experimental comparison, those who kept gratitude journals on a weekly basis exercised more regularly, reported fewer physical symptoms, felt better about their lives as a whole, and were more optimistic about the upcoming week compared to those who recorded hassles or neutral life events.

A related benefit was observed in the realm of personal goal attainment: Participants who kept gratitude lists were more likely to have made progress toward important personal goals (academic, interpersonal and health-based) over a two-month period compared to subjects in the other experimental conditions.

In a sample of adults with neuromuscular disease, a 21-day gratitude intervention resulted in greater amounts of high energy positive moods, a greater sense of feeling connected to others, more optimistic ratings of one’s life, and better sleep duration and sleep quality, relative to a control group.

A daily gratitude intervention (self-guided exercises) with young adults resulted in higher reported levels of the positive states of alertness, enthusiasm, determination, attentiveness and energy compared to a focus on hassles or a downward social comparison (ways in which participants thought they were better off than others). There was no difference in levels of unpleasant emotions reported in the three groups.

Participants in the daily gratitude condition were more likely to report having helped someone with a personal problem or having offered emotional support to another, relative to the hassles or social comparison condition.

“As you focus on the abundance rather than on the lack in your life, you will be designing a wonderful new blueprint for the future. And you have set in motion an ancient spiritual law; the more you have and are grateful for, the more will be given you.”~ Sarah Ban Breathnach

If you are interested in trying this, promise yourself you will give it you best effort for just one month, and see if you notice the improvement in your outlook. I’m willing to bet that after the month is over, you’ll continue the practice.

To get started:

• Choose a blank notebook or journal to write in every night. It can be anything from a plain spiral notebook, to one of the beautiful bound blank page books available. Or if you prefer, you can do it on your computer, or even online. Ban Breathnach’s website has an online journal, as do other sites like Fibrotalk.com.

• Keep your eyes open for things happening during day for which you are grateful. Make mental notes or jot them down. You will begin to notice how the Gratitude Journal shifts your focus to a more positive outlook.

• Write down at least five things you’re grateful for every night preferably before bedtime. Look back on the day and include anything, small or large, that made you feel gratitude. The warm sun on your face, the love of your family or pets, or even just that you made it out of bed. Start with simple sentences, and increase them into paragraphs as the mood hits.

• Every day, try to look for the positive angle. Try to view obstacles as an opportunity to appreciate what you do have. Some days it will be harder than others, but begin using positive energy to draw more positive energy to you. When it happens, make note of it.

• You may enjoy personalizing your gratitude journal. Use photos, your own artwork, clippings from magazines, poetry, or anything else that makes you smile.

About the Author:

Faith Stone is a regular contributor to Fog Magazine. In spite of her fibromyalgia, her columns appear here twice a month.