How to Write a Gratitude Journal

A gratitude journal, if you keep it as a habit, can help fill in places in your life that feel empty.

[VIDEO TRANSCRIPT]:

You’ve probably already heard that keeping a gratitude journal is a really good way to enrich your life. So here’s a couple of tips I have according to the research.

Do It at Night

Number One: do it at night. The whole purpose of our sleep in the first place is to reset our hormones, so practicing gratitude has been shown to actually increase your serotonin and dopamine so you actually get a head start on a good night’s sleep by practicing gratitude at night.

Write Your Gratitude Journal by Hand

Number Two: Physically write it. Aside from the obvious benefits of turning off our devices to get a good night’s sleep, research has shown that the act of physically writing something down not only is an excellent way to remember it, but it’s a way for new thought processes to stick and for new habits to really stay with us.

Keep It Simple

Number Three: keep it simple. Just buy a notebook, and keep your gratitude journal by your bedside table — the concept of ‘out of sight out of mind’ also works in the opposite direction, so keep it out, keep it visible, so that way you make it stick. So now you’re ready! It’s very simple — there are no set rules.

Oprah says to write five things you are grateful for. Just take a few minutes, and write down a list of things you’re grateful for — it could be things from the day or things in your life. It could be as big as “I just got a big raise,” or it could be as little as “I’m so glad I have a dog.”

Positive Effects of a Gratitude Journal

So what are the effects? Well, I’ll tell you a couple of anecdotes from some of my clients. One of my clients said, “I don’t think I’m doing it right,” and I said “What do you mean?”

She said, “Well, I wrote down tea.” I said “Okay, well, do you love drinking tea?” “Yes!” she replied, “I absolutely love drinking tea.”

I said “Then you’re doing it right…but here’s my question for you:  What was it like the next day after you remember writing it down to the night before that you wrote down ‘tea’; what was it like the next day when you were drinking it?”

“You know” she said, “it was like drinking it for the first time…I was really paying attention to the flavor and the aroma, and having that warm cup in my hands.”

I told her “That’s exactly what this does — practicing gratitude gives us more depth to our everyday life that many times we just pass over superficially.”

Health Improvement

So another client came to me and said, “After a couple weeks of writing in my gratitude journal, my acid reflux went away! I’ve had it for five years, and nothing’s worked.”

Now, I definitely would not recommend that if you have an acid reflux problem, that you do a gratitude journal and that’s going to cure it, but in this particular client’s case, it was able to reduce his stress just enough for a stress-related health disorder to actually go away.

Looking Through a Positive Lens

So another big benefit of doing a gratitude journal is that when you know you’re going to write something down that evening, you’re looking all day long for the good things; You’re looking for the things to be grateful for, and so it has you looking through it –through this lens of positivity. You’re looking for the good things in your life, and that can change your whole day.

So let me ask you: What are you grateful for?

p.s. – What’s in the way of your living your best life? Book a FREE trial session and let’s have a chat.