Why Gratitude Journals Work and How to Start One

Gratitude is one of the most important things you can cultivate in your life. It’s a deep feeling of appreciation and thankfulness — something that can change you from the inside out. Gratitude improves your outlook by helping you see the good in everything, even when it seems hard or impossible. It also makes you happier because it boosts your levels of serotonin, which is the chemical in your brain that makes you feel happy. Finally, it makes you more connected to other people because being thankful promotes closeness and reduces your feelings of isolation. Taking time to write down your thoughts and feelings about what you’re grateful for every week not only benefits you but also those around you. In this article, we look at the role that gratitude plays and explore how a gratitude journal can help transform your life for the better...

What is gratitude?

Gratitude is a feeling of appreciation and thankfulness. It is a moment, often transient, when we perceive the good in something or someone that we want to show our appreciation for, typically through words and/or actions.

The benefits of practicing gratitude

Gratitude helps you to better understand your life and the world around you. It also helps you encounter new things and experience deeper feelings of appreciation. A gratitude journal is a place where you can express everything that you’re grateful for, even if it seems small to you. The journal allows for a space of honest self-discovery, which helps you accept your life as it is and allow yourself to feel content and happy. A gratitude journal can be a powerful tool in changing your perspective on life. When life is hard or overwhelming, take time to write down all the things that are great about what's going on in your life; writing these thoughts will help bring balance back into your mind, body, and spirit.

How a gratitude journal can help you

A gratitude journal is a tool for self-reflection that prompts you to think about what you’re grateful for and how that helps you. It doesn’t require much work — just keeping a blank journal with your thoughts in it each week and writing down what you’re grateful for will have a strong impact on your life. Gratitude journals can help you transform your life by making you more thoughtful, kind, and generous. They can help us cultivate better relationships because they teach us to focus on the good in other people, leading to deeper connections. Gratitude journals also make us happier because they increase our levels of happiness chemicals like serotonin. Finally, thanks to their positive impact on our well-being, gratitude journals are also powerful tools for coping in tough times.

Related: Five Ways To Use A Gratitude Journal To Improve Your Life

How to start a gratitude journal

The power of gratitude is so strong that it can change your life in many ways. From increasing serotonin levels to improving your outlook, gratitude journals are a great way to start feeling more grateful. So how do you create this journal? The easiest way is to use old journals or notebooks as the foundation for your new journal. Experts recommend keeping a gratitude journal for at least three months before evaluating how you feel about doing it on a daily basis. To get started, take some time out of your day to write down everything you’re grateful for — whether it be something small, like the sight of your friends and family, or something big, like a job well done. You can also add other things, such as drawing pictures and writing poems. Once you have all these things written down, put them into categories that make sense. It’s also important to note whether these moments made you feel happy or loved. If they did not, then try writing down an experience where you felt loved and/or happy during the same timepoint so that you can appreciate what it was like when happiness prevailed in your life.

Related: Your Intro to Journaling - 3 Easy Ways to Start Gratitude Journaling

Tips for maintaining your gratitude journal

When you start a gratitude journal, there are a few things to keep in mind. First, make sure you’re doing it consistently. Even if you only do it once a week or longer, the benefits will still be huge. The second thing is to have fun with it. Take a silly photo of yourself holding up your gratitude journal above your head, or write in your journal about all the food memories you have from childhood that bring back warm fuzzy feelings. Or maybe create a gratitude collage representing one of your favorite memories and share it on social media. The more you enjoy it, the more likely it is to lead to positive effects on your life and others around you.

Related: 6 Journaling Tips to Make It Part of Your Daily Routine

Conclusion

Gratitude helps us feel more connected to our friends, family, and loved ones. It also helps slow down our busy lives and gives us perspective on the good things in life. A gratitude journal can help you refocus on what’s important, dispel your daily stressors, and cultivate positivity. If you want to have your gratitude journal and don't know how to start, check out our GUIDED GRATITUDE JOURNAL. It includes an exercise to help you center down and feel at ease, and 100 gratitude prompts to help you get started. Start the day with inspiration as each page has a different Affirmation, Motivational or Inspirational Quote on the bottom of each page.