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Acknowledging what you're grateful for is about more than just appreciating life; it's about maintaining your mental and physical health and being a better human to yourself and others. But being grateful isn’t always easy (especially when you’re having a rough go of it).
One easy way to keep our inner naysayer at bay: gratitude journaling.
It’s a simple daily habit of noting what you are thankful for in life — the rainbow you saw on the way to work, the friend who always seems to know when to check in, the parts of you that are healthy.
The best part: It can lead to positive outcomes in your life and the lives of others, says Joel Wong, a professor in the counseling and educational psychology department at Indiana University, adding that research shows finding ways to be grateful has mental and physical benefits.
Beyond the personal benefits, says Wong, “people who engage in gratitude journaling were, to put it bluntly, less likely to be jerks,” citing a workplace study done by the University of Central Florida published in 2021. “People who are grateful tend to be more altruistic, more friendly, connect better with other people.”
Ready to get started? Here’s how you can kick off the year right with a gratitude journaling practice.
First, find a medium that works for you
One of the great things about gratitude journaling is that it is budget friendly and there are different ways to do it depending on what works best for you.
If you prefer to handwrite your thankfulness, you can start with a pen and notebook. There are also a plethora of guided gratitude journals you can buy online or in a book store that have pre-written prompts to get you started. A couple we found with high ratings are the The Five Minute Gratitude Journal or The One-Minute Gratitude Journal, both available on Amazon. Or just buy yourself a blank journal with a picture on the outside that inspires you (flowers, horses, cars).
For those who prefer to keep things digital, gratitude journaling can be as simple as using the note-taking app that comes preinstalled on your device to jot down a few sentences every day. There are also specific gratitude apps you can download for free such as “Gratitude Daily Bullet Journal,” available for both iOs and Android, “Presently,” available for Android, or the “Delightful: Gratitude Journal” available for both operating systems.
Get into the right mindset — and know that might be the hardest part
Once you have pen and paper in hand or fingers ready to fly over the keys with gratitude, you might find it hard to actually come up with anything to be grateful for. That's absolutely normal, says Phil Watkins, emeritus professor of psychology at Eastern Washington University, adding that if you aren't used to being grateful, or are going through a particularly difficult time, there may be some growing pains.
The good news is that if you find it difficult, that’s actually a sign that you really need to engage in the practice.
“Gratitude works best for those who need gratitude most,” Watkins says. “So if you start counting your blessings and it doesn't feel very good to do so, that might be evidence that it's really going to be important for you to do that.”
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