4 Easy Ways to Start a Gratitude Journal
Journaling your thoughts is a proven mood booster. It helps you develop a better sense of yourself, fosters goal achievement, and is a great stress reliever. Start a daily gratitude journaling habit to lower your high blood pressure, sleep better, and experience more happiness and contentment.
Those are just a few of gratitude’s many physical and mental health benefits. Combining gratitude and journaling is a wonderful way to enhance overall well-being, and here is a four-step process for getting started.
- Choose a Space and Time
The human brain doesn’t like surprises. It prefers to know what’s going to happen. Scheduling your gratitude journaling practice at the same time each day makes your brain happy. It starts to mentally prepare you before your scheduled journal time.
You will get more out of the process when you set a schedule for journaling and stick to it. The same is true of the environment you choose. Always journal in the same space. If you can dedicate a space to nothing but writing in your gratitude journal, all the better.
Your survival instinct and sensory network will begin to recognize your chosen space and time as a positive experience. Expressing gratitude triggers happiness and other positive emotions. Your brain rewards that positive experience with feel-good hormones and neurotransmitters, and you look forward to your journaling sessions.
2. Choose a Medium
We recommend that you write by hand in a physical journal. Handwriting boosts learning and memory in a way that typing on a keyboard or tapping on a touchscreen can’t. That means you naturally get more out of the process when you take a physical journal and record your reflections.
There are countless journals available online. Your local bookstore may carry gratitude journals. You can also use a simple notebook to record your expressions of gratitude.
Digital gratitude journals provide anytime access if you can’t lay your hands on your physical journal. Current users highly rate the following apps. I haven’t personally used any of these. I prefer to hand write in my journal.
- 365 Gratitude Journal
- Gratitude
- Presently – A Gratitude Journal
3. Use Gratitude Prompts
Some days, you need help to recognize the goodness in your life. That’s what gratitude prompts do. Here are a few prompts to help you start your gratitude journal.
I am thankful today for _____.
- What did I do today that made me smile?
- What can I see in my immediate surroundings that I am thankful for?
- What do I experience in nature that makes me happy?
- What memory do I have that fills me with joy?
Most gratitude journals you purchase will come equipped with daily prompts and other features to simplify the process.
4. Take Daily Action
That’s it—it’s that easy. The next step is to take action. Stick to your schedule, and don’t miss a day for the first three or four weeks. By then, you will be so used to the process that it will become a habit. Start a gratitude journal today for more happiness and better overall well-being.
If you want help or support to start your journaling, then I’m offering a FREE Discovery Call to help you get started. Just click HERE to book your call.
