Benefits of Gratitude Journaling

What is a Gratitude Journal: It is a diary or list of things for which one is grateful. It helps to shift the focus to positivity. The habit of maintaining a gratitude journal is a great tool for people who want to stay positive and maintain healthy emotions. Gratitude, the feeling of appreciation or thanks, has gained a lot of attention in the field of positive psychology.

It can become difficult to write and maintain a gratitude journal because it is one more task to do but if you have a tendency to naturally gravitate towards negativity or complaining or finding faults this habit will change your life. It will help you to shift your focus from negativity to positivity. So set aside 10-15 minutes before your bedtime and write 5 things you can be grateful about. It doesn’t have to be deep or elaborate or fancy. It can be as simple as “I am thankful about family” or “I am thankful about nourishing breakfast”.

You will be surprised to find several simple things to be thankful about with the slight shift in focus with gratitude journaling and you will also attract more and more good things in your life which you can be grateful about. Gratitude journaling is the best way to develop an attitude of gratitude. On the days when you are feeling down, you can visit your journal and read it, again and again, to shift your focus on positivity.

There are several benefits of Gratitude journaling and here are the top 5 benefits:

1) Lower stress levels and helps you stay happy.

2) On days when you feel low, you can read back through your gratitude journal to change your attitude and shift your focus towards things you are grateful for.

 3) Practicing gratitude helps us find the silver lining. A bad situation can also teach us some lessons. In life, there are several “grow” or ”glow” moments. Glow moments are the wins that we experience and it is easy for us to stay confident and happy during those but Grow moments or bad situations are the losses that we encounter. Those moments teach us a lesson if we form a habit to learn from them. There is always a lesson to be learned in every bad situation. Even though it is not easy to find a silver lining in a bad situation, we all need to train ourselves to do so for our emotional well-being. Regularly keeping a gratitude journal can help us do this as even during tough times we are compelled to find three things we are grateful for. If you change the way you look at things the things you look at change. - Wayne Dyer

4) Gratitude is a thankful appreciation for things and people in our lives, whether tangible or intangible. With gratitude, we form a habit to acknowledge the goodness in our lives. In the process, we usually recognize that the source of that goodness lies at least partially outside ourselves. Thus gratitude helps us connect to something larger than ourselves as individuals — whether to other people, nature, or a higher power.

5) Gratitude helps people feel more positive emotions, relish good experiences, improve their health, deal with adversity, and build strong relationships.

Thanksgiving does not have to be once a year celebration. In your life, it can be an everyday celebration with a gratitude journal.