For the past seven weeks, I’ve kept a daily gratitude journal.
You’re in good company if learning that surprises you. For two primary reasons, it actually surprises me too.
First, I’ve never been dedicated about maintaining any kind of journal.
The idea of journaling has always been appealing—recording details about nutrition, exercise, or general thoughts for the purposes of mining the information for helpful insights at a later date or simply being able to see the arc of personal growth, like looking at a high school picture and recognizing how much progress has occurred since it was taken.
The practice of journaling, however, has been the hold-up. I’ve started, stopped, and re-started countless times over the past two decades. While reading past thoughts and experiences has proven both insightful and entertaining whenever I’ve randomly found a note tucked away somewhere, the time required to do the writing has always caused me to abruptly stop the habit after anywhere from just a few days to a couple weeks.
(Coincidentally, this 46th edition of Trainer Tips Tuesday has been the longest-running writing endeavor of my life. Hopefully you’re enjoying and benefitting from it. I’m planning to continue doing it into the foreseeable future. But I digress. Back to being surprised about journaling…)
Second, the idea of keeping a gratitude journal initially seemed a bit, shall we say, fluffy.
I’ve certainly felt grateful when I’ve been on the receiving end of compliments or gifts, and I’ve traveled and learned enough to know that I’m quite lucky to live when and where I do as well as have the relationships, characteristics, and possessions that I have. Still, creating a daily list of items for which I’m grateful seemed a bit pointless.
But I committed to the process anyway because of a recommendation to do so from someone I respect.
Turns out that I’m now grateful for having started, and I was wrong about it being fluffy.
Research on gratitude—yes, it’s an actual area of study with legitimate experiments using the scientific method—has shown that practicing gratitude (i.e. expressing wonder, thankfulness, and appreciation) produces numerous positive effects.
Perhaps obviously, one of the primary effects is an elevated level of general happiness & outlook on life. That, in turn, influences more positive outcomes in other areas.
Various studies have shown that, when compared to control and “hassles” groups (i.e. groups whose participants were tasked with focusing on difficulties in their lives), individuals who cultivated gratefulness tended to get more sleep (up to 30 minutes per night), exercised more (up to 90 minutes per week), experienced fewer physical pains & symptoms of physical illness, and had more energy and fulfilling relationships.
As the study authors pointed out, the gratitude practices didn’t directly produce the positive outcomes but rather elevated the average, daily moods of participants and increased their willingness to act in ways that positively influenced other aspects of their lives.
I can confirm as much based on my practical experiences so far.
Obviously, I experience daily challenges like everyone else. Having spent a few minutes each evening over the past couple months reflecting on my day and remembering big (or small) parts for which I’m grateful hasn’t minimized those challenges (nor do I expect it to ever do so).
However, I’ve noticed that the practice has caused me to not only be more aware of positive experiences during the day (so that I can quickly recall and record them before bed) but also to more intentionally choose my responses and attitudes when something doesn’t happen as expected.
Those seemingly small attitude changes have made other small changes—stuff like eating a little better, training a little more, and getting to bed on time—easier to do. And those minor tweaks have, in turn, helped me to more easily control my responses and attitudes to daily challenges.
It’s been a cool kind of “upward spiral”, in contrast to the “downward spiral” that is all too common and easy to experience.
Putting it into practice
With Thanksgiving only a couple days away, now might be the perfect time to start your own gratitude journaling practice since you’ll hopefully be “in the spirit” of it.
It’s actually easier than you might expect.
First, pick your recording tool. My preference has been Notesnook, but a pen and notebook, Notepad, Microsoft Word, Google Docs, or whatever other tool you prefer will work just fine.
Next, choose your frequency and number of items. In some of the studies I’ve read about, recording five items for which you’re grateful just once per week has been shown to produce benefits. Fewer items more frequently works too. My practice has been three items daily, which takes about three minutes to complete.
Finally, reflect and write. My final tip here is to keep it simple—as indicated in the research, a single sentence or phrase is all you really need. In fact, start out with what’s right in front of you—pens, paper, computers, desks, and indoor lighting are all pretty amazing, if you really think about it!
(For more detailed information and other specific suggestions on gratitude practices, see Thanks! and Gratitude Works by professor, researcher, and psychologist Robert A. Emmons, Ph.D.)
And, of course, enjoy your Thanksgiving.