This Is What a Gratitude Journal Really Looks Like

Gratitude gives your brain a new assignment

Everyone, no matter their situation, has many things to be grateful for, every day. Plus, gratitude offers some serious relationship benefits. Being able to access those feelings is one of the key bonuses of keeping a daily gratitude journal. “That’s the great thing about gratitude. It makes your brain start looking for things you are grateful for. A gratitude journal is an assignment you’ve created for your brain. We’re born with a natural negativity bias, which helps us predict what could go wrong, or threaten our survival. That helps us stay alive. So, keeping a gratitude journal changes the way your brain looks at the world,” says Paula Felps, science editor for Live Happy magazine. Felps, who has kept a daily gratitude journal for nine years, recommends paring down your gratitude statements to small, very concise bits of information, and writing three new things into your journal, every day.

For example:

Monday

• I am grateful that my two silly, old dogs don’t know they’re old, and act like puppies.
• I am grateful that my daughter called me from another country, and told me about her day.
• I am grateful for the long walk I got to take with the (formerly mentioned) puppy-acting, silly old dogs.

According to Randy Sansone, MD, and Lori Sansone, MD, who analyzed the results of multiple gratitude studies for the journal Psychiatry, “Gratitude is appreciation of what is valuable and meaningful to oneself, and represents a general state of thankfulness and/or appreciation.” They found that participants who did gratitude exercises and expressed thanks for the small things in life enhanced their well-being and life satisfaction, compared to people who didn’t emphasize gratefulness.

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