Gratitude Journaling Benefits and Methods

Gratitude journaling is something that brings me great joy. It allows me to reflect on my day and my life.

But what is gratitude journaling?

Gratitude journaling allows you to reflect on the things in your life that you are thankful for. There are so many ways to use a gratitude journal, but in this post, I will be discussing my top three methods, as well as the benefits of gratitude journaling and how to start one.

Four benefits of gratitude journaling:

Gratitude journaling can have several positive impacts on your life. First, it helps you recognize positive aspects of your life and draw attention to them. This can help with negative thinking patterns and help lower levels of depression.

It can also help you be more thankful for the people in your life. If you are taking time to reflect on what others are doing for you, this can have a positive impact on your relationships.

Gratitude journaling can also improve your physical health. People who keep a gratitude journal have less symptoms of physical illness and less pain than those who do not. They also report both more sleep and higher quality sleep because they are not tossing and turning from stress as much.

It can improve your self-esteem by helping you reflect on your accomplishments. Gratitude journaling can also help you feel like you are a person who is worthy of the kindness of others.

Three methods of gratitude journaling:

There are many ways one can keep a gratitude journal. I will be discussing my top three favorite methods. I invite you to try each of them and see what works for you.

GLAD Journaling:

GLAD Journaling is my personal favorite way to do gratitude journaling. I learned about it from my therapist quite a while back and I still use it frequently.

GLAD is an acronym that stands for Grateful, Learned, Accomplished, and Delight. At the end of the day, I like to write one sentence for each of the four categories to help me reflect upon my day and recognize the positives. The four categories may overlap some. This is okay. You can put things into whatever category feels best to you.

The “Grateful” category is pretty self-explanatory. Write about something you are grateful for that you experienced or appreciated that day.

In the “Learned” category, you write about something new you discovered that day. It can be anything from learning something about yourself or others to learning a new skill or fun fact.

For the “Accomplished” category, take a moment to reflect on everything you accomplished that day. Write down your favorite or biggest accomplishment, something you are proud of for that day. Even accomplishments that others may consider small can count. You deserve to be proud of yourself for whatever you were able to accomplish.

For the “Delight” category, write about one thing you enjoyed about the day or something that made you really happy. Writing about my “Delight” for the day always makes me smile.

Your GLAD Journal might look something like this:

3 things I am grateful for:

This is a second method of gratitude journaling. It does not have categories like GLAD Journaling does. Instead, you simply come up with three things you are grateful for each day.

Try to do this at the same time each day. Many people prefer to do this in the mornings, first thing when they wake up.

While it sounds like a fairly simple exercise, the challenge comes when you have been doing it for a while since you want to try your best not to repeat yourself over time. This means that the more specific you can get, the better.

Yours could look something like this:

What would my life be like without this?

The third and final method of gratitude journaling that I will be sharing with you today is “What would my life be like without this?” This is probably the most time consuming of the exercises, but it does go deeper than the rest.

For this exercise, you will want to think about something or someone really important to you. Write it down.

Then, you will start to write about how your life would be different without this thing or person.

Close out the exerise by writing “I am grateful for _____ because _____.”

The following picture is an example, although I would recommend trying to make yours longer if possible.

Starting a gratitude journal

Starting a journal of any kind can feel overwhelming to begin with. The first thing I like to do when I am starting a new journal is to pick out a journal that makes me feel excited. I have found that when I have a pretty journal, I am more likely to continue using it.

Another important thing is to find a writing utensil that feels good to you. That may sound silly, but there’s nothing worse that trying to write with a pencil that squeaks or a pen that doesn’t write smoothly. I have recently discovered the magic that is erasable pens and it has honestly been a game changer.

Once you have your journal and writing utensil(s) picked out, it’s time to pick a method to use. There is nothing wrong with going back and forth between different methods of gratitude journaling, nor is there anything wrong with sticking to one method.

The internet has a plethora of ideas for more specific prompts if that’s your style. If you are struggling to come up with things to be thankful for, I would highly recommend searching for gratitude journaling prompts. Then you can decide whether you would like to adapt their ideas to fit one of the ideas above or do a free writing exercise on a prompt.

Please reach out to me if you have any questions, or comment below! (You can find my contact information here.) And don’t forget to subscribe to my email list so you can always keep up to date on my posts!

Until next time,

Danna