Journaling is more popular than ever. When it comes to gratitude and trying to increase it in our daily lives. You can’t be grateful and angry at the same time. Certainly, words to ponder the virtues of gratitude. Gratitude is another example of what we call feelings, and I’ve spent a lot of time trying to avoid them.
You can purchase a ready-made gratitude journal or create your own. Instead of purchasing the actual journal, you can make your own in a blank notebook by handwriting the headings every day. The format is ideal for inspiring gratitude, with ready-made headings such as “I am grateful for… “What would make today great?” “Amazing things that happened today and etc.
It complements meditation well. The two practices complement one another, but if you had to pick one, you’d go with meditation. Despite the fact that you’ve stopped journaling in recent months, you’ve maintained your daily practice. When you meditate, you tend to get creative inspiration, and most of your better writing ideas have come from this process. It’s amazing what clearing out your mind can do.
You may not notice the effects while doing it at first, but you will notice when it is gone. Looking back, you generally feel more grateful for finishing the journal. Some people didn’t stick with it because it felt like they were going through the motions and doing it to check a box rather than using it as an opportunity to be grateful for what was going on in their lives. Sometimes you feel those little ticks of anger and frustration creeping back in, which makes you want to restart the daily practice.
You also learn a lot about yourself during the process. The most startling revelation looking back through your journal now is how many days you put the answers of “not feeling sorry for yourself” or “not feeling so stuck,” for the “What Could Have You Made Today Better?” daily question.
It can help you improve your writing skills. You will be most productive if you keep a gratitude journal. The act of jotting down a completed article draught or posting a piece on Medium provided positive reinforcement and encouraged you to write more. It was almost as if it were an addiction. The more you wrote, the better you felt when you acknowledged it.