How to Do a Gratitude Journal

You've probably already heard that keeping a gratitude journal is a really good way to enrich your life so here's a couple tips I have according to the research. Number one, do it at night. The whole purpose of our sleep in the first place is to reset our hormones so practicing gratitude has been shown to actually increase your serotonin and dopamine so you actually get a head start on a night's sleep by practicing gratitude at night. Number two, physically write it. Aside from the obvious benefits of turning off our devices to get a good night's sleep, research has shown that the act of physically writing something down not only is an excellent way to remember it but it's a way for new thought processes to stick and for new habits to really stay with us. Number three, keep it simple. Just buy a notebook, keep it by your bedside table. The concept of out of sight out of mind, it also works in the opposite direction so keep it out, keep it visible so that way you make it stick. So now you're ready. It's very simple. There are no set rules. Oprah says to write five things that you're grateful for. Just take a few minutes and write down a list of things you're grateful for. It could be things from the day, things in your life. It could be as big as I just got this big raise and it could be as little as I'm so glad I have my dog. So what are the effects? Well I'll tell you a couple anecdotes from some of my clients. One of my clients said I don't think I'm doing it right. I said well what do you mean? She said well I wrote down tea. I said okay well do you love tea? She's like yes I absolutely love drinking tea. I said well then you're doing it right. But here's my question for you. What was it like the next day after you remember writing down to the night before that you wrote down tea? What was it like the next day when you're drinking tea? She said you know it was like drinking it for the first time. I was really paying attention to the flavor and the aroma and having that warm cup in my hands. I said that's exactly what this does. Practicing gratitude it gives us more depth to our everyday life that many times we just pass over superficially. So one of my clients actually came to me and said after a couple weeks of practicing my gratitude journal my acid reflux went away. I've had it for five years and nothing's worked. Now I definitely would not recommend that if you have an acid reflux problem that you do a gratitude journal and that's going to cure it. But in this particular client's case it was able to reduce his stress just enough for a stress-related health disorder to actually go away. So another big benefit of doing a gratitude journal is that when you know you're going to write something down that evening you're looking all day long for the good things. You're looking for the things to be grateful for. And so that has you looking through through this lens of positivity and you're looking for the good things in your life and that can change your whole day. So let me ask you what are you grateful for?