Reasons Why Keeping A Gratitude Journal Will Transform Your Life

Discovering ways to be grateful for good things happening in your life helps to de-stress, counters your negative emotions, keeps you happier and offers a host of physical and mental wellness benefits. Writing an entry of gratitude daily can help to strengthen you to tackle the rough patches of life as they emerge. Gratitude is the thanks-giving or the feeling of appreciation that is becoming very popular in the domain of positive psychology that focuses on ways to constantly enhance the levels of gratitude in your living. Among the best ways for displaying thankfulness regularly is by maintaining a gratitude journal.

Here are some of the powerful reasons why jotting down and keeping a gratitude journal can take your life experiences to the next level. After all, you own an inspiring material to mull over when you are looking for a pick-me-up.

1. It Raises Optimism

When you spend your time on focusing about the positive things surrounding your life you become more optimistic. By jotting the things you feel grateful for, you choose to bring more positivity into your life and allow the negative emotions to take a backseat. Though such positive outlook with regard to your life exists within your subconsciousness, expressing them in words makes it more real and specific. 

Few studies have also hinted that people who practice gratitude are more joyful, have high happiness scores and more contented than people who do not. Your mental and physical wellness also increases and there is lowering of stress, relief in signs of depression, improved sleep and lessening of chances of heart ailment when you express gratitude and count your blessings. Gratitude is amazing for the soul and even for the heart.   

2. Enhances Your Self-Esteem

Having a writing journal is a personal choice and activity and keeps you in touch with your individual achievements. Expressing gratitude has been found to lessen social comparisons and by showing what you are grateful for makes you less likely to be critical of others. People who practice gratitude are more likely to possess a higher self-worth and esteem due to the fact that when you purposely observe the way different people are helpful to you, there is a stronger understanding of your self-worth. Moreover, it transforms the way you estimate yourself as you experience a lesser need to compare yourself to others. 

A research presented in 2014 indicated that gratitude and thankfulness raised the self-esteem of athlete’s and improved their trust levels vis-a-vis others making it easier to rely on others at a professional level as they experienced greater self-belief. Developing your self-esteem becomes essential, as any dip in self-esteem leads to anxiety, stress, and problems in relationships and bonding.   

3. Promotes Healthier Attitudes

The optimistic attitude emanating from observing gratitude may set you towards imbibing healthy attitudes. You may start to eat a nutritious diet, increase your workouts, and adhere to self-care. A research supports that maintaining a gratitude journal declined materialistic instincts and boosted generosity among younger people. Another study conducted among students of high school found that those students who kept gratitude journals showed healthier eating habits. 

Practicing gratitude unfolds new things to be appreciative about and among them one is your physical health and body. Indeed, it is remarkable that when you begin to treasure life more and feel grateful about owning this amazing body that keeps you going, you feel like taking care of it even more. Synchronizing your body and mind in this manner encourages you to consume a wholesome diet, more push ups and exercise, and pamper yourself. A greater intent is felt for a positive mind-body adjustment pattern which helps to build greater energy and an orientation towards taking care of yourself.  

4. Boosts Relationships And Removes Toxic Emotions

Gratitude acts to make us aware of the positive traits of our partner and the advantages that such relationship holds. Thanksgiving connects more deeply with your partner, which can be something as simple as the new movie you enjoyed together, or the morning meal that you had. What makes you feel grateful can vary from others. 

Showing gratitude towards people with whom you bond well brings several benefits:

• People who show their thankfulness toward their spouse have a greater likelihood of viewing them positively.
• Partners who display gratitude towards each other have a greater chance of continuing their relationship and be more committed towards maintaining it.
• People who show gratitude to a friend are more concerned about their relationship which can result in important discussions that strengthen your bond.
• Expressing gratitude helps to begin new interactions and friendship and an openness to understand the other person or invest more quality time with such people.

Managers who do not forget to express thanks to people who manage their tasks can fee; that those workers feel encouraged to perform harder. 

5. Fosters Empathy And Decreases Aggression

People who express thanks behave more in a prosocial manner, even where other people show unkind behaviour. Those individuals who practice gratitude are less aggressive even when they face negative feedback. Such people are more sensitive and empathetic towards others and have lesser revengeful feelings. Different toxic emotions such as resentment, frustration, and jealousy are considerably reduced when you express gratitude. All this contributes to overall well-being, higher happiness quotient and lowering of depression. 

6. Better Quality And Peaceful Sleep 

Writing a gratitude journal leads to an improved sleep as a 2011 research presented in Applied Psychology: Health and Well-Being indicates. Investing 15 minutes writing down some thanksgiving sentiments before retiring to bed helps you to sleep better and for longer hours. Thankful people rest for longer duration and journaling soothes anxious thoughts stopping us from tossing in bed at night. To speak in technical language, research holds that people practicing gratitude have greater positive ‘pre-sleep cognitions’ and lesser adverse pre-sleep cognitions.’ With positive ideas working similar to a lullaby, you are certainly going to drift into a restful slumber. 

7. Helps You to Discover The Silver Lining

We always learn the lesson whenever an adverse situation confronts us. There is a silver lining behind every dark cloud. We only need to discover that silver lining which we require to cultivate. Constantly writing thankful thoughts and reflecting on them creates positive vibes and wipes away the clouds of despair. Practicing gratitude makes it easy for the brain to assess things that are beneficial in your existence when adverse circumstances arise, making it effective to nudge them and move on. Adversity makes you resilient and teaches you how to recover fast from tough situations. Regularly maintaining a gratitude journal helps us to discover at least two things we are thankful about regardless of the situations. This benefits us to become more creative, plan differently, and explore the lessons to be learnt.  

Wrapping Up

People aware of the good times in their lifetime, generate more positive vibes. While journaling, try to document about the experiences or interactions that bring appreciation even during trying times. By counting the blessings during the worst moments you feel spurred to manage situations that appear to be beyond your reach.

 Jot down things you feel grateful about and relive it to experience the flow of positive emotions. Writing a gratitude journal is a great tool that helps you to feel better as you submerge yourself with the goodness of those moments and relive it later. Gratitude journals have become a wellness trend as acknowledging and offering thanks for the positive perspectives in one’s life benefits your physical, psychological, and mental health.