The best way to stay grateful in your life is to start a gratitude journal. This is like an ordinary journal, but instead of writing all of your thoughts and feelings you are going to just write the things you are thankful for each day. Cultivating an attitude of gratitude has shown to be associated with several positive outcomes. Here are a few of the many benefits of a keeping a gratitude journal. Gratitude improves physical health. It is thought that those people who are more grateful have lesser aches and pains.
In addition to improving physical health, it improves physiological health. It's like an antidote for negative emotions. It increases happiness and reduces depression. Just like spirituality, gratitude is also associated with well being.
It is also thought that it helps in reducing aggression. People who are more grateful show less antisocial behaviour and show more empathy to others.
People who are more grateful sleep better. Those spending a few minutes writing a gratitude journal everyday often feel more content in themselves and sleep better.
A study in the "Journal of Personality and Social Psychology" showed that soldiers showing more gratitude had reduced levels of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. This shows that people with gratitude are able to cope better in life during stress.
A study reported by the University of Minnesota and the University of Florida showed that people writing a few lines of gratitude at the end of the day lowered their stress levels and they felt calmer at night.
Those writing a gratitude journal have more clarity about their lives and what they want and want to eliminate from their lives.
A recent study in the Spirituality in clinical practice (Wash D C) journal by Mills et al., showed that patients expressing more gratitude had lower levels of inflammatory biomarkers hence suggesting that gratitude could be a treatment for improving wellbeing in heart failure patients.
How to maintain your gratitude journal:
Plan to write a few lines of gratitude every day preferably at night. But if can't make it, don't be too bogged down in writing every day, even every other day is fine.
Your gratitude journal does not have to be highly structured. To start off, you don't have to be detailed, just a few lines of gratitude is enough.
Try to write about 5 things you are grateful for.
**This book is designed in a way that you can enter your gratitude each day of the year. Try to spend a few minutes at the end of the day (or any time you prefer) to enter your gratitude in the lines provided. Those with the kindle edition can simply use blank pieces of paper.
