Journalling about Gratitude & Why It Matters

When you make journalling intentional, you set the tone for a positive day.

Photo by Gabrielle Henderson on Unsplash

We all know it matters to be grateful in life. We all know it matters to be thankful for the little blessings we have each day.

Though we all know this, this is not always an easy thing to practice. The daily challenges of living in the world get to us and we don’t always focus on gratitude. We lose sight of what matters most.

In other to be more intentional about gratitude and having a positive day, you should write about what makes you grateful often. When you write regularly about what makes you grateful, you set the tone for a more positive day.

I was gifted “The Five Minute Journal,” a book dedicated to journaling. Each page has an inspirational quote on the top and prompts that will enable one to write on different things such as “I am grateful for…” “What would make today great?” “Daily Affirmation,” “Highlights of the Day,” and “What did I learn today?”

As someone who loves words, someone who loves to read and write, having this journal is appreciated.

When you start the journal, you are told to take on the challenge of journalling for five days straight to commit to journaling.

After the five-day challenge of journalling, there is a section on a commitment review where you are asked to reflect on your commitment to yourself. In the book, it states you should remember how you felt reading the entries, how you focused on the highlights of the day and the daily gratitudes and affirmations.

In this post, I would like to share some of my favourite lessons so far from having a gratitude journal.

Having a Gratitude Journal Makes You More Intentional About Seeing the Good in Life

Photo by Eye for Ebony on Unsplash

I always preach about being grateful and focusing on gratitude. However, it’s easier to talk about these things but when it’s time to put it to practice, then it becomes difficult.

Having a gratitude journal enables me to pause and really consider what I’m grateful for in a day. When you write these things down, it makes you more aware of what you have.

For example, we have life but we take it for granted because we wake up each day and get about what we need to do.

But consider the fact that so many people come and go. Life can be taken at any moment and not everyone is able to live to old age. Considering the gift of being alive right now makes me grateful to God.

Also, considering family and friends makes me grateful. I am grateful to have a support system to confide in, to communicate with, to laugh and hang out with.

A gratitude journal makes you more intentional about being more aware of the little blessings we each have in our lives.

Having A Gratitude Journal Makes You Intentional About Focusing on What You Can Control

Photo by VENUS MAJOR on Unsplash

In my gratitude journal, there is a prompt on “what would make today great?” I really like this prompt because it lets you acknowledge what is in your control to have a good day.

Of course, we could be of the belief system that what would make today great would be having a million dollars or travelling around the world but this is not always realistic.

Focusing on what you can do in one day to make it a good day matters. For example, I can put things such as stating that what would make my day great is making time to jog. It’s reading a good book.

It’s being in a different and fun environment.

Having A Gratitude Journal Enables You to Reflect on Your Growth in Life

Photo by Kajetan Sumila on Unsplash

One of my favourite things about journalling is being able to reflect on your thoughts and feelings. Understanding who you were and who you are now in your life.

What is great about this journal is that each day you get to reflect on what you’ve learned. When we think about growth, growth is in learning.

Growth is not only big things that affect our lives like how much we make or our achievements but growth can be little. Growth can be mindset changes.

One of my growth lessons that I remind myself is that the whole world does not need to get you but having a few people that do matters. It’s also that there is joy in pursuing what makes you happy.

Having A Gratitude Journal Makes You Better at Affirming the Best Parts of You

I love affirmations but sometimes affirmations can be tedious. We say the same things every time and sometimes we don’t always believe it.

Having to write in my journal for five days straight causes me to be more creative with what I affirm about myself. It helps me to be more creative about affirming what I want for my life.

So I’ve had an affirmation where I wrote “I can find peace and happiness in imperfect moments.” This means that I don’t deny that life won’t always feel good but regardless, I can be happy in spite of the imperfections in my day.

Final Thoughts

Life isn’t always good because things happen that throw us off balance but there is still something good about each day.

I will always sing the song that having gratitude is important and journaling is the best way to be more intentional about what is good about life.