December 2023

How to Start a Gratitude Journal You’ll Actually Keep

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Caren Hope

I’ve been thinking a lot about Gratitude this year, and for this December I decided to include a Gratitude Compilation to ease us all into the festive season – a season for connection, family and gratitude.  In Caren’s talk she shares her insights on how to start a Gratitude Journal you’ll actually keep.

I want to add my ‘hot tip’ for this practice.  A few years ago, I took a beautiful journal and divided it in 12 sections – labelling each section with the months of the year.  I started a few years ago in the January section and wrote in it every few days – noting the date and 3 things I was grateful for and why.  I really enjoyed this quick reflective time before going to sleep, and I can attest first hand to how it helps improve one’s quality of sleep.

To be honest though, there would be weeks and sometimes even months that I’d forget or be too busy to write in it.  But then I’d see it next to my bed and pick it up again – turning to whichever month I was currently in and adding my 3 things I was grateful for that day.

The beauty about this ’12-part’ book, is that once I clocked one year – I didn’t throw the book away, but just started in January again, and this time, every time I note my gratitude I continue on the list of that month’s gratitude – I scan back to see what I was grateful for that month a year or two ago.  It’s like gratitude with compound interest!

I know that new year’s resolutions have a bad rep, but if there is one practice that I urge you to start in January it is the practice of gratitude.  Read/watch on to realise the huge benefits that await you:

• The Science of Gratitude
• Shawn Achor in Hack Your Happiness (see also his talk I posted back in Sept 2017)