Family Gratitude Journal: 10 Tips to Get Started

Studies have shown that a regular gratitude practice can dramatically improve your health through reduced stress, anxiety, and insomnia. A gratitude journal is one of several methods we’ll share this week about how to introduce more gratitude into your life.

1. Several times per week, write down between one and five things you and your family are grateful for.

   They can be small comforts or large blessings or anything in between. Try to do the exercise at the same time each day, so you don’t forget. Talking around the dinner table is a great time to add this activity to your weekly routine.

2. Get creative with your medium.

   If a journal itself doesn’t inspire you, try writing your items on a pumpkin in November and set it out for everyone to see. Write answers on real leaves you collect on your family walks or on cutout shapes from scrap paper and use them for decorations throughout the year.

3. Enjoy the positive emotional change that comes from focusing on the positive.

Here are some excellent tips from Greater Good Magazine for your journal practice:

1. Be as specific as possible in your entries. “I’m grateful for the kindness of the attendant at the store today.”
2. Depth over breadth. Details about one person or event are more meaningful than a long list of superficial activities.
3. Get personal. It’s more impactful to consider people rather than things you’re grateful for.
4. Include things you’re grateful to have avoided or prevented.
5. See good things as “gifts.”
6. Include surprises in your list as their unexpected nature will elicit stronger levels of gratitude.
7. It’s okay to repeat people or things in your practice, but try to distinguish your thoughts through specific details.
8. Contribute regularly, whether it’s every other day or once a week.
9. Be consistent.
10. Don’t go overboard. Studies suggest it isn’t necessary to write every day. If we force the practice, we become numb to the benefits.