If you need more prompting with starting a gratitude journal, you might try our Gratitude Journal worksheet. This worksheet provides you with lots of interesting information about gratitude and tips for keeping a journal. Most important, however, is that the worksheet will provide you with various prompts, which might help you find other items that you are grateful for. Try subtraction, not just addition. Consider what your life would be like without certain people or things, rather than just tallying up all the good stuff. Be grateful for the negative outcomes you avoided, escaped, prevented, or turned into something positive—try not to take that good fortune for granted. While many studies have examined the effects of writing gratitude, all the ways we communicate—letters, conversation, and social media—are avenues for expressing gratitude. Gratitude may also open the door to healthier communication styles within a relationship. Since the practice leads to more positive perceptions of our partners, friends, or family (and likely, greater trust), we may feel more comfortable talking through disagreements. In one study, participants who expressed gratitude toward a romantic partner or close friend reported greater ease when voicing relationship concerns in the future. Why Practice: It’s Better Together You can even try this activity every year to see how their answers change through the years and to remember how important it is to be grateful.

perhaps he would find life more manageable if he focused on what he did have rather than what he didn’t have. We often remember to be grateful for big events, like graduating from university or getting married, but it can be more difficult to feel grateful for the small things we do every day. Reminding yourself that eating a meal, for example, is in itself special can be very powerful. Your immediate awareness of the food in front of you, combining flavors while removing hunger, is a great way to enjoy gratitude as often as you eat! Another example is feeling grateful in the morning for being able to comfortably sleep at night. We gain comfort, satisfaction and peace by practicing mindfulness and gratitude in this repeated fashion. Some findings are significant when compared to a control group who journaled everyday events (Froh et al., 2009).This follows the journey of the author who, inspired by a simple yet beautiful thank you note he received, set himself the goal of writing 365 thank-you notes in a year. If you find the prompt used by Emmons and McCullough (2003) too vague, then consider using the following directed prompts: There is no manual for teaching gratitude. In fact, there are many ways to raise grateful kids, and one of those ways is journaling. This book is an excellent choice for more casual readers interested in gratitude, as the tone is informal and accessible, but it also presents a message that everyone can benefit from receiving.

Our Father in Heaven, you have blessed me with ten fingers and ten toes, eyes to see and ears to hear. I am grateful for the wonder of your creation and for sparing my life every day.’ When digging into the science of gratitude, we begin to see there are more dimensions to this emotion than meet the eye. In the scientific literature, gratitude is studied in several different ways: New research suggests that thanking our partners for supporting us through hardship may increase their joy and satisfaction in giving.A regular practice of gratitude, or “attitude of gratitude” as some call it, can enhance your life in a multitude of ways, including: Gratitude is strongly related to wellbeing (Jans-Beken et al., 2020; Wood et al., 2010). The positive effects of experiencing and expressing gratitude are endless.