PSA: A Gratitude Journal Is Not A Waste Of Time

Praise be.

Habits are easy to make. Watching reruns while you’re supposed to be sleeping. Skipping the early morning yoga class, every morning, in favour of an extra hour in bed. Ordering in, yet again and despite a fridge full of groceries. So, how can we make a habit that’s for the better?

Enter: the gratitude diary.

Gratitude – be it keeping a journal, a thank you note or a daily mantra of merci beaucoup - is a little more than practicing your best (or perhaps your worst) handwriting. One study (out of the University of California, Davis) showed that keeping a gratitude journal could reduce stress by an average of 28 percent.

The same study showed that those participants coerced into keeping a weekly gratitude journal felt more optimistic, yes, but also: better about their lives. And, it wasn’t just mind games: they also exercised more and checked in with the doctor less than those who didn’t.

This is far from being the only study though.

“In positive psychology research, gratitude is strongly and consistently associated with greater happiness,” writes Harvey B. Simon, M.D. in Harvard Men's Health Watch. “Gratitude helps people feel more positive emotions, relish good experiences, improve their health, deal with adversity, and build strong relationships.”

Another study (published inApplied Psychology: Health and Well-Being) saw participating students with “minds ... racing with stimulating thoughts and worries” (sound familiar, anyone?) perform a simple nightly task. They were asked to forgo Netflix, Stan, Instagram or whatever is was they chose as their poison in favour of writing a few things they were thankful for in a journal 15 minutes before they planned to crash for the evening. After just a week, the students fed back they had “quieter minds at night and improved sleep”.

A brain-scanning study published in NeuroImage indicated that gratitude can be self-perpetuating. To simplify their findings: it’s a muscle memory of sorts. That once you do it, your brain continues to want to do it. Again and again and again and again.

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