Journaling and gratitude have both been shown to have huge benefits for our mental and physical health. Research shows that they support stress management and help reduce anxiety and depression symptoms. They have also been shown to benefit asthma, arthritis, our immune system and other physical health conditions.
Journaling improves cognitive functioning and allows our right brain to create freely. It removes mental blocks and allows us to use all of your brain power to better understand our self, others and the world around us.
Gratitude helps change our attitude and our view of our world to a more positive one. Gratitude has been also shown to be a mood boosted and keep it boosted for longer than other mental health tools.
How Journaling And Gratitude Helps Your Mental Health.
Journaling helps us clarify our thoughts and feelings.
It helps us tackle that jumble inside of us and make sense of what we want and feel. Daily writing will aid us in keeping in touch with our wants and feelings. Don’t edit your writing but simply jot it all down. The thoughts are a reflection of everything going on internally and allow us to then challenge and clarify them better.
Gratitude has been shown to be very effective at improving our self-esteem.
We live in a time of distraction and looking at other people’s highlight reel. We tune in more to what others are saying and not our own inner voice. Studies have shown that gratitude reduces comparison to others. In fact, we appreciate more what others accomplish rather than be resentful towards them as our self-esteem and self-awareness grow.
Both journaling and gratitude reduces our stress levels.
Stress can make us very sick, it’s linked to cancer, death, heart disease, etc. Writing about stressful situations and the emotions associated with them helps to release the intensity of these emotions.
It will help, or prevent, us from feeling stuck. Reduces procrastination or catastrophising the situation or even stop you stuffing down any feelings. It aids us in feeling calmer and better able to stay in the present. It helps us to recognize some solutions to the problems we are facing rather than just keeping it all going on in our head.
Gratitude has been shown to have a positive impact on our daily coping skills including when stressed. Practicing gratitude on a daily basis plays a major role in overcoming trauma and post-traumatic stress disorder. Plus is a major contributor to building resilience too.
We build empathy and are more patience toward others.
When we journal out our problems, or reason out conversations we have, we become more aware of not only our opinions but other’s opinions too. We begin to see other’s perspective and can build empathy towards them. We end up blaming others less for our problems and begin to become problem solvers.
Grateful people are more likely to behave in a more understanding and calm manner. Even when others behave unkindly or in an aggressive manner we are more likely to be more understanding and have a decreased desire for revenge.
Journaling can help us resolve disagreements with others.
Rather than keeping all that stuff locked up in our heads to stew we get them down on paper. We can go back over what we have written afterwards. This can help us to see what was really said and to begin to understand the conflict from another’s point of view. We might even come up with a solution.
Boost our cognitive function.
Journaling isn’t just for getting arguments, or bad stuff, out of head. It can also record good memories and help us organize our thoughts. Journaling can help recall while improving memory, comprehension and boosts cognition.
Using our journal like this also allows us to track our moods and behaviours. It can show us improvement and growth in our behaviour. Perhaps it will also highlight situations that need outside help or isn’t as insurmountable as we thought.
Gratitude reduces toxic emotions, increases happiness , reduces depression/anxiety and improves our sleep.. What we focus on grows. So if we focus on the positives around us we can grow that positive mindset we want.
Gratitude can also be a relationship booster.
Whether we thank a stranger, family or friends, studies are showing that people will respond and seek out a relationship with someone who is grateful. So showing gratitude towards colleagues, family or friends will lead to better quality relationships in our life.
We can use our journal to track physical health patterns.
You can use the journal as a mental and physical health tracker. Tracking our physical symptoms can help root out the cause and seek professional help sooner. Remember most of the time if something is wrong doctors will want to rule out physical causes before referring us to mental health professionals.
The How-To Guide To Gratitude Journaling.
Generally completing a brain dump at the start of our journal session helps free up mind space for other things or ideas to come out. You could set aside about 20 minutes to complete your journal task each day.
Starting as I said with the brain dump, then allow all other thoughts, no matter how random, to flow. Finish by writing your gratitude list. At least 3 things you are grateful for today. You can build this to 10 things.
At first gratitude can feel a little false and we can repeat the same things each night. But with time your gratitude practice will expand. So do persevere. You can use any of the following questions either together, or individually, to help you get started on your gratitude journey.
- Before you begin your day or at the end of your day, simply list 10 (minimum 3) things you’re grateful for (big or small!)
- What am I learning from my challenges? List a challenging situation, person, or other obstacle and what good things you’re learning from this challenge.
- Can coping with this situation/person be of benefit to you? Are you learning something new here?
- Is this about the person (you can’t know everything that’s going on with someone) or about me?
- How will facing this situation help me raise my self-awareness?
- People I’m thankful for. List 5 people who made your life a little happier today. They could be friends, family, or even strangers!
- The best part of my day was… Choose one moment of your day that made you happy? Focus on it for 5 minutes and write about it. If you do this before you go to sleep it helps end your day on a positive note.
- Create a list of benefits/people in your life.
- How can you be grateful for these?
- To what extent do you take these for granted?
Work With Me.
Remember you are allowed to ask for support. No one is an island. In fact I would strongly advice you make sure you create a positive support system before you start to make any changes in your life. One part of that positive support system is working a therapist.
If you need extra support then you can also work with me. We all struggle with stress and overwhelm from time to time. If you find this has become a problem for you and you’d like some support then schedule an appointment with me.
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