A Simple Way to Start a Morning Gratitude Journal Practice

Well Lovecats, it’s the week of Thanksgiving which means it’s time to give thanks and I think it’s safe to say we’re all pretty thankful that this year is almost over! 2020 has been the worst and the best in so many ways (if you are interested in silver linings), but whether you’re coming up roses or just planting seeds, the past 10 months have been challenging to say the least.

With Thanksgiving on my mind, I woke up on Friday morning wishing I had a little pen and paper on my nightstand to jot a few things down because it was cold and I didn’t want to get out of bed yet. I grabbed my phone to start my morning meditation and in the middle of deciding to just use my NOTES app I thought wouldn’t it be nice to have a morning gratitude journal app I could easily access and utilize every day?

My first thought, of course, was to BUILD A GRATITUDE JOURNAL APP and then I realized that if I had this thought then it had probably already been done and so I tapped the app store and found a dozen or so that popped up immediately.

The app that was most visually pleasing to me also looked to be the simplest to use so I downloaded it for free and love it so far. It’s called Morning! – A 5 Minute Journal and looks like this…

While writing a long-form gratitude journal entry with a pen on paper is actually really beneficial, it also feels a little more overwhelming, which creates resistance to the practice. I think the act of just jotting down a few things you’re grateful for in the morning and setting intentions for your day is super powerful and empowering, giving you the feeling that you have some sort of control over the way you live each day.

There are also a few writing prompts to come back to at the end of each day as well, which I love too. The idea of just being super intentional about my day as soon as I wake up has changed the way I view my time. And though I’ve only been doing it for a few days and I know this probably sounds lame, I can already see/feel a difference in my mindset because of it.

 Gratitude journaling has been around forEVER and has been suggested and recommended as a daily practice by every self-help guru on the planet. I’m sure I’ve even mentioned it at one point or another because over the years I too have taken part in the gratitude journal practice. HOWEVER, I’ve never committed to doing it daily and like meditation, this doesn’t seem to work as well unless you make it a daily practice.

Maybe eventually I will add a hand-written gratitude journaling practice to my day as well, but for now, this is the easiest place to start and the easiest way to create the habit of practice because it’s just so easy.

Benefits of Keeping a Daily Gratitude Journal…

The Greater Good Science Center offers a plethora of information on this subject. In a white paper titled, “The Science of Gratitude” (2018), they outline several benefits to gratitude practice.

* Increased happiness and positive mood
* More satisfaction with life
* Less materialistic
* Less likely to experience burnout
* Better physical health
* Better sleep
* Less fatigue
* Lower levels of cellular inflammation
* Greater resiliency
* Encourages the development of patience, humility, and wisdom

More articles on gratitude:
* How to start a gratitude practice to change your life
* How Gratitude Journaling Can Boost Your Mood and Change Your Life
* Photo source: 47 Gratitude Quotes to Bring Joy to Everyday

Happy Monday Lovecats!

* Find all my health and wellness posts here