Episode 27: The Benefits of Gratitude Journaling

In this episode,

Lizzie covers the practice of gratitude journaling and shares some ways it has helped her in her life.

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Post-pod questions to consider

Do you have a gratitude practice? What are three things from your day or week that would be at the top of your gratitude list right now?

Episode Transcript

Hey. You're listening to Midnight Philosopher with Lizzie. Thanks for tuning in. Today, I'm going to talk about gratitude journaling. 

Happy almost Thanksgiving to those of you who celebrate. 
Gratitude is often part of the holiday. Speaking of which, next week there will be no episodes so that I can spend some more time with family and friends. But, for right now, let's get back to gratitude journaling. Gratitude journaling is a practice that helps some people and that some people really come to enjoy. And I encourage all of you to try it out. Even if you think it might not be your thing, you might surprise yourself. 

There are several ways to do gratitude journaling. You can list three things each day that you're grateful for, or you can pick a topic and go in more in-depth and journal a little bit more intentionally on that topic, anything really that you're grateful for. 

Journaling is a huge benefit and it's a huge mental health benefit because it helps people get in touch with their emotions. And a lot of people spend a lot of their time journaling about some of their more difficult emotions. And often, other emotions get left on the wayside. For example, for me, a lot of my journals have been about sadness or anger or fear. And it's always important to remember the other side of the coin and to notice what you're grateful for. You know, I don't think being grateful solves all the world's problems, but it can help in a variety of ways that I'll get into later. 

Gratitude journaling has helped me many times in my life, and I admit it's a practice that comes and goes for me. But for many years, when I was really struggling after the death of my mom, I kept a gratitude journal list where I listed three things from the day that I was grateful for or that gave me a bit of joy because I was grateful for feeling that joy. And so I allowed myself to either say things that I felt grateful for or that I felt joy from. Some days, this was extremely hard to do. Some days, I was like, I'm not grateful for anything. 

But something that I helped something that I found helpful was that eventually, I started to notice little details in my day that I might have forgotten or nuances in the day that might have given me even a slight sliver of joy that usually I would have, you know, gone over my head. But because I was keeping this journal, I was looking out for those moments. And so it helped me see long-term patterns. Also, like, almost every day, I wrote I was grateful for my dog, Pilot. And the fact that I wrote about that almost every day showed me just how much of a presence Pilot is and was in my life and how much I was grateful for her. So it helped me realize the depth of my feelings, and it also helped me notice nuances I might not have otherwise. 

I've also journaled on specific topics, and once, one topic that I've gratitude journaled on was about relationships. I'm pretty quick to make the assumption that no one really cares about me. So intentionally journaling journaling about what I'm grateful for, about people who've helped me or who've cared about me or who've shown love for me in some way, it's helped me realize that, well, I am really loved and cared for. I'm really grateful for that. 

And journaling about it helped me be able to parse out the details and see that people do love me if I open my eyes to it. Gratitude journaling, in this case, helped me battle my low self-esteem and feelings of worthlessness because it helped me realize that I matter and that I'm important in this world. And I hope you remember that you matter and that you're important in this world too. 

Through gratitude journaling, it helped me work through some of my isolation that came from trauma, and it helped me check the facts. And, I journaled about little and big moments that I was grateful for. There's really no too small moment. It can literally be a drop of water or it can be the whole ocean. You can be grateful for both. 

And, a third time that gratitude journaling was really helpful for me when I was feeling that life was somewhat, for lack of a better word, like not really having a point. And I know that's bleak, but I was going through a philosophical dark spot. And gratitude journaling helped me remember that there are little things in my life that I'm really grateful for and that give my life meaning. 

Something as small as being able to smell a fallen leaf or hear the waves of the beach, I realized those were the moments that helped give my life a tapestry of meaning because those little moments talked about what I valued, talked about what I cared about, talked about what you know, because gratitude and values are inherently linked. And so when you're feeling grateful for something, you're also valuing it. And those values can be then translated to what you think the point of your life is. Right? Because values are the point of life in some ways. 

So how can you start gratitude journaling? You can keep a journal specifically for gratitude or try to think of three things a day that you're grateful for. And you can repeat things you said the day before, you even if it was a small thing, if you feel it still applies to the day you're you're journaling. And practicing and cultivating gratitude in a journal will help give your life tangible meaning because you can look back at your journal and literally see words of things that fill up your cup. 

It gives you evidence. It helps you give you it helps gives you evidence for your life that not everything is horrible and that there are some really wonderful things in your life no matter how hard it is. And it also allows you to say, okay, these things are giving me joy or these things I'm really grateful for. Let me seek them out more. What are ways I can add more of this to my life? So gratitude journaling can also be a spotlight on what's working for you. 

So, in this episode, I talked about gratitude journaling and the benefits it can have when you're really struggling. It can help you find purpose and meaning in your life. You can start by writing three things or journaling about a specific topic. For me, it helped me when after the death of my mom, it helped me with my relationships, and it helped me when I was feeling philosophically bleak about life. 

So gratitude journaling has really impacted me, and I really encourage you all to give it a shot. Well, thanks so much for listening tonight. I'm gonna go journal about great being grateful for this podcast. Have a good night.