Research shows a strong relationship between gratitude and well-being. It sounds like a platitude or a myth that being grateful for what you have improves the overall quality of your life, but science is slowly confirming what people have been saying for years.
Journaling about your experiences is another research-backed wellness trick. A regular journal can improve your mood, reduce stress, and even sharpen your memory.
A combination of these two practices might have profound impacts on your health and wellness. We’ll discuss gratitude journaling today, giving you some insight into what it is and how it might help.
Let’s get started.
The Science Behind Gratitude Journaling
We’ll peek at some issue-specific research as we work through our list, but it’s important to note that there’s a wealth of data on gratitude and wellbeing. There are bonafide reasons to reconsider your relationship with gratitude.
Many of us don’t take the time to appreciate the things we have.
Big or small, recognizing the value of your circumstances or possessions makes a legitimate impact on your mental, physical, and spiritual health. In particular, stress and sleep improve significantly when gratitude is introduced.
Journaling your gratitude adds a new tier to the situation. The practice of journaling might be meditative to you. There’s value in healthy, personal rituals that provide you with measurable improvements.
A journal also solidifies your gratitude and brings it firmly into reality. It’s easy to forget a statement of gratitude that exists only in your head, for example. A document that lists particular gratitudes helps you come back to them time and again.
Benefits of Gratitude Journaling
Before we explore five key benefits of gratitude journaling, let’s look at what “gratitude” might mean to different people.
We might think of gratitude as a response we have when we’re given a gift. For example, you might be grateful that someone gave you something you really needed. That’s certainly one dimension of gratitude, but there’s a lot more to it.
A gift isn’t required to feel gratitude. Instead, the feeling comes when you appreciate the positive value of anything in your life, big or small. You might feel grateful that you have the function of your fingers, or that you live in an area with clean air.
You could also be grateful that you remembered to do the dishes last night instead of leaving them in the sink. There’s no limit to how small something you’re grateful for can be.
You’ll also notice that gratitude itself produces a feeling that’s distinct from your normal experience. It’s often considered a “state” rather than a feeling. That state accumulates the more you practice gratitude.
So, what can we expect when we start to allow gratitude into our lives?
1. Increased Positivity
On a simple level, we can think of gratitude as the positive appreciation of things or events. Alternatively, dismissal or ignorance of things and events is the other side of the coin.
Think of a positive person in your life. Someone who’s generally cheerful and has a meaningful outlook on the things in their life.
Does this person ignore the good things in their life? Do they complain about little things and focus intensely on what they’re missing? Probably not.
Those characteristics typically belong to individuals who are more frustrated, less content, and generally negative. Gratitude is often the missing piece of that puzzle. When we’re grateful, we’re inclined to be positive rather than negative.
Incorporating a practice of gratitude, then, should reliably make us more and more positive.
2. Increased Happiness
Studies tell us that gratitude predicts happiness over the course of the lifespan. There are ups and downs according to the person’s environment, but someone who’s more grateful generally tends to live a happier life.
Interestingly, happier people tend to live longer and suffer fewer medical illnesses. On a more intuitive level, though, it’s easy to see why happiness fuels off of gratitude.
Can you truly be happy if you aren’t appreciating the things in your life? If you’re frustrated by what you don’t have, is it possible to feel content? Can you enjoy time spent with your family without appreciating it in a positive way?
You might get by with moments of happiness without gratitude. The deep, lasting sense of positivity we call “true happiness” is nearly impossible without gratitude, though. Our basic needs and well-being are prerequisites for happy lives, but gratitude is one of the key forces that nourish our sense of happiness.
3. Increased Mindfulness
How easy is it to be calm and mindful while you’re stressed? Is it possible to enjoy mindfulness during states of true frustration, or doing long bouts of anger?
It’s possible, but very difficult to insert mindfulness into those mental states. When you’re in a bad mood for a long time, you’re far less aware of your mind, body, and environment. Awareness of those factors is developed through the practice of mindfulness.
On the other hand, happy states of mind breed awareness and appreciation of your thoughts and feelings. Gratitude demands that we reflect and pause for a moment. It puts us in a calm state of mind fueled by warm thoughts about our lives.
In other words, it brings us closer to mindfulness. The more you journal your gratitude, the more mindful you can become. The funny thing is, practicing mindfulness has a way of making you more grateful as well!
It’s a win-win.
4. Increased Quality of Sleep
Studies show that the presence of gratitude correlates with higher quality and longer duration of sleep. Gratitude contributed to fewer negative pre-sleep cognitions compared to those who didn’t practice gratitude.
Think of those nights that you just couldn’t sleep because you had something on your mind. Maybe you don’t have anything particular to think about, but a herd of angry or stressful thoughts runs through your mind relentlessly.
According to the study above, the presence of these thoughts reliably diminishes when you make gratitude a significant part of your life.
5. Reduced Stress
Chronic stress is the result of numerous factors. It’s rarely one thing that contributes to a state of continuous stress or a statistically significant rise in stress over time.
Often, it’s our perspective and interpretation of events that produce stress. It’s also our physical health that creates stressful conditions. Sleep is another big factor in the presence of stress.
Gratitude combats most, if not all of those negative forces that create stress. One of the benefits of gratitude journaling is that its effects are multifaceted. You chip away at some of the fundamental drivers of depression, disease, and stress.
Interestingly, those factors all feed into one another. Gratitude has the potential to create a snowball effect of positivity.
Employee Journaling and Work Quality
Sleep, stress, and wellness are three of the biggest factors when it comes to job performance. Those factors could derail your work quality and productivity, even in an excellent working environment.
The practice of employee gratitude could have a ripple effect that runs company-wide. According to Berkely, gratitude can drive people to contribute more to their organization and boost creativity in the process.
Healthier, happier employees lead to better companies. Period.
For this reason, it’s smart to think about offering your staff some wellness options. Particularly, a course about gratitude journaling is a great place to start. These courses aren’t things that busy, stressed individuals have time for.
We don’t make as many healthy changes when we’re stressed. That’s why bosses can make a difference. Offer wellness courses to your staff.
Their lives will improve. Their work will improve. Finally, the health of the organization will improve.
These solutions aren’t expensive or complicated. They’re simple shifts in perspective and behavior that benefit everyone without intruding on your workflow.
Twello: Science of Gratitude Journaling Class
Twello offers a Science of Gratitude Journaling Class that teaches the principles of this practice. You can incorporate this course into your company’s culture and enjoy the myriad benefits that come from gratitude.
Our teachers will work with your staff and illuminate the research, evidence, and potentially life-changing benefits of a gratitude journal. The course will focus on increasing optimism, emotional resilience, and happiness.
What’s even better is the fact that the course happens in thirty-minute increments. That’s short enough to fit into most people’s lunch breaks.
There are dozens of keystone wellness factors like gratitude. We offer courses in many aspects of life. Our goal is always to improve employee wellness and give them the tools that people need to grow.
Happiness almost always underpins great work, and the business world often needs to be reminded of that fact.
Want to Learn More About Employee Wellness?
We hope our look at gratitude journaling was useful to you. There are more benefits of gratitude journaling to explore. We’re here to help.
Twello offers numerous ways to improve your corporate wellness through mindfulness, physical activity, company culture, and more. Book a consultation for more ideas on finding a wellness program that’s right for your staff.
