Mindful Gratitude Journal

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Gratitude is more than a practice—it’s a lens through which we can see the world. It can imbue your life with a little more optimism, more resilience, and can help you make healthier choices. That’s what science says. But I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that you already know that. You may already know the way that gratitude feels in your body—a suffusion of warmth, a feeling of expanding brightness in your chest maybe, or a volley of starbursts of delight in your mind. You may already have noticed that gratitude begets gratitude—you feel it once, and you tend to want to feel it again, and to share the feeling, giving others an opportunity to feel gratitude as well. And if you’ve picked up this Gratitude Journal (thank you! We…

Gratitude offers us a way of embracing all that makes our lives what they are. More than just a happy feeling for the parts of our lives currently going our way, gratitude encompasses the willingness to expand our attention so that we perceive more of the goodness we are always receiving—often, without even asking—from sources and people beyond ourselves, and then acting on the appreciation we feel by paying it forward. In the past two decades, a growing body of evidence in the field of social science has found that gratitude has measurable benefits for just about every area of our lives. Gratitude appears to contribute substantially to individual well-being and physical health. So much so that the Greater Good Science Center at the University of California, Berkeley—a leader in…

practicing gratitude is how we acknowledge that there’s enough and that we’re enough –BRENÉ BROWN Gratitude is more than just a momentary good feeling. Scientists studying written gratitude interventions, such as gratitude letters or journals, have found benefits for mental health and wellbeing. Gratitude also appears to help you to feel more satisfied in life and can boost self-esteem, according to peer-reviewed research. Here are some science-backed ways that gratitude supports a healthy mind. THE SCIENCE Happiness Boost In one study with nearly 300 adults seeking counseling at a university, one randomized group wrote a gratitude letter each week for three weeks. This group reported significantly better mental health (compared to the control group) at follow-up, 12 weeks after the last writing exercise. Another type of written gratitude practice is counting…

It was an ordinary day. Midafternoon, I took my dog for her usual walk around the block, mind on remedies for the writing class I was to teach that evening. While I was known for the community that usually formed in my classes, this semester was an exception. I had already tried several strategies for bringing the students together, but so far nothing had worked. In those days—before mindfulness was mainstream—I was always worried about something: my teaching, an essay I was writing, my granddaughters, my garden, a recent conversation with a friend. It didn’t take much to turn the anxiety faucet on, and once flowing, it could pull most areas of my life into its current. About halfway around the block that afternoon, I happened to glance down and…

It can be helpful to steady your mind and body, so that you’re able to attend to and sustain your attention on whatever arises, which at times can be unpleasant and can pull you away from your engaged attentiveness to the moment as it is. In this body scan practice that incorporates breath awareness, we start by becoming attentive and relaxed in the present moment, and then we carry this stability and tranquility to an added step: cultivating gratitude. For example, when focusing our attention on an object like the breath and when noticing our mind wandering from that object, we can gently return or remember the breath, and we’re able to do so with a little bit more engaged attentiveness and sustained capacity to stay with the object of…