Being Grateful

Being thankful is not something you have to wait until Thanksgivings to recognize. You can start looking and acknowledging things your grateful for each day of your life.

Keeping a gratitude journal can help you be mindful of the positive things about you, your life, and the things around you. I know with having depression symptoms, it’s easy to discount the positive things about yourself and things in your life. A gratitude journal will help you begin to see the positive even in bad situations. It is a great coping skill to help maintain better days.

3 Benefits of a Gratitude Journal

Increase Positivity

– My experience with keeping a gratitude journal is I am able to see positivity in bad situations I experience. I know that is from acknowledging the good in each day.

Improve Self-esteem

– My self-esteem has improved some because I see myself as a part of life and not just watching it. Feeling like I’m apart of life makes me feel better about myself and my existence.

Reduces Stress

– Most of the stress I experience is from external situations, and by writing gratitudes, I’ve noticed I focus on the good and less on the things that worried me before.

Types of Gratitude Journal

1. Guided Journal

A guided journal is helpful in helping you figure out what to write with different gratitude prompts. Using a guided journal helps to keep you motivated to continue writing daily.

2. Blank Notebook Journal

A blank journal takes a little more work to stay encouraged to write in daily but gives you more flexibility on what you want to be grateful for that day. If you choose to go this route, you have to be more intentional in finding a prompt. You can write one thing your grateful or several things you are thankful for in your life. It can be from the past or the present; there are no limits. Just put the date and start writing.

You know yourself better than anyone, so whichever way works best for you, then you should try it. If this isn’t a coping skill for you that’s okay. We all are different and need to find positive coping skills that work for us individually.