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March 28, 2024, 10:48:36 pm

Poll

Do you have a gratitude journal?

Nah
1 (7.1%)
Used to
4 (28.6%)
Want to start one
1 (7.1%)
Yes but it hasn't had benefits
0 (0%)
Yes and it may have a small benefit
1 (7.1%)
Yes and there's a noticeable benefit
2 (14.3%)
->paper/handwritten
4 (28.6%)
->app/typed
1 (7.1%)

Total Members Voted: 8

Author Topic: Gratitude journals?  (Read 3045 times)  Share 

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Owlbird83

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Gratitude journals?
« on: June 18, 2021, 03:35:20 pm »
+6
Have people who've tried writing down what they are grateful for/happy about each day found it helpful or made any kind of difference to your thinking?

How do you write your gratitude journal? (paragraphs/dot points/everyday/drawings/aesthetic/duration ?)

me
I feel like writing down what went well each day has made a very small but noticeable difference to my thinking. I think it has made me slightly more likely to notice more positive things that I would have otherwise ignored. Also stopping the gratitude journal seems to decrease the built up habit of paying extra attention to positive things - back to normal.

Lastly, do you think gratitude journals feel like 'toxic positivity' by not acknowledging negative emotions?

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lm21074

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Re: Gratitude journals?
« Reply #1 on: June 18, 2021, 04:31:04 pm »
+7
I have a gratitude journal in app form (Presently) which lets you know how long you've recorded on the app for (e.g. 25 days of gratitude, 100 days of gratitude) - pretty nifty. The generic prompt is, "What are you grateful for?" but the app also gives you hundreds of prompts that you can use. It also has a pretty decent UI and the colours can be changed which is nice.

I've pretty much had the same outcome as you, Owlbird! Some days when everything goes to shit, I sort of dread having to do the exercise but I've noticed that I've paid attention attention to positive things slightly more than usual which does lift my mood a little. With the toxic positivity thing, the gratitude journaling does encourage you to focus on the positives but I've found it to be a supplementary sort of tool rather than changing my entire way of thinking to solely find the positive in everything :)

I also think for there to be any benefits from gratitude journalling, it should be kept at for a little while to the point where it becomes a habit.

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Calebark

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Re: Gratitude journals?
« Reply #2 on: June 18, 2021, 04:33:50 pm »
+6
I had one a while back. It was a miniature notebook that I'd keep in my jacket pocket along with a pencil. If something made me happy I'd try to acknowledge it, sometimes do a sketch.

It helped. Definitely helped. I was able to recognize that there are things I enjoy which helped me with my 'nothing is cool' mindset. I don't use one anymore as I've moved past it and progressed in other ways, but it had its use and I appreciate it.

I never really felt like it was toxic positivity. I was already acknowledging the negative bits constantly — albeit in my head — so this just helped even the scales a bit.
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