A shared universe › Blog › How to keep a gratitude journal · Español
A gratitude journal tends to work best when you write down a few specific things, with the reason why, once or twice a week, rather than filling it in every night out of duty. Writing down now and then what you are grateful for is one of the most studied exercises in positive psychology. It does not erase your problems, but it helps make sure they are not the only thing you see.
In 2003, the psychologists Robert Emmons and Michael McCullough asked a group of university students to note down each week up to five things they felt grateful for. Another group noted down hassles and another simply what had happened to them. After ten weeks, those who wrote about what they were grateful for felt better about their lives and looked ahead to the following week with more optimism. That is what the study, published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, reports.
In a second trial, with daily entries over two weeks, the gratitude group had more pleasant emotions and more often reported having helped someone with a problem. The authors themselves point out that not everything improved: in the first study, overall mood barely changed.
Later studies have found similar effects, though more modest than is sometimes claimed: gratitude helps, it does not work miracles.
A 2016 meta-analysis led by Davis, which brought together dozens of studies, found that gratitude exercises improve well-being a little compared with doing nothing or with a neutral task. Against other psychological exercises that also do people good, they came out neither better nor worse, and they did not reduce anxiety. It is a small, real help, the kind that adds up over time.
More is not always better. In a study with students described by Sonja Lyubomirsky, Kennon Sheldon and David Schkade in their 2005 paper in the Review of General Psychology, for six weeks some thought about what they were grateful for once a week and others three times a week. Only those who did it once a week became happier. The authors think that, repeated so often, the exercise turned into a routine and lost its freshness.
There is no magic number. Some people prefer to write a little every day and enjoy it. The sign worth watching for is a different one: if writing has become a chore, spacing it out might suit you better.
These suggestions gather what has been learned so far, and they match those offered by the Greater Good Science Center at the University of California, Berkeley:
People often mix them up. The journal is a notebook you come back to now and then, with no fixed number of items, where you can dwell at length on a single person or memory. The three good things exercise is something else: every night, for a week, three things that went well that day and why. The two are alike at heart, and you can try whichever suits you best.
There are days when gratitude seems impossible, and that is all right. Gratitude does not mean denying what hurts or forcing yourself to be fine. Sometimes something very small is enough: that the day is over, that someone asked how you were, that you managed to sleep a little. And if nothing comes today, leaving the page blank is fine too.
If weeks go by and what you find when you open the notebook is mostly sadness, tiredness or emptiness, the journal is not what you need most right now. It may help to talk about it with your GP or a psychologist. In Spain you can talk to a person at the Teléfono de la Esperanza, 717 003 717, at any time. If you are thinking of ending your life, call 024: it is free, confidential and answered 24 hours a day. If there is immediate danger, call 112. In another country, call your local emergency number or a helpline there.
In A shared universe you can light a star with “What I’m grateful for” and say in a few words why, without saying who you are. Others will see it shine for seven days and can be happy with you.
And when one of your stars has turned out well, you can say so and give thanks: the star turns golden. It is another way of keeping your journal, this time with company.