Gratitude Journal

Want to know the simplest technique to live a happier life irrespective of your situation in life? You’re in the right place because we will learn about a practical and simple technique that will soon transform you into a more positive, more content, happier and stronger person.

Before I tell you the technique, let me share that you will only benefit from this technique if you are diligent and disciplined enough to take out 5 minutes from your day without fail everyday. In case you don’t possess these personality traits, develop them for this technique and be a winner in the game of life!

What’s the Technique?

Sarah Ban Breathnach, author of a wonderful book titled “Simple Abundance” recommends this technique as the foundation of Personal development. In this, you need to maintain a personal diary and write down five things that you feel grateful about that day specifically—things that made your day comfortable or happy or meaningful!

It’s very easy to do and needs to be done everyday without fail for it to work for you. She calls the diary a “Gratitude Journal” and anyone who has tried this technique can vouch for its effectiveness and power in transforming one’s life and thoughts.

How does a gratitude journal work?

To understand how this technique actually works, we need to delve into how the human brain works to get to the science behind the wisdom. As we create our thoughts, feelings follow suit within microseconds. Based on the quality of those thoughts and feelings, chemicals get released from parts of our brain and we have a complete experience. Positive or negative would depend on the quality of the thoughts produced.

Love, happiness, excitement, sorrow, and melancholy—all have a chemical attached. Over a period of time, we get used to the chemicals that float through our systems, irrespective of whether they are positive or negative. We build a comfort level with those chemicals and thought patterns and they soon become a habit.

As you might have seen, pessimistic people will find something negative in everything and everyone while spirited and optimistic ones will find something positive in every situation and every person. This is largely due to our comfort level with the chemicals that we have gotten used to over a period of time.

So, when we take out five minutes to write down some of the positive things about our day, we are training our brain to look at the positive side of life or should we say, to look at life itself positively. We are gently but steadily building a wonderful habit for ourselves that slowly transforms our perspective because we introduce and then get used to those wonderful chemicals of gratitude and contentment into our systems.

A Case in Point

Piya was a young girl when she lost her mother. Though her father provided for all the basic needs that she and her elder brother had, he couldn’t create a lively or happy atmosphere for them at home since he was mostly busy with work.

As a result, Piya grew up to be a quiet and bored woman who didn’t see anything in life to be happy or thrilled about. She looked at happy and energetic people enviously and wondered what they were so kicked about.

Though all the external aspects of her life like marriage, children and finances went normally, she never experienced real joy or happiness through any relationship or experience. Her brain and body had gotten used to those monotony-related chemicals that had stayed there for a large part of her growing up years.

When Piya took to writing the Gratitude journal, she felt wonderfully light; lighter than she ever remembered feeling earlier. She also felt pleasant and slowly became a much happier person than she ever had been before. Seeing their mother, her children also became more positive individuals than they had been earlier.

Conclusion

Our thoughts and feelings have a huge effect on the people around us. When we are happy, we spread happiness effortlessly. Gratitude makes us humble and we learn to value what we have instead of always thinking about what we don’t.