A Gratitude Journal Experiment

Every once in a while, I stumble upon an activity or habit that feels so natural and rewarding to do that I wonder how it took so long to start. Examples from my own life include drawing, daily walks, and keeping a journal. Each of these activities has proven challenging in good ways, and personally very fulfilling.

More recently, I came across this wikipedia entry on "gratitude journals," and decided to try keeping one for a few weeks and see what happened. I was very surprised by the result, though given the research done on this particular exercise, perhaps I shouldn't have been. There's a surprising amount of research of the subject of these journals, and the evidence seems fairly robust regarding its utility:

Empirical research suggests that keeping a gratitude journal has a positive effect on one's psychological, physical, and emotional well being. Regularly recording 3-10 things that one is grateful for can improve and strengthen one's physical and psychological health. 

Gratitude journals can also be beneficial as an addition to psychotherapy or clinical treatment to decrease symptoms of depression, increase happiness, and increase overall well being.

So for my experiment, once a week (usually Friday), I would take a moment to brainstorm at least three things for which I had lately been grateful. Typically I'd list around five or six, but my goal each time was at least three.  "Family," "friends," and "health," often came to mind, but so too did less common ones like "free-time," and "the ozone-layer." It's funny what you think about, large and small, when the subject of gratitude is considered. And it's interesting how an exercise that takes less than two minutes a week to do seemed to improve my mood so markedly, even long after it was performed.

The experiment has gone on for two months now, and throughout I have felt mildly more relaxed than usual, and seemed to experience both an immediate and lasting reduction in stress after performing the gratitude exercise. My experiment can't prove causality in these regards, but I think it does point to the positive effect that expressing gratitude, even just to oneself, can have in one's life. As importantly, perhaps, I like the kind of person I am when gratitude is near to the fore of my thoughts; both in how I feel, and how I interact with others. In this respect, I think the experiment proved worthwhile, and I think I will continue keeping a gratitude journal for the foreseeable future.