Are you looking for a way to appreciate life more? A gratitude journal may be the answer for you! This blog post will provide 39 prompts to help get you started. A gratitude journal is a great way to express thanks for the good things in your life and reflect on the challenges you have faced. It can also help improve your mental health and well-being. If you are ready to start living a more grateful life, keep reading for our favorite gratitude journal prompts!
Benefits of Gratitude Journaling
Gratitude journaling is one of the most effective ways to improve your emotional well-being, and gratitude journaling is one of the best types of journaling you can do.
It’s easy to see why: when you write down what you’re grateful for, you just feel happier. You reinforce your positive attitude and remind yourself that there’s always something good in your life, even when everything seems wrong.
And it’s not just the act of writing down your daily gratitude journal prompts that makes a difference. Studies have shown that people who keep a daily gratitude journal are happier, more optimistic, and more energetic than people who don’t keep journals at all.
So if you’re feeling stuck, sad, or unmotivated – or if you’re just looking for a way to get a better handle on your life – try keeping a gratitude journal for a few weeks and see how it makes you feel!
39 Gratitude Journal Prompts
Writing a gratitude journal is easy – you just need to ask yourself the right questions. Here are 39 gratitude journal prompts you can write about in your daily routine:
- What you’re grateful for.
- The best thing that happened today.
- Whose company do you enjoy the most and why?
- Your favorite time of year and why.
- What positive thing you learned today, even if it’s a small thing?
- Who taught you something new today, and how useful was it to you?
- What do you love about your home/city/state/country or favorite place?
- What’s something that makes you feel special or unique, even if it’s just a little thing?
- Your favorite memory or your favorite part of your favorite holiday.
- The best advice you gave to someone you cared about.
- What would you say to yourself if you started over today and had no expectations for your life (what would be different)?
- The amazing, unique life and experiences you’ve had.
- Your favorite hobby and why.
- A situation in which someone helped you and how it made you feel.
- A time when you had to overcome an obstacle, and it felt like there was no way out. Think about how you did it. This is my favorite journal prompt because it helps me see the positive aspects of life’s challenges.
- The knowledge you gained that you can teach others.
- When someone stood up for you when no one else would.
- Something that makes you happy, even if it’s just one thing today.
- How you showed love and kindness to others and the positive energy you got back from it.
- The things that make you smile or laugh, then share them with someone else!
- Those who’ve taught you to love and be caring
- The incredible people in your life who’ve helped you grow and become the person you’re today.
- Your health allows you to do many things you love with your family and friends.
- Your job allows you to help others by providing them with quality products or services that they need and want and allows you to earn a salary that you can use to do the things you love.
- The freedom you enjoy as a citizen, even if that means you have certain responsibilities and rights that others in the world don’t (e.g., the right to vote, freedom to choose your daily routine, the time to read this article on gratitude journaling prompts).
- Your education has helped you achieve much more than would have been possible otherwise!
- Your challenges, because they’ve made you stronger and more resilient.
- List 3 things you like most in your daily life (e.g., a simple pleasure like drinking coffee, making your gratitude journal entry, calling your best friend, etc.).
- Your abilities, because no one can take them away from you.
- Your personality traits because they make you special and unique, and no one can take them away from you!
- The positive impact you made on yourself or others today (e.g., self-care, helping a family member, a kind comment on social media, etc.).
- Write about an experience that made you feel happy and fulfilled.
- Write about someone who has positively influenced your life.
- Write about nature and how it makes you feel grateful.
- Think of 5 things you are grateful for on Thanksgiving day!
- Reflect on the things you are grateful for from the past year.
- Write a letter to someone who has positively influenced your life and thank them for their impact on your life.
- Make a list of things you are grateful for every week, month, or quarter!
- Include photos in your gratitude journal to help visually capture what you are grateful for!
You don’t have to choose all of the above writing prompts at once for your gratitude exercise. Choose one gratitude prompt first (e.g., your favorite thing) and practice gratitude for the first one to see how it goes before trying to use all the gratitude writing prompts.
To have a positive impact, your daily gratitude practice should be a choice, not a must.
The Best Time to Write Your Gratitude Journal
Is it better to write your gratitude journal in the morning or the evening?
It depends on your schedule and preferences. However, certain times are better than others.
If you’re someone who gets up early, writing a gratitude journal in the morning is a good idea because it helps you set the tone for your day. It’s also good to start your morning with a positive attitude.
Another option is to do it before you go to bed. It’s a great way to end your day with a positive attitude and gratitude toward yourself and the world around you. You may even find that you sleep better when you write down some things you’re grateful for at night!
Express Your Gratitude
Expressing gratitude to others is just as important as writing in your gratitude journal, but it’s also much harder to implement. You can’t just write in your journal and hope that people will come to your house, see what you’ve written about them, and then feel grateful – you’ve sought out the people you want to thank.
And sometimes that’s not so easy! Maybe they don’t live nearby, or it’s hard to get in touch with them. But if you want to show someone that you appreciate him/her, why not try the following?
- Send a message thanking him or her for something he or she’s done for you. It doesn’t have to be a big deal – just something small. Maybe he or she gave you some advice that helped or did something nice for one of your pets. Whatever it was, take a minute (or five) to thank them by email!
- Call them and thank them in person (or over Skype). Face-to-face contact always means more than an email or text message.
How to Express Your Gratitude in Writing
Showing gratitude is an important part of any relationship. It can help smooth over disagreements and help you remember what’s important in life – the little things.
If you want to express your gratitude in writing, you can use a card or letter. You can also write an email or text message. Here are some tips for both options:
- Cards: Cards are good for showing your appreciation when you want to keep something material – for example, when someone gives you a gift that means something special to him or her, like a piece of art or a memento from a trip. Cards are also good when you want someone’s attention but don’t have time for a full conversation.
- Letters: letters are great for expressing your gratitude if you want to take the time to express your thoughts clearly and eloquently. A letter shows that you’ve put thought into your words, which can help convey what the person has done means to you!
- Emails/Text Messages: Emails and text messages are great options when you want to show your gratitude but don’t have time for a full conversation or letter.
10 Examples of Gratitude When Someone Does Something Nice for You
- Say thank you.
- Express your gratitude in writing, such as a thank-you note or email.
- Give the person something they can use, such as a gift card or flowers.
- Show gratitude by doing something nice for him or her – a favor, a tip, or just some time and attention.
- Compliment the person on his or her good deed (if appropriate).
- Do something nice for someone else in the future to show that you’re grateful for that person’s kindness!
- When appropriate and possible, repay what was done for you (e.g., repay an expensive gift with another gift).
- Be sincerely grateful for what’s been done for you – don’t just say “thank you” and move on, but be genuinely grateful for it!
- Invite them to a nice restaurant or cook them their favorite meal.
- Ensure the person knows how much their kindness meant to you by thanking them several times (not just once!).
How to Respond to Someone Who Shows Their Gratitude to You
There are many ways to respond to someone who shows you their gratitude.
You can respond by saying thank you. This is a good way to respond when someone compliments or thanks you for something he or she appreciates.
You can also say it was nothing. This is also a good way to respond when someone thanks you for something. By doing this, you’re showing the person that they don’t make a big deal out of what you did for them, and that’s nice because it means they don’t see your actions as something special.
You could also tell them their gratitude improved your day, which it did! When someone thanks you for something and says that phrase, it shows they appreciate what you did for them more than if they’d asked someone else to do it.
Causes for Lack of Gratitude
There are several reasons why people don’t feel gratitude. One of the main reasons is that they were never taught how to be grateful. Not everyone has the same opportunities and experiences in life, so it’s essential to teach children to be grateful for what they’ve. It can also be difficult for people who’ve experienced hardship or tragedy to feel gratitude. Some people also feel that their lives are perfect and that there’s nothing to be grateful for, but that’s not true – everyone has things to be happy about.
- Lack of gratitude can be caused by:
- Lack of knowledge.
- Lack of appreciation.
- Lack of understanding.
- Lack of motivation or desire to be grateful leads to feeling ungrateful or undeserving of thanks.
- Unwillingness to accept the gift given or feeling unworthy and undeserving because you feel somehow responsible for your unhappiness (and you don’t want to take credit for it).
- Thinking that it doesn’t matter or that it doesn’t matter what others think about you (or your life), there’s no reason to make an effort to make them happy or satisfied because they can never change anything anyway.
As You Get Older, It’s Easy to Forget the Little Things That Make Life Worth Living
You start thinking about your career, your family, your finances, and all the big things that are important to you. But the little things are so important too! They’re what make our lives rich and full of meaning. When was the last time you stopped and thought about what you’re grateful for?
We can all agree that life isn’t always easy, and practicing gratitude in your daily life can be challenging. Sometimes we feel overwhelmed by responsibilities or stressed by our job (or lack thereof). But when we take a step back and look at our lives from a different perspective, we realize that there’s so much more to life than just work – we’ve friends, family members who love us, pets who bring us joy every day…
Whether you’re young or old, gratitude is always something worth thinking about.