Keeping a Gratitude Journal

I didn’t start this year out with the best of spirits. I mean, sure, my book got published in December, but that was one good thing in a sea of burning grease. This was not helping my depression, that just seems to be getting worse every year.

I’m quite accustomed to hearing ‘helpful suggestions’ regarding depression and hard times. One that I hear over and over is to keep a gratitude log. I’ve tried for a while, devoting a page in my bullet journal to it. But it became something that I consistently forgot to do. It was something else for me to feel guilty about. Something else that I was failing at.

I finally found the solution and started trying the gratitude log a different way. I have an Erin Condron planner, and along the left-hand side of each week, there’s a place for notes that I do nothing with. I used to keep my to-do list there, but it needed more room. So for months, it was just blank space. Sometimes I’d write future notes there, but mostly it was just wasted space.

Then I started keeping my gratitude log there. I remember to do it, every morning. And I’ll tell you, it’s really helping. If I start my day, filled with anger and resentment from the day before, or dreading that today will be as bad as yesterday, it puts a dark cloud over my morning.

Instead, I start my day with this exercise. I look at my planner and try to think of two good things that happened the day before. I can usually think of at least two good things. Most of the time I can think of more.

And, as it turns out, it really does help brighten my day a little bit. Give it a shot, if you can. Move your gratitude log into your planner so that you can see it every morning. Do it for a month, and see how you feel.

Just a thought.

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