A Different Way to Try Gratitude Journaling

Unless you’ve been living under a rock… if you’ve been hanging around the journaling space for a few months, you’ve likely heard of gratitude journaling by now.

People rave about it. Life coaches recommend it. And it’s often touted as a bit of a “cure all” in the self-help space.

Leaving you wondering “shouldn’t I be practicing gratitude journaling already?”.

Well, here at Yop & Tom, we’ve got our own opinions on the gratitude journaling practice. And they might be a little unexpected.

Spoiler alert: gratitude journaling might not be quite as magical as everyone says it is.

What is gratitude journaling?

Gratitude journaling is the practice of writing down what you’re grateful for each day. The idea is that this type of journaling enables you to train your mind to seek out more of the good, highlighting the positive things from your day-to-day life that you might otherwise miss.

The problem with gratitude journaling

Whilst the premise of gratitude journaling sounds great (who doesn’t want more joy in their lives?!), the reality can be a little different.

Gratitude journaling can be associated with toxic positivity, or a pressure to only look at the positive in your life (ignoring any negatives). This has been linked with feelings of shame, increased stress, and lower wellbeing as you start to suppress important emotions.

When you’re finding things tough, when your mental health is struggling, you can’t just look for the good and ignore the rest. Life doesn’t work like that.

How grateful are you?

And that’s not healthy. Here’s what you can do instead, with a slightly different approach to gratitude journaling.

A different way to try gratitude journaling

Your gratitude journaling equipment

1. A joyful lined journal - Our Contrast collection is perfect for this!

2. The perfect pen - it needs to be comfy to hold and easy to pick up at the end of a long day.

3. A daily reminder - try setting a reminder on your phone to prompt five minutes of gratitude journaling at the end of each day.

How to start gratitude journaling, Yop & Tom style

10 gratitude journaling prompts for you to try

So there you have it. A slightly different way to give gratitude journaling a try.

You can seek the gratitude and find your joy. But don’t ignore the tricky times. Instead, acknowledge them and use them as opportunities to learn, grow and change.

Gratitude isn’t about only focusing on the good. It’s about exploring how you can bring more good into your life.

Add a burst of joy

DISCOVER THE CONTRAST COLLECTION