I started a gratitude journal and after three weeks felt noticeably different.

If I hadn’t got a gift of a gratitude journal for Christmas I probably wouldn’t have started - new year new me and all that.

I had no big plan but thought I may as well take up something productive after the new year that wouldn't leave me with immense pressure to follow through. Journaling is something easy and relaxing that only takes a few minutes out of your day. Plus it is a good way to wind down at the end of the night before bed.

In the past, like a lot of other people I have tried some well publicised wellness hacks from manifesting to meditation with varying results. Let me start off by saying there is no need to go mad and spend crazy money on the newest and fanciest wellness journal. I used a good old fashioned weekly/monthly diary and it worked just fine. As long as you have space to write a few lines into each day, you're laughing.

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I have even tried gratitude journaling in the past, on an on-off basis and if I am to be honest it was more the latter than the former.

What was different this time was that the journal had a space for the dates so it became instantly obvious if I missed a day. I found that this made a difference and even motivated me to get out of bed at night if I hadn’t filed in the section on the highlights of my day.

Who knows maybe I was more ready to commit this time round too - committing is a definite must if you want to make a go of it. I started off by scanning desperately for big wins to celebrate and in the early days of January these are few and far between!

Then after a week or so I started realising that things I enjoyed most in my life were the simple things like meeting up with friends, to the ‘grand stretch’ in the evenings and even getting my 10k steps done.

I started a gratitude journal and after three weeks felt a huge shift in mood and attitude
I started a gratitude journal and after three weeks felt a huge shift in mood and attitude

When I realised this, filling out the section on the three things to be grateful for became easier and easier. There was another upside to this, instead of looking forward to what is going to happen next month or next summer I started to enjoy the little wins that I was journaling, which in turn made me feel happier.

Another benefit is that I am aware that I am enjoying something when it is going on, it’s like a little notification pops up in my brain saying you can use this for one of your gratitudes. We are always told to live in the now and these reminders tend to pull me into the present.

Like everybody these days my life is a rush between working and college, living between Dublin and Cork, getting to the gym, getting my steps in, meeting friends and family. It’s all go. The gratitude journal forces me to switch off, to take a breath and focus on the good things.

First thing in the morning I have to fill it in and last thing at night and that means I neither get up in the morning without having to think and focus a little on the day ahead nor go to sleep without reflecting. It’s nothing major, a couple of minutes to open and close the day - that’s all it takes. It’s a great way to check in with yourself, set out your intentions and reflect.

If you read up on the benefits of journaling you’ll be told that it improves sleep, increases your resistance to stress, makes you feel happier, calmer and more positive. There are articles claiming that journaling reduces aches and pains and improves your immunity.

Whatever about all of that, one thing is for sure after three weeks, I feel happier and more positive and you can’t argue with that.

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