Are you truly grateful for everything you have in your life or do you only
notice the good once it's gone? Today we're going to talk about how to start a
gratitude journal. Keep watching because I not only show you how to do it
step-by-step but you'll actually write your first
five entries with me. Hello my name is Clare and welcome to Generation Calm
where you can learn to reduce your stress and anxiety naturally in your own
time so that your mind and body feel great. The attitude of gratitude changed
my life and you can look at the other video that I just made in this series
about that. So gratitude is basically just stopping
every now and again and appreciating what you have. The research, mainly by
Professor Robert Emmons, shows that a higher level of gratitude is related to
better sleep, improved immune function, reduced stress, reduced blood pressure and
an increase in how much you exercise and a decrease in your levels of pain.
Research shows if you show gratitude while you're going through a terrible
situation it can actually improve your psychological well-being in the long run.
So let's do this together today. Gather a pen and paper and join me. Start with
today's date. This is important so that when you look back over the diary you
can remember what was going on for you. Now let's go for five things to be
grateful for. Number one let's start simple with something you like about
your home. Start with the words I am so grateful for ...
and then explain why. Number two how about a bodily function or a body part
that you take for granted? For example I'm truly grateful for my
eyesight because I can read lots of books. Number three let's name an
essential living requirement you have.
I'm grateful for my hot water system so I can take long showers.
Number four think about a relationship you are grateful for. And finally number
five how about expressing gratitude for a material thing you have access to or a
service not everybody has. For example I'm truly grateful for the public
library system. You can make this a habit now by tagging it on to something you
already do. For example I already have a morning routine and so I was able to tag
on doing a gratitude journal at the beginning of my morning routine and that
helped to make it a habit. Decide how many things you want to be grateful for.
You can easily do between three and ten and make it manageable. Remember to put
your thoughts down on paper. If you're just thinking it in your head it's not
going to have the same impact . If you write it on paper you're not only
writing it down you can read through it at a later date but you're also
explaining why you're grateful for something. Don't worry about what you
write no one's gonna be reading this, no one you know. Write it as if nobody's
going to read it so that you don't have to worry about oh really I should write
that I'm grateful for and whatever it might be there's no should's here just
feel the gratitude. And finally start with a whole variety
of things that you're grateful for you'll be surprised at how many that are
out there that we completely take for granted. So if you enjoyed this video
help me out with a share, a like or a subscribe. And I hope you get started
with your gratitude journal. I hope you start it today and I'll speak to you
again soon.