Any magic moments? (Besides text, I’d put here links to private (unlisted) youtube videos of our most magical moments. So I experimented and found what works for me. Because the joys and benefits of journaling outweigh the necessity of writing on paper or journaling in the morning. Something – even a few lines in your note app on the subway – is far better than nothing. Gratitude journaling can be life-changing when it’s used in difficult situations or downright irritating relationships. Ask yourself, despite all the bad, what can you learn from a difficult day? What qualities do you admire in your partner – even if you don’t want to be around them right now? 6. Try a new environment

Better Every Day Journal: A 365 Day Journal For Gratitude

Keep It Private – Just like when you were a teenager and wanted to hide your latest crush from your big brother… The main thing to remember about your journal is that it should be kept private. The only exception is if you want to share thoughts with a therapist, counselor, or coach. Or if you want to turn it into a book or course, to help someone else overcome whatever you overcame. But how do we achieve those one-percent improvements? How do we push ourselves every day to advance in those tiny fractions?

Hubbs, D. L., & Brand, C. F. (2005). The paper mirror: Understanding reflective journaling. Journal of Experiential Education , 28 (1), 60-71. Experiment with writing on paper, on a laptop or on your smartphone and find whatever works best for you. 2. You don’t have to write first thing in the morning For example, if the prompt is, ‘what aspects of your life could you slow down?’ Think about the parts of your life that you are not appreciating. One leader in this research field has been James Pennebaker. His primary findings are that writing about emotional experiences tends to result in improvements in mental and physical health. More specifically, these benefits can come from 15-30 minutes of daily journaling for 3-5 days (Pennebaker, 1997). That's it. That means that daily journaling for just one week can result in benefits. Sitting out on the terrace at a cafe gives me something to write about and lets me forget the daily grind of my desk and laptop. A different setting gets my senses going and inspires thoughts.

Better Every Day Journal: 365 Prompts and Daily Affirmations Better Every Day Journal: 365 Prompts and Daily Affirmations

In a gratitude journal, we aim to cultivate appreciative feelings (Kaczmarek et al., 2015). So we might write about experiences we're grateful for, create gratitude lists, or even paste in pictures of things to create a sort of gratitude collage. Reflective journaling is thought to aid experiential learning—or learning from our real-life experiences. You might start by first reflecting on the details of an experience. Then, aim to interpret the event to try to understand what happened and find meaning or value in it (Hubbs & Brand, 2005). Do It First Thing in the Morning – Don’t procrastinate about keeping your journal. Honestly, 5 minutes is all you need and you’ll start your day off on a productive and passionate note:) Or you could…In addition to daily journaling questions, you might find it easier to start writing with some prompts—or jumping-off points to get your writing going. Here are some daily journaling prompts to help get your mind churning. Begin with Today – No excuses! Start right now and write about your day today. That’s the easiest thing to do. What of significance happened today? How did you feel about it? What would you do differently? What would you do the same?