Keeping a journal is one of the things that can maximize your happiness every day. It can serve as a place to vent, to analyze, and also, to list the things that fill you with gratitude. Bullet journaling in particular is a wonderfully visual way of keeping yourself on-task, motivated, and mindful of your journey.
I love the idea of keeping a daily gratitude list because it is a positive way to reflect and end the day, and it also makes you more aware, during the day of the many lovely things that happen to you.
So here are some approaches to gratitude lists to inspire you!
Kara @ Bohoberry’s bullet journal gratitude page
Photo credit: Bohoberry
We’ll start with Kara at Bohoberry. This is a super-simple set-up. Just one line per item, three items per day. No need to overthink it. And at the end of the month, you can look back and see all of the good things that have happened, all in one place.
Kara’s had this to say about her change in perspective after starting her gratitude list:
At first, I had a hard time coming up with 3 items to write down each day. You see, I wasn’t in a gratitude mindset when I first started.
Something happened about a couple of weeks in though… My perspective shifted.
Instead of staring at my 3 blank lines not knowing what to write, I somehow just knew what to write. You see, by logging my gratitude each day, I began looking for more things to be grateful for. I woke up wondering what things life would put in my path that day that I’d be able to include in my gratitude log that night…
Keeping a log of all the things you are grateful for slowly conditions your mind to believe (and rightfully so) that you actually have a LOT to be grateful for. It takes all of those negative thoughts like “I don’t have enough _____ (you fill in the blank: time, money, friends, talent, fun) and turns them into positives.
What an amazing way to approach life!
Kim @ Tiny Ray of Sunshine’s bullet journal gratitude page
Photo credit: Tine Ray of Sunshine
Kim started with a 3-item gratitude log. In her words,
All of the bouts of depression and anxiety I used to get have vastly diminished since I created this simple gratitude log months ago. My mood is a lot more stabilized with this simple, but powerful, habit of updating and thinking about what I’m grateful for. I set it up right after the month log and update it on a nightly basis as a way to reflect on the good that happened.
Eventually, she modified it to the style shown above, which, she says
I wanted it to be a little more organic and instead of adding bullets for x amount of things to be grateful for each day, the idea was to add to it whenever I remembered to with a big number corresponding to the day and as many things as I wanted to jot down that I was grateful for. I like how it turned out. In previous months I’d miss some days and would agonize to remember what I was grateful for on previous days…This way it is more free-form, yet still all in one place to read all the good things that I am grateful for 🙂
Stacie @ Parker and Me’s bullet journal gratitude page
Photo credit: Parker and Me
Stacie at Parker and Me experimented with a adding a gratitude page to her bullet journal, but ultimately changed tactics and combined it with a different “H” is for “Happy” list she was keeping for her blog. Either way, both approaches are a great way to stay positive and optimistic about life.
Instagram bullet journal gratitude inspiration
Here are some more gratitude lists to inspire you from Instagram 🙂
Give it a try!
Whether you already keep a bullet journal and add this spread, or you keep this as a list on a separate piece of paper or google doc, try the daily practice of recording things to be grateful for and it will change your outlook on life!