DJC#002 – Changes in Attitude, Changes in Gratitude: Journaling for Yourself

Don’t Forget About You

While journaling to your child(ren) is where the idea for the Dad Journal Club originated, journaling for yourself is also an important component of the equation. Their journal is for you to share memories, your feelings, lessons learned and that ever elusive Dad wisdom. Your journal is to write down your thoughts, feelings, ideas, goals, achievements and most importantly…gratitude.

It seems too simple to think that just being grateful can have such a major impact on your life. It can’t be that simple, can it? So all we have to do is say, “I’m grateful,” and we’ll be magically transported to the Grateful Zone? Well, not exactly. This kind of thing takes practice and consistency, but it is definitely not hard to do and only takes a couple minutes out of your busy Dad day.

What Is This Gratitude Thing?

The Cambridge Dictionary defines gratitude as: “a strong feeling of appreciation to someone or something for what the person has done to help you.” It’s funny how something so simple as feeling this gratitude thing can really help your mood, your mental health and your physical health.

In an article published by Harvard Health, it states how gratitude is directly related to our happiness. “In positive psychology research, gratitude is strongly and consistently associated with greater happiness. Gratitude helps people feel more positive emotions, relish good experiences, improve their health, deal with adversity, and build strong relationships.”

So why wouldn’t you want to practice gratitude? Well I’m sure that it has nothing to do with whether you want to or not, but more to do with be a busy Dad and forgetting to do so. While you can practice gratitude by saying what you’re grateful in your mind or aloud, the best way is to write what you’re grateful for down.

Three Things

Get yourself your own journal. Choose one that reflects your personality – a rich mahogany brown leather, a bright electric-colored one or Star Wars-related – to give you the extra incentive to pick it up daily. Then open it up and write three things you are grateful for. Now these three things should be personal to you and not generic. We’re not going for the I’m grateful for the blue sky and churros type of gratitude. Instead, pick something you are truly grateful for and why you are grateful. Go deep with your thoughts and feelings on this, but you don’t have to write a book.

The best time to do this is first thing to start your day, or as you’re wrapping up your day before bed. Experiment and find out what works best for you. I’m usually an AM journaler, but there are times when I end up writing at night. I find that starting my day with gratitude leads to a more positive start to my day…usually right before starting work.

Make It A Habit

So after encouraging you to journal every day and write down three things you’re grateful for, I have a confession. As much as I try, I don’t journal every single day. There are times where I go weeks journaling every day, and then there are times when I miss a few days in a row. This will inevitably happen and the important thing is to have some self-compassion and not be hard on yourself. You’re trying your best!

Once you’ve gotten into your groove and established practicing gratitude for a while, missing a couple days here and there is not as big of deal as it is when you’re starting to implement this into your life. As with building any new habit, to track the days your journal. Don’t break the streak, and if you do, don’t go back-to-back days without journaling. The best way to do this is to track it.

After you’ve built the journal muscle, then reflect back since you’ve started and see how you feel. Has something changed? What is it? And you guessed it…write that down too.

What Are You Waiting For?

The lesson here is simple: if you want to improve yourself, practice gratitude. If you want to be a better Dad, practice gratitude. If you want to be a better partner, practice gratitude (yes, it can even help improve relationships!). And the best way to practice gratitude is to journal.

Now go get that journal so you can get started…and don’t forget to find the coolest journal out there!