Gratitude Journal

What Is a Gratitude Journal Template?

A Gratitude Journal Template is a personalized psychological tool that can help individuals consciously practice gratitude in their everyday routine. The ideology behind a gratitude journal is to simply highlight the things in an individual’s life that they are grateful for, no matter how big or small they might be. 

Utilizing a Gratitude Journal can have various benefits for individuals:

• Having a deeper appreciation for positive experiences
• Enhanced positive coping skills
• Relationship strengthening 
• Improved mood
• Better sleep
• Stress reduction
• Increased positivity 

Depending on their overall goal, the individual will enter as many things that they are grateful for, even if they have had a bad day. A Gratitude Journal Template can be adapted regarding the frequency of the individual’s willingness to be thankful. Some people may fill the template in every night before bed, a handful of times a week, or even once a week. 

Individuals who are struggling with anxiety or depression, as well as those who wish to implement the critical role of gratitude in their lives, can use a Gratitude Journal Template to incorporate this skill into their lives. 

The great thing about these tools is that no matter how big or small the highlighted ‘good’ thing in their day is, they practice gratitude by simply acknowledging that it was there. It’s as simple as 5 minutes a day!

How Does It Work?

Carepatron is designed to make your life as a therapist much smoother. That’s why we have created a step-by-step instruction list for how to use the Gratitude Journal Template. 

Step One: Obtain the Gratitude Journal Template

Navigate the Carepatron website to find the Gratitude Journal Template PDF. Here, you’ll be able to either download the template for use online or for printing. 

Step Two: Complete the Gratitude Journal Template

You can work through this worksheet once you have given your client a copy of the Gratitude Journal Template. During this time, you may need to answer your client's questions and guide them through completion if you are completing it in session. Feel free to use our example below as a guide. 

Step Three: Discuss the Completed Template

Whether you have your client complete their Gratitude Journal Template during your session or as a homework task - you should discuss what they have identified. Discussing the answers can result in a better understanding on your behalf and set your client up for future directions and treatment plans. 

Step four: Check-in

We recommend checking in on how the Gratitude Journal works for your client. How often is at your discretion, but it is crucial to set check-ins to determine whether the gratitude journal is appropriate or needs alterations.  

When Would You Use This Template?

The Gratitude Journal Template can be implemented wherever you see fit for your client. Mental health practitioners can use the template for a variety of reasons, such as:

Daily Reflection

The Gratitude Journal Template can be used as a daily reflection tool for clients wanting to add more mindfulness into their day. Individuals can highlight specific areas of their lives on which they wish to reflect consciously, and this can help them be present in practice gratitude.  

Coping Skill

The Gratitude Journal Template may also be used as a coping skill. Clients with specific triggers can use what they have outlined in their Gratitude Journal to help as a coping strategy during difficult times. 

Development of Positive Habits

Continuous use of the Gratitude Journal Template may also work to promote positive and healthy habits in the client’s life. Clients who struggle to look on the bright side of a situation may be more inclined to search for the positives of an upsetting scenario if they continuously use the gratitude journal. 

Stress Management

Maintaining a Gratitude Journal can also act as a stress management tool. The journal can help individuals redirect their negative feelings or thoughts onto something they have outlined in their template. This can often shift feelings towards a more overall positive outlook. 

What Do The Results Mean?

The Free Gratitude Journal Template results will display areas of the individual’s life on which they wish to place conscious gratitude. Once the Gratitude Journal Template has been completed, the client can then work to implement it into their daily routine. Results from the template are likely to show:

Increased Mindfulness

Keeping a Gratitude Journal may increase mindfulness for the individual. This is because when an individual is consciously practicing gratitude, they are trying to identify aspects of their life for which they are grateful. This heightened awareness of the ‘good things’ can encourage individuals to find these things when situations might be wrong or they feel down in the moment. 

Positive Habits

Practicing gratitude with the Gratitude Journal Template can help individuals form positive habits and use their new gratitude skills at other times. Over time, gratitude can become a habit that helps build resilience. 

Enhanced Relationships

Noticing the things around them that they are grateful for can also enhance and strengthen relationships with friends and family. Gratitude journals may often include some nice stuff that someone has done for the individual and an excellent quality that made them feel heard during a hard time. 

Coping Skills

Research has also suggested that individuals who practice gratitude often report that they more often have positive coping skills such as support-seeking behaviors and active coping (Wood et al., 2010). 

Research & Evidence

As the psychological field has evolved to involve more patient-led interventions, research and focus on the benefits of gratitude journaling have increased.

A study conducted by Ducasse et al. (2019) focused on the management of suicidal inpatients. They found that using gratitude journaling as a positive psychology intervention benefited their participants. Overall, they found that participants supported its use more than a food diary, and the mean changes for both depression and anxiety were higher for the intervention group than the control group. They state that gratitude journaling is a straightforward intervention that could be further developed to be used for the treatment of suicidal individuals.

Another study by Fekete and Deichert (2022) focused on the benefits of gratitude journaling as a stress management intervention to decrease stress and adverse effects during the COVID-19 pandemic. Overall, their study concluded that gratitude journaling was adequate for the intervention group in reducing stress levels in study participants.

Gratitude journaling may have been effective as it helped individuals reframe their thinking about stressful situations, which swayed their overall thinking about other situations to being positive ​​(Fekete & Deichert, 2022). This shows that gratitude journaling could positively impact those facing stressful situations in their life as well as other mental health issues.

References

Ducasse, D., Dassa, D., Courtet, P., Brand‐Arpon, V., Walter, A., Guillaume, S., Jaussent, I., & Olié, E. (2019). Gratitude diary for the management of suicidal inpatients: A randomized controlled trial. Depression and Anxiety, 36(5), 400–411. https://doi.org/10.1002/da.22877

Fekete, E. M., & Deichert, N. T. (2022). A Brief Gratitude Writing Intervention Decreased Stress and Negative Affect During the COVID-19 Pandemic. Journal of Happiness Studies, 23(6). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-022-00505-6

Wood, A. M., Froh, J. J., & Geraghty, A. W. A. (2010). Gratitude and well-being: A review and theoretical integration. Clinical Psychology Review, 30(7), 890–905. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cpr.2010.03.005