It’s funny that when you focus on a thing, you begin to see it everywhere. So it is with journaling, the focus of so many of our blog posts about the power of unfiltered writing.
To demonstrate the point, I would like to share a snippet from Kenya Foy’s article in Huff Post entitled How to Practice Gratitude When Everything Sucks (a great title, btw).
In the section of the article about quantifying gratitude, Ms. Foy says:
Practicing gratitude requires placing intentional focus on the positive, which can be difficult because you’re working against your brain’s natural inclination to reflect on the worst outcomes. Negative incidents tend to have a greater impact on the human brain, an occurrence psychologists refer to as negativity bias.
This is where physically quantifying your gratitude may be useful. Documenting your positive experiences by journaling, vlogging, or using a jar to visually see all of the positives can interrupt your brain by putting an image right in front of you. You’re also able to revisit the notes on the days when you truly can’t think of something in your life that makes you grateful.
KENYA FOY
So here we see another example of how the words you write in the privacy of your journal can impact your well-being.
Maybe it’s as simple as taking a moment to jot down the words, “I am grateful for another day of life.” Or maybe you will turn the practice of gratefulness into a daily reflection on the meaning of life.
Maybe your joy that your dog didn’t do his business on the floor last night will catapult you into writing something nice about your neighbor.
Who knows how gratitude will shape you?
But it’s worth a try, isn’t it?
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