I’ve been using the same DayDesigner planner for almost three years now. I’m a very organized person, and my planner has a monthly calendar, as well as daily calendars with to-do lists on every page. I love it, and it keeps me organized. But one of the features I hadn’t utilized much up until recently was the gratitude section. Everyday has its own page in the planner, complete with a little section for gratitude.
Everything I’ve ever read online has said that gratitude is a very important factor in being mentally healthy and happy. So, one of the things I started doing at the beginning of this year in my fresh planner was filling in something I was grateful for every day.
I liked the practice, and I found that at first, it could be hard to find something to be grateful for. But as my life picked up some speed as I returned to DePauw’s campus for swim practices and my winter term class, I began forgetting to fill in the gratitude boxes. So, every couple of days, I would go back and try to think of something on that given day that I was thankful for. I found this to be easier, and that there were often lots of things I wanted to write down in the gratitude box, and I didn’t have enough room.
The winter term class I took this year was the Skills of Happiness class taught by Doug Smith. Out of the many things I gained from this class, gratitude was (once again) a skill that was stressed. One of the things Professor Smith suggested we do was keep a gratitude journal.
I liked the practice of daily gratitude in my planner (okay, maybe not-so-daily gratitude) so much that I decided to start a gratitude journal.
I started by writing the date at the top of a page, and then simply writing things I was grateful for. The first thing was the hardest, usually, but as soon as I got going, I could just keep writing things I was grateful for. They could be big things, such as being grateful that my parents were getting on a plane to come visit me for a weekend and watch a swim meet of mine. They could be small things too, such as finding something I had misplaced, or having a productive morning. And the same people kept reappearing: my closest friends, my boyfriend and my family.
It made me feel happier— all the things I’d read online were true. But I had to keep doing it. And the more time I spent being grateful, the happier I felt.
This practice is incredibly beneficial. For college students who are on the go, a word doc on your computer might be a better medium than a physical journal you have to carry around. It could even work as just a note on your phone. I’ve gotten so much out of this, and I’d highly recommend it to anyone who wants to be happier or mentally healthier. Just a few minutes a day can have such a large impact.