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how a gratitude journal works as an
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anti-depressant Well let's start out
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with the gratitude journal itself What
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does a gratitude journal do every single
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day It's if you choose to write in every
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day which makes perfect sense you write
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down everything you're grateful for your
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blessings and abundance all the good
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things that are happening in your life
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and you frame everything around all the
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blessings and abundance that you have
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and the and and the things that are
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really high on your list the positives
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if you will not the negatives And I
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think as an example here's my gratitude
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journal that gratitude guy's daily
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gratitude journal So it starts out
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there's actually a template that you
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have that you kind of fill out if you
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will Gratitude today it says up here And
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then it says the day the date and your
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daily number which I'll get to in just a
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second Then there's two lines for the
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current events and special occasions
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that you have So you don't have to have
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a separate diary for things that are
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going on in your life I am grateful for
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It prompts you for four five six lines
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of things you're grateful for And then
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two lines down here for the highlight of
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your day What are the things that have
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happened to you that are really good
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that you want to focus on i typically
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write in the morning So that means I
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look at what happened to me yesterday
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Then there's a little quote at the
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bottom kind of a gratitude quote a
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different one for every day And then on
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the right hand side is gratitude
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tomorrow And that's what your gratitude
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intentions are for the day after
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tomorrow or tomorrow or next week or
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what have you in the future You write as
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if you're already having it happen I am
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grateful for the fantastic trip that we
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took to Hawaii and so on and so forth It
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programs your brain It's in your
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prefrontal cortex as your subconscious
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mind and it cannot distinguish between
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what it thinks has happened and what has
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actually happened So you're kind of
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programming it So as an example every
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day I write in the mornings part of a
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power hour I get up I make my bed Get
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the dopamine hit Go in and drink the
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first of my four quarts of water Come
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back Take my shower shave get ready
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stretch put on the rest of my clothes
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meditate for 10 minutes write in the
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gratitude journal It's about five or six
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minutes And then put everything away get
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the latte and then turn on the devices
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In this case my laptop Could be your
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cell phone your tablet what have you So
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how does the anti-depressant part figure
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into it so typically I'm in a pretty
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good mood after I've written in my
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gratitude journal I am grateful for I
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start out with my health my sons my
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friends my family the condo I live in
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the view that I get to enjoy every day
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All the things I can think about that
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are the blessings and abundance I have
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and really focus on that and it just
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naturally puts your mind in a better
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state and naturally hope helping you
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focus on you know it's the same thing
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about a positive attitude Two people
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enter a hospital with the same disease
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The positive attitude lives the negative
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attitude dies So where does the
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anti-depressant part come in as recently
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as two weeks ago I had a day I was just
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feeling terrible All of a sudden it went
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downhill and I was so depressed and I
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was just like "What in the world is
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right?" Well one of the first things I
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did is I grabbed the gratitude journal
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and I reread what I wrote that morning
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And it kind of boosted me back up and
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got me thinking that I've been going
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down the wrong path And all of a sudden
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about not having success here or there
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or something I was frustrated I didn't
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have I went back and it reshaped those
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things in my mind My health physically
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mentally emotionally spiritually how
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fortunate I am for those four things in
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terms of my overall health my two sons
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that are doing extremely well Those of
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you who are their parents you know they
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say that if your kids are doing well
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you're typically doing pretty well So as
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I go through it and the fact I have a
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warm bed a hot shower food in the
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refrigerator all those kind of things
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and it just reinforces that and it got
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me less depressed and that's why I think
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it's kind of like the ultimate
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anti-depressant And if you have to go
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look at it again before you go to bed or
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review it or what have you that's fine
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too But what happens is we go down this
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path and then we get into a rabbit hole
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and we start going down the negative
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path and woe is me This isn't working
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That's not working I'm not successful
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enough I don't have enough money I don't
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have enough of this or that or whatever
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And the gratitude journal brings you
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back to focus on your blessings and
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abundance And ultimately the thing that
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been said for years it's seeing the
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glass half full versus half empty If you
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see it half full everything in your life
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works better Just like self-esteem If
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you have good self-esteem good
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confidence you have a great relationship
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with yourself everything in your life
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works better And the gratitude journal
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will help you to reframe and get it back
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on track when it gets off track or gets
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derailed and get you back thinking about
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all those blessings and abundance It
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works every single time And frankly and
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the one or two times it doesn't you got
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one goal Get to tomorrow It'll probably
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be better So sometimes when you've tried
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everything it it just you know what it's
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just not going to be the best day Then
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get to tomorrow But I'd say nine out of
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10 times it's worked for me to get me
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back on track We all suffer Life is a
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huge roller coaster ride Up and down up
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and down twists and turns and so forth
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Everybody likes it when you're up Nobody
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likes it when you're down When you're up
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it's fun When you're down it's not But
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this can help get you back to on a level
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playing field or back up where you want
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to be So try the gratitude journal It is
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anti-depressant I'm that gratitude guy
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Remember be grateful and never quit
