Keeping a gratitude journal is an excellent way to rewire your brain to focus on all the blessings that come into your life every day. These gratitude journal prompts will help get you started filling up a whole book’s worth of patches of light and pieces of joy that you may take for granted.
When I started keeping a gratitude journal, I noticed two things: first, that I encounter many, many things on a daily basis for which I am thankful.
Everything from a warm and dry place to live, indoor plumbing and antibiotics, to a warm cup of coffee before the sun rises, fuzzy alpaca socks to wear in cold weather, and prayer time spent with my kids.
When we don’t keep track of the good things in our lives, it becomes easy to overlook them, and easy to focus on the negative.
The second thing that I noticed after keeping a gratitude journal for some time was that I started to feel better. I started to worry less about things that I could be worrying about (like getting the kids to school on time, and having a clean house before friends come over, and saving money for retirement) and I started to care less about the things that I didn’t have (like a clean house, or a new deck, or money for a tropical vacation).
The fact is that all of us encounter countless blessings every single day, and most of them we take for granted.
Starting a gratitude journal will help to bring the bright patches of light in your life to the forefront, and it will help to focus on the gifts that God has so richly provided you (1 Timothy 6:17).
Below you’ll find 40 gratitude journal prompts to help you focus on all the good in your life.
For each prompt, you will probably be able to list at least a few things, if not pages full of them.
40 Gratitude Journal Prompts
- friends
- family members
- favourite hobbies
- favourite foods
- an aspect of technology that especially benefits you
- modern medicine (like antibiotics and treatments for diseases that used to kill us)
- some aspect of your education
- a place for which you are thankful
- something about your job
- the comforts of life in a modern, developed country (a warm, dry place to live, indoor plumbing, etc.)
- a challenge you’ve overcome
- your health
- someone you got to meet
- a mentor or teacher
- a talent or skill that you have
- someone who inspires you
- something you take for granted
- something about your home
- a present you received
- the weather
- something you’ve accomplished
- your favourite holiday
- something about your neighbourhood
- simple things in life (like a hot cup of coffee, a good book, a warm blanket)
- your favourite thing about winter
- your favourite thing about spring
- your favourite thing about summer
- your favourite thing about fall
- something you use every day
- something in nature
- cute or inspiring things your kids have done
- a modern convenience (like cars or drive-thrus)
- basic needs that are met every day
- favourite memories
- family vacations
- time spent with loved ones
- opportunities God has given you
- a household task
- answered prayer
- a lesson you are grateful for
