Free Printable Gratitude Journal Pages: 6 designs.
How (and why) to practice gratitude and daily gratitude prompts.
You might have heard about gratitude journals or practicing gratitude. Everyone from Oprah to NPR has touched on the subject.
Why? Because being grateful in everyday life can have an amazing effect! Not just on you, but on others. Below you’ll read why being grateful is important. I’ll also go over how to practice gratitude. Lastly- so you can put it into practice- I included multiple gratitude journal printable options.
If you like this, you might also be interested in “Thanksgiving Thankful Worksheets” or “Free Printable Bible Journaling Pages.”
Table of contents
Why Practice Gratitude
Practicing gratitude takes a little time and effort. So, why practice gratitude? Scholarly research has proven quite a few benefits of gratitude. It improves physical health, psychological health, improves self-esteem, and even helps you sleep better (Forbes & Happify Daily). Those are all valid reasons. But it strikes me that they’re all about self.
I think the importance of gratitude in life is that it has a positive effect on others. Practiced properly, there are benefits of gratitude that extend outside ourselves and have a positive effect on other people.
• Gratitude opens the door to new relationships as well as makes existing ones better.
• Gratitude can enhance empathy and sensitivity (Forbes citing a 2012 study).
• Gratitude helps other people feel better- a sincere, appreciate “thank you” has a positive effect.
• Lastly, and most importantly, gratitude can inspire others to be better.
The last one may sound different. But I’ve experienced this personally. My brother (Josh) and his wife (Heidi) went through the worst tragedy any parents can go through. They lost their son (my nephew), Drew, to cancer two months before his 3rd birthday. Throughout the entire process- diagnosis, the many, many steps of treatment, his passing, and now a year into their grief, my sister-in-law Heidi has been an amazing inspiration to hundreds- if not thousands- of people. Her blog “Drawing From Drew” is updated regularly and every single entry has some positive in it. In the darkest hours, she has shown gratitude for what they have had even while acknowledging the bad.
Almost immediately after Drew died, Josh and Heidi (with help from their beautiful daughter Molly, now 6) started a charity “Warrior Wagons,” which provides wagons stocked with helpful material to pediatric cancer patients at the Mayo Clinic. It’s gotten off to such an amazing start that they’re already planning on expanding to other hospitals.
I’ve not only experienced what an inspiration Heidi has been through her showing gratitude, I’ve seen how it affects others. I’ve seen myself and family grow into better people because of her words and example. Why practice gratitude? Because you literally can change other people’s lives for the better.
How to Practice Gratitude
As I touched on above, practicing gratitude isn’t just taking a single second out of your day and saying “I’m grateful for my family” or “I’m grateful for a roof over my head.” So, how do you practice gratitude?
1. Keep track of what you’re grateful for
There are a couple of journals below…pick whichever one works for you. Just taking a second and saying it doesn’t sink in the way keeping track does. Plus, with keeping track, you can look back and remember and see amazing things.
2. Get specific
I’m not just thankful for my husband…I’m thankful my husband cleaned the kitchen and did dishes for me when I went to Church the other night. It was great to walk into the house and realize I didn’t still need to tidy up the kitchen.
3. Set aside time for gratitude journaling
If you’re always busy at night and KNOW you’re not going to track, don’t schedule it for then. That’s me. Instead, I do it when I’m getting organized in the morning before starting for work. I look over the past day and find something from that.
4. Get creative
If journaling isn’t for you, don’t do it. Try writing down something each day (or when something happens) and sticking it in a jar. Then on New Year’s Eve (or Christmas), go back and review that positive things from the last year.
5. Take action
It’s not just about writing it down. If you’re thankful for something someone did, thank them. Or go above the normal “thank you” and write them a note. You’d be amazed how much a cheerful note can brighten up someone’s day. I have little coloring cards I color and send to people. Not just to thank them, but to pay forward the happiness. I relax while coloring them and when I send them people know that I actually took all that time to make something pretty for them. [That was an affiliate link. If you purchase something, I’ll receive a small commission at no extra charge to you. See “Disclosure Page” for more.]
6. Be honest about what you are (and aren’t) grateful for
Good Housekeeping had an article on how gratitude really, really didn’t help one woman. Now, I don’t know her life. But from what I gathered from the article, she was really stretching to find stuff to be grateful for- she wasn’t being completely honest. In her own example, she was “thankful” for her housing being cheap…but “the apartment I lived in was only so cheap because it was dark, cramped, ant-infested and falling apart”.
If you’re not grateful for anything at the moment, don’t lie. Sometimes life isn’t the best. And trying to be grateful for something you’re not actually grateful for doesn’t work. She was missing the entire point of the whole gratitude exercise.
7. Try to find something, no matter how small
Even if it’s just taking a moment and savoring a delish piece of pie. Or the stranger who complimented your hair. Or that moment when the whole family cracked up laughing over something ridiculous. Take that snapshot of happiness and be grateful for it.
Daily Gratitude Prompts
If you’re not sure what you’re grateful for, don’t worry. I have a list below to help you start thinking. In addition, one of the free printable gratitude journal pages below has a few prompts already written on it.
- Favorite moment of the day
- Favorite moment of the last week
- Favorite memory of all time
- Think about the worst period of your life…and detail how life is better now
- Something in your upbringing
- Something you’re looking forward to
- Person you’re most grateful for (& why)
- Friend
- Family member
- Teacher in the past who helped you
- Something you’ve learned
- Challenge you’ve overcome
- Something you’ve accomplished today
- Your biggest accomplishment this month
- Your biggest accomplishment this year
- Your biggest accomplishment of all time
- Ability you have
- Body feature you have
- Personality trait you possess
- Animal you like
- Something you ate today (or this week)
- Something you read this week that made you feel good
- What is something nice that someone has done for you?
- Book
- Hobby
- Movie
- Game
- Song
- Item
- Place
- Food
- Household appliance that makes life easier
- Something about your home
- Something about your town
- Something about your state
- Something about your country
Instructions for Printing
• Print options: regular paper works just fine.
• All of the files are in pdf below. Just hit the “download” button (or pink word “download,” depending upon browser).
• The default size of these is full-page. However, if you want smaller, simply reduce the print size. If you’re not sure on how much to reduce, check out my post “How to Resize Printables to Fit Your Planner.”
Free Printable Gratitude Journal Pages
Daily Gratitude Journal Page
This daily gratitude journal page has space for your schedule and priorities, as well as plenty of room to list things you’re grateful for.
Month-at-a-Glance Gratitude Journal
This is a “month at a glance” gratitude journal. Find one thing each day and write it down. I wanted this journal to be geared towards those who are just starting and needed a reminder to write down their gratitude.
This is a great gratitude journal page to put in your planner.
Gratitude In Action
This printable daily gratitude journal is for a week at a time.
Please note that the action and what you are grateful for don’t have to be connected! For example, I’m grateful to my husband for doing the dishes one day…so I went ahead and took out the trash for him.
But the next day I was grateful to the cashier for complimenting my hair and earrings and being friendly (it was a bright moment in the day)…but I sent a quick colored card to my Mom. See? Not related, but still in the spirit of gratitude.
People I Am Grateful For
This page is dedicated to people you are grateful for.
I left just a large open blank space. You can do this two ways. The first is to just list all the people you are grateful for.
The second, which I recommend, is to just list a few people. But detail exactly why you are grateful for them.
My Gratitude List
If you’re having trouble coming up with ideas, this free printable gratitude journal page is for you. It has prompts of different categories/ideas of things to be grateful for.
ABC’s of Gratitude
This printable is great for both adults and kids. It should help you reach out and find some unique things with the challenge of finding something for every letter of the alphabet.
Which Did You Like?
Out of the 6 free printable gratitude journal pages above, which did you like the best? Comment letting me know.
Could you do me a quick favor? If you enjoyed these, could you share them with a friend? Share buttons are at the top.
The daily journal page is an answer to my prayers. I need to look at the chores for the day, To be reminded of the reasons of do them is a great impetus to complete those things. The Gratitude in Action is also a great reminder to pay it forward. Thanks so much for these printables.
You’re welcome. I’m glad you found something you liked!