As a new year begins and I celebrate another birthday this month, I’m grateful to be alive and well. I have kept a gratitude journal for many years. A former writing student, a yoga teacher, got me into this routine. She was a follower of Yogi Bhajan who said, “An attitude of gratitude brings great things.”

There are various approaches to keeping a gratitude journal. It may take a some experimenting to find what method works for you. There is no right way to do this. I have developed a practice that suits me. It is fun and relaxing.

I use a different book than the one I use for my regular journal writing. My gratitude journal is green and has a Celtic cross on the cover as a nod to my Irish heritage. (My mother was born in county Cork.) It’s important to me that this book is special, classy looking. It has a marker ribbon and a closure strap. My other journal book is practical, a black spiral notebook.

I don’t write in my gratitude journal every day. I write in it a few times a month, and I generally do it at night as the day winds down. I skip lines between entries. I use a gel pen. I try to fill two or three pages during a session and get on what I call a roll of gratitude.

Each entry begins the same way. “I am grateful for….” Or “I’m grateful to….”

By repeating the same beginning, it creates a kind of mantra. It’s very similar to the technique Joe Brainard used in his brilliant book I Remember, (although I make no attempt to be that literary.) To me, gratitude journaling is both a spiritual exercise and a writing exercise.

I introduced this to my memoir class at the senior center on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. I could see a few eyes rolling when I explained what we were about to do. One person asked

“Do we have to start every sentence with I’m grateful?” and I said, “Yes, just try it.”

Everyone wrote for about 15 minutes and then we read back. People expressed gratitude for living in a rent stabilized building, for friendships that have lasted many decades, for their spouse or children or grandchildren. One woman said she was dreading doing this, but to her surprise, she got into it and found it worthwhile.

The benefits of keeping a gratitude journal have been well documented: It boosts mood and happiness, reduces stress and anxiety, enhances self-awareness, builds emotional resilience, cultivates optimism, increases empathy and compassion, strengthens relationships, improves sleep, supports physical health.

I began my current journal book in late August. As I wrote this column, I read back everything I had written since then, and I saw a pattern and certain themes kept recurring, such as, “I’m grateful to live in Westbeth.” Reading back what I’d written over those few months made me feel incredibly blessed and lucky. Here is a sample of what I wrote on October 7:

I’m grateful I went to the city beach today in Hudson River Park
I’m grateful it was peaceful and quiet.
I’m grateful I got an Adirondack chair to sit on.
I’m grateful I put my toes in the sand.
I’m grateful the temperature was in the 70s with a little breeze.
I’m grateful to live 10 minutes away from Hudson River Park.

Sometimes my entries focus on a location, like the beach on the Ganesvoort Peninsula. Or a place like my church. In December, I mused about how grateful I was to return to Middle Collegiate Church in the East Village (five years after the devastating fire). I noted my appreciation for the new worship space in the social hall and how I was happy I was to be back in “our home” on East

7th St. “I’m grateful some of the old architecture remains.”

Other times my entries mention relationships, like when I wrote about my family: “I’m grateful I had dinner with Colleen, Casey, Patty, three generations together. We laughed a lot.”

Or gratitude for my friends and neighbors: “I’m grateful for my neighbors on the eighth floor, an excellent group.”

Or appreciation for all the many cultural offerings at Westbeth: classes, plays, concerts, openings, readings: “I’m grateful for Steve’s incredible meditation class.”

In short sentences, in repetitive format, my gratitude journal covers the (positive) gamut of my life, including summers at the Jersey Shore, like this entry from August: “I’m grateful I had a fantastic beach day with a good novel.”

I reserve sadness and loneliness and aches and pains and griping for my other journal, which is like a diary. It’s a mixture of positive and negative things, and I write in normal prose. No repetitive format. And I do more analysis.

As 2025 wound down, I thought about this really bad year and the damage Trump caused to our democracy. ICE arrested innocent people married to citizens, (including a member of my church), and the senseless gun violence continued. One December weekend, there were the antisemitic murders at Bondi Beach during a Hanukkah celebration, the murders at Brown University during finals. Then the actor/director Rob Reiner and his wife Michele, (both social justice activists), were killed in their home. It was too much, and I wondered why I am jotting down good stuff when so much bad stuff is going on?

Then I realized that is exactly the point—keeping a gratitude journal is an antidote to the bad news, a way to remind myself that even in the midst of horror and sorrow, there is goodness and joy, beauty and love, generosity and kindness, even heroism. On a freezing cold winter day, I can sit inside and appreciate the sunshine outside, the heat in my apartment, the food in my refrigerator.

Gratitude journaling serves one main purpose. When I read back my pages, I’m aware of my success and the good times and good people in my life. And I believe writing this down attracts more abundance. I’m glad I started this practice years ago and need it more than ever as 2026 begins. Just recently, I wrote: “I’m grateful I keep a gratitude journal.”