Why Celebrities Keep a Gratitude Journal
The Science of Gratitude Journals
By the Lemonade Team
What if there was a way to boost your self-esteem, better your relationships, and go to sleep feeling like you owned the day?
The answer comes in the form of one gratitude journal. Here are the reasons why you should consider writing a gratitude journal as told by celebrities and backed by science.
Emma Watson
Emma Watson, activist and Harry Potter actress, also uses the Five-Minute Journal. In a collaboration with Vogue Australia, Watson shared her book list and recommended the same journal used by Mendes as a way to utilize the “transformative practice of gratitude”.
Can Gratitude Actually Change Emma Watson?
In a study done by Chih-Che Lin at the National University of Technology, they used questionnaires to measure gratitude and the Rosenberg Self-esteem Scale to measure self-esteem in a classroom. The study showed that people who answered with higher levels of gratitude had a “propensity to perceive greater self-esteem” and perceive themselves more positively than those with lower levels of gratitude. Moreover, there was a path that led from gratitude to self esteem and to psychological well-being.(1)
Camila Mendes
Camila Mendes, Riverdale actress, uses the Five-Minute Journal to express everyday gratitude. Mendes was introduced to this prompt based journal by her coworker and fellow actress Olivia Holt. The two Riverdale starlettes say that writing in this journal helped relieve the stress and anxiety by shifting the focus of her life to center around the good things in everyday life instead of obsessively grieving over the bad things that come with fame.
How Did Writing in a Gratitude Journal Lessen Mendes’s Stress?
Positive affect journaling, such as gratitude journaling, has been proven to help with anxiety and stress. In a clinical statistical study with anxiety patients, journaling care was associated with less depression and anxiety in patients after 1 month of starting it compared to those with non-positive affect journaling care.(2)
Oprah Winfrey
Oprah Winfrey, famed talk-show host, also uses a gratitude journal in between her very busy public life and her private one. She, unlike Mendes and Watson, does not specify which journal, but claims that writing in a journal has made her appreciate that she does have a busy life because to her it meant that people still wanted her on the small screen.
Does Oprah Actually Experience a Change in Her Relation to Others by Being Grateful?
Showing gratitude in a romantic relationship helps in solidifying the romance by improving upon the good feelings within the lovers and showing gratitude as a managing role in a professional setting helps to unify the employees. Expressing gratitude in between couples helps to solidify relationships by acting as a positive appreciation for the partner which has been shown to be an important element of intimacy.
In a more professional setting, as Oprah experienced, constant emotional regulation can often lead to burnout. However, expressing and feeling gratitude helps to combat work related stress by adding personal accomplishment to one’s work. Grateful employees, on average, broaden and form more emotional, cognitive, and social resources which help moderate work related stresses. (3)
For romance and gratitude’s relationship, a study by the University of North Carolina, 57 couples were studied for levels of gratitude and marital happiness. The couples that expressed gratitude more often were correlative to long-term marital happiness and showed that romantic relationships improved with gratitude.(4)
Brett Eldredge
Finally, let’s end simply by going back to the most simplest reasons for why you should journal without needing science. Brett Eldredge, country singer, loves writing in a gratitude journal for the purpose of adding gratitude to daily journaling. His love for it goes as far as to feeling anxious when he accidentally forgets to pack it for one of his many shows. He writes mainly to record stories for the future.
“At the end of the day, it asks you, ‘What made the day great?,’ and you’d write down, ‘I danced like a goofball on the streets of Key West,’ or ‘I met a funny character at a bar wearing a cowboy hat, and he told me all the crazy things that happened in his life and we shared stories over a drink,’” he continues. “It makes you appreciate the little things. I literally freak out if I forget to pack it, because I feel like I just need it and I’m missing out on telling myself a story.”
Scientific research has proven both encouraging effects of expressing gratitude and writing in a journal. And by doing both at once through a gratitude journal, you would be able to reap the benefits of expressing gratitude and writing in a journal. These are some of the many reasons why so many celebrities have shared their ways of expressing gratitude. Maybe it is time that you start your own gratitude journal.
Provided by Lemonade Journal.
References:
- Lin Chih-Che.(2015). Gratitude and depression in young adults: the mediating role of self-esteem and well being. Elsevier Personality and Individual Differences 87: 30–34.
- Smyth, J. M., Johnson, J. A., Auer, B. J., Lehman, E., Talamo, G., & Sciamanna, C. N. (2018). Online Positive Affect Journaling in the Improvement of Mental Distress and Well-Being in General Medical Patients With Elevated Anxiety Symptoms: A Preliminary Randomized Controlled Trial. JMIR mental health, 5(4), e11290. https://doi.org/10.2196/11290.
- Bichen G., D. M. Jepsen. (2019). Burnout for Emotion Regulation at Work: The Moderating Role of Gratitude. Elsevier Personality and Individual Differences, 156, e109703. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2019.109703.
- Gordon, Cameron L., R. A. M. Amette, R. E. Smith.(2011) Have you thanked your spouse today?: Felt and Expressed Gratitude Among Married Couples. Elsevier Personality and Individual Differences 50: 339–343.
