Gratitude Journals and Research

From Ann Voskamp's blog: A Holy Experience:

Researchers studying those who kept gratitude journals concluded:

At the end of the 10 weeks, participants who’d kept a gratitude journal felt better about their lives as a whole and were more optimistic about the future than participants in either of the other two conditions. To put it into numbers, according to the scale we used to calculate well-being, they were a full 25 percent happier than the other participants. Those in the gratitude condition reported fewer health complaints.

People who kept a gratitude journal reported feeling more joyful, enthusiastic, interested, attentive, energetic, excited, determined, and strong than those in the hassles condition. They also reported offering others more emotional support or help with a personal problem— supporting the notion that gratitude motivates people to do good. And this was not limited to what they said about themselves. We sent surveys to people who knew them well, and these significant others rated participants in the gratitude group as more helpful than those in the other groups.

A summary of findings from a University of California study on keeping gratitude journals may be found here: Gratitude and Well-Being. This is possibly the study Ann Voskamp was referring to on her blog (she posted a link, but it's outdated). If you go to the Gratitude and Well-Being link, click around on the others in the left sidebar! There's some very interesting info there!