I tried to get my 8-year-old son to keep a gratitude journal. He would dictate and I would type. I told him about the research saying that doing so can make you happier. One night he got upset with me and said he didn’t want to do the journal any more, but he was going to be less happy knowing that he was forgoing doing something that could have made him more happy so I had really messed up when I told him about gratitude journals. (Although he quickly forgot about them.)
Saying aloud things we were thankful for was part of our family bedtime ritual when I was young. It’s low-effort enough that I still keep it up, while I usually don’t keep up tasks that involve writing something down. I recommend the verbal method if writing seems too annoying.
I tried to get my 8-year-old son to keep a gratitude journal. He would dictate and I would type. I told him about the research saying that doing so can make you happier. One night he got upset with me and said he didn’t want to do the journal any more, but he was going to be less happy knowing that he was forgoing doing something that could have made him more happy so I had really messed up when I told him about gratitude journals. (Although he quickly forgot about them.)
Saying aloud things we were thankful for was part of our family bedtime ritual when I was young. It’s low-effort enough that I still keep it up, while I usually don’t keep up tasks that involve writing something down. I recommend the verbal method if writing seems too annoying.