Journaling
Writing down a few things you are grateful for is probably the easiest and most popular gratitude exercise available.
The purpose of the exercise is to think back on the past day, few days, or week, and remember 3-5 things you are especially grateful for. In this way, you are completely focusing on all the good things that happened to you in a given set of time.
There are varying opinions in the positive psychology arena about what is the appropriate amount of journaling one should do per week. Some people propose doing it every day while other suggest doing it once per week.
The arguments against doing it every day are that it can be tedious and forced. It becomes a practice you feel you should do or need to do instead of something you want to do. When journaling becomes a banal task and not an enjoyable practice then you need to adjust the amount of journaling you do.
Besides the benefit of zeroing in on the wonderful things you can be grateful for, this practice has been proven to increase sleep quality, decrease symptoms of sickness, and increase happiness and joy (Marsh, 2011).
It is important that you cater your practice to what you need. Perhaps journaling every day for a short amount of time will work, but over time the increased jubilation you enjoy from the daily practice probably won’t be manifested.
It is important that you sincerely pay attention to the things you are grateful for. Also, it will behoove you to express your gratitude more for people as opposed to objects.
Imagine your life without the things you are grateful before you begin writing. That should definitely boost your gratitude barometer.