Gratitude Journaling on the Virtues of Gratitude and Compassion

Creating a flourishing society is the ultimate goal of all schools and universities. The purpose of this project was to develop and expand on previous gratitude journaling research and the possible connection of the benevolent virtues of gratitude and compassion. The Catalyst Grant also created the opportunity to develop a gratitude journal that is given to students in the Graduate School of Education at Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota. The goal of the journal was to incorporate gratitude into student’s everyday routine and develop the life long practice of gratitude journaling. It is amazing how a small subtle shift toward focusing on a grateful perspective can have such a power impact.

Gratitude is all about being thankful and when someone takes the time to practice, they focus on and give importance to the good things in their lives. The gratitude journal contains a brief description of why gratitude is important to human flourishing and a section to write everyday, three things one is grateful for in their life. The journal also includes a section on Acts of Kindness. Kindness is often associated with benevolent virtues and studies have shown that individuals that perform kind acts to themselves and others also report having increased levels of happiness and feelings of connectedness. The journal has a place to write down acts of kindness as a reminder and enabling one to look back and reflect. The journal was designed simplistically for ease of use but also something that can be replicated by Saint Mary’s students in their classrooms and schools creating a larger movement of individuals looking at the world through a grateful lens.

The newly designed gratitude journal was also used to conduct a research study with students in the graduate school of education examining if individuals experience growth in the virtues of gratitude and compassion from gratitude journaling and if these two virtues are connected. The results of the study did not indicate a statistically significant impact but over 75% of participants’ scores increased for gratitude and compassion at the end of the study. These positive results indicate that gratitude journaling may have a positive impact on gratitude and compassion and the possible connection between these two virtues.