The Head Plan Is Growing With Gratitude: Here’s How You Can Too!

The Head Plan Gratitude Journal is here! And it’s packed full of game-changing gratitude practices that are going to help you up-level everything from your personal development to your career quicker than you can say ‘Living my best life’.

Gratitude is your permanently positive sidekick. Not only is it a way to find more depth, meaning, and joy in the present moment; gratitude helps you to accumulate even more. It’s one of the most high-vibe emotions you can adapt and get this, it’s impossible to feel stressed, angry, sad or fearful, in the same moment as you’re feeling grateful. Let that sink in: When you’re grateful negative emotions literally can not exist.

Better yet, you can practice an attitude of gratitude anytime, anyplace, no matter what you’re going through because guess what? Not only is it possible to practice gratitude in the face of adversity and challenge, it’s essential. (It’s scientifically proven to boost resilience and increase emotional strength).

Loads of highly successful people are already out there reaping the rewards of gratitude, like Oprah who says “Be grateful for what you have and you’ll end up having more” or mindset coach Vex King who points out that the more you count your blessings, the more blessings you’ll have to count.

You can soak up the life-changing benefits of this magical practice too! But first…

The Science Of Gratitude

Need a little more convincing? Neuroscientists say that when you practice gratitude your brain is flooded with positive chemicals that boost feelings of happiness and optimism. In fact, studies show expressing gratitude raises happiness by 25 per cent and, at the same time, reduces toxic emotions like anger, envy, depression and regret.

It’s infectious too. Robert Emmons, the world-leading expert on gratitude, refers to it as a “relationship-strengthening emotion.” It’s proven to add depth to the relationships you have with others and prompts them to express more gratitude too. What’s more, it enhances empathy, reduces aggression, and inspires acts of kindness to boot. 

According to studies, gratitude can even make you physically healthier and people who make it a consistent habit experience fewer aches and pains than those who don’t. They also tend to have lower levels of stress, cholesterol, and blood pressure. Oh, and it’s proven to help you sleep better too!

If that’s not enough, people who practice gratitude make 20 per cent more progress towards their goals, so just like Oprah says, when you’re grateful for what you already have, you end up having a whole lot more.

How to practice gratitude with The Head Plan Gratitude Journal

Jot it down

Something magical happens when you put pen to paper. It triggers a biological process known as dual encoding. During this process, information travels to the brain’s hippocampus where it’s analysed and placed in your memory. That means, when you record what you’re grateful for in writing, it’ll be easier to recall, and you can go back and focus on it when you need it most – kinda like an instant pick-me-up.

It's the very reason we’ve provided a space in our new gratitude journal for you to write down three things you’re grateful for every day in as little as five minutes a day.

While you’re at it, you can also write down what you’re most looking forward to that day. It could be that first sip of your morning tea, a catch up with your best friend, or a movie night with your other half. Whatever it is, write it down and let those grateful feelings flow.  

Record your wins

We reckon you’re a real winner. No seriously, we do, and we want you to believe it too. Your one-stop shop to recognising – and appreciating – all your achievements? Documenting them! That’s why we’ve included a ‘My Highest Point Today’ prompt in the gratitude journal.

When you take a moment to recognise and feel grateful for what you have achieved, not only do you unlock motivation, you also match the vibrational frequency of your goals.

It’s as simple as this: Appreciating the progress you’ve made or noticing something special that occurred during your day, inspires you to create more of the same. How’s that for winning? 

Add an affirmation

Want to guarantee you’ll have even more things to be grateful for, not just today but every day? Add an affirmation! For the uninitiated, affirmations are positive statements that have the power to rewire your subconscious beliefs and in The Head Plan Gratitude Journal, we encourage you to set one every day. Doing so sets a powerful intention for the day ahead and can inform how the next 24 hours of your life pan out.

To set one, think about how you want to feel today. Grateful? Grounded? Excited? Calm? The secret to affirmations is repetition so say it out loud or in your mind over and over again to see your circumstances shift.

Coupled with gratitude, affirmations have the power to rewire limiting beliefs and shift your energetic state from lack and fear to joy, love, and fulfilment. And honestly, who wouldn’t like more of that?!

End the day on a high

Question time: do you end your day feeling positive, satisfied and excited for tomorrow? Or agitated, depleted and filled with next-day dread? If you fall into the latter camp, it’s time to shift gears with bedtime gratitude.

Our subconscious minds are most easily programmed when we first wake and right before we fall asleep, and what you focus on in the 45 minutes before you nod off gets replayed by your subconscious mind up to six times through the night. That means you have an amazing opportunity to reset your emotional state before bed.

All you have to do is refocus your mind on what you’re grateful for – it could be something as simple as the tasty salad you ate for lunch or something huge like the pay rise you received. What you pick doesn’t matter, how it makes you feel does - and even finding one thing to be grateful for can make a difference.

So go on, end the day with a positive thought – we’ve given you a space to do just that!

Make it a daily habit

Gratitude isn’t a one-time thing. It’s a way of life and it works best when you practice it day in day out – and in The Head Plan Gratitude Journal, we’ve given you all the tools you need to do that.

Want to go one further? Fall asleep counting your blessings instead of sheep. Have a gratitude recap on your lunch break by re-reading your gratitude list. Pick one person and tell them why you’re so grateful to have them in your life.

Keep appreciating all the good around you no matter what is going on in your life, because as Iyanla Vanzant puts it, “Gratitude is like a magnet; the more grateful you are, the more you will receive to be grateful for.”

Now is the time to be truly grateful…

Gratitude is a life-transforming gift and there is no time like the present to embrace it.

In the words of Albert Einstein, “There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.”

We know which one we’re choosing – come join us!