Can a Digital Gratitude Journal Help Nurses Under Stress?
Research suggests that online gratitude journaling is good for our
well-being, even in difficult circumstances.
By Kira M. Newman
Practicing gratitude became a lifeline for her in an impossibly stressful situation. Months later, she came across the Greater Good Science Center’s (GGSC) Thnx4Nurses Gratitude Challenge, and she knew she had to sign up.
For 21 days, the Gratitude Challenge invites nurses to log on to the GGSC’s Thnx4.org online gratitude journal and write down what they’re thankful for. The Challenge is part of the GGSC’s broader Gratitude Practice for Nurses campaign, which is offering research-based strategies to support their well-being and build a culture of gratitude in their organizations, particularly in the face of the pandemic. Over the course of two challenges this year, around 400 nurses have signed up and shared their positive moments with our digital community.
Their experiences, along with other research, suggest that online gratitude journaling can be a simple, accessible way to support mental health and happiness, even in stressful circumstances.
The benefits of saying thanks online
Gratitude journaling is good for your health and well-being—a finding that has been backed up by numerous studies over the past few decades, including with health care professionals. But only a few of those studies have tested the effects of gratitude journaling online, despite the growing number of gratitude apps that you can download to your smartphone.
Britt Greaves, now a community manager at Trusted Health
Does it matter if you share your thanks in a notebook or on the web? In a 2015 study, 81 people ages 60 and up spent two weeks writing down three good things that happened to them each day, either online or on paper. Before and after, they also answered surveys about their stress and well-being.
The researchers found that journaling online was just as beneficial as doing it on paper, even for this older age group. People became less stressed over the two weeks, and they felt a greater sense of meaning in their lives, which stayed with them for the next month. Many people actually preferred their online journals because they were quick and convenient, legible, and less likely to get lost.
A small study in 2018 compared a gratitude app called Three Gratitudes to paper journaling, and again found few differences. In fact, participants (who tried both ways) had a slight preference for the app. They found it easier to use and more readily accessible in their daily life, and they appreciated the prompts and structure. People who started with the app saw their happiness increase during the week of using it.
One of the larger studies of online journaling recruited 260 people, some of whom tried the GET.On Gratitude app for five weeks. In addition to journaling and meditations, the app also offered weekly hour-long trainings, where participants learned how to notice good things in life, savor the positive feelings around them, and express or act on their gratitude.
Three months later, the researchers found that people who used the app had become less anxious and depressed, and had less insomnia, compared to a group who didn’t use it. They had also reduced their repetitive negative thinking, which includes habits like worrying and ruminating and other ways we get stuck in distressing thoughts. The researchers suggest that gratitude can help us break free from that because it makes us feel good and trains us to shift our focus to the positive.
This is in line with the experience of Michel Brewer, a clinical nurse supervisor at Sutter Health in Utah, who signed up for the Thnx4Nurses Gratitude Challenge because she wanted to put gratitude journaling to the test for herself. She leads a team of nurses who work remotely, triaging patients and offering them medical advice while they’re waiting to see a doctor. She shared the Gratitude Challenge with her team, as well.
According to Brewer, the first few days were easy; she journaled about some of the basic good things in her life, like food, water, and sleep.
She struggled a bit through the middle of the challenge, however, as she tried to find new things to write about. But by the end, she had noticed a shift in her mindset. She became more mindful of times when she felt good throughout the day, because she knew she’d be writing about them later.
“I did really feel like I was more aware of the times when I was feeling happiness or was feeling joy,” she says.
Why online gratitude journals work
Other studies have found that online gratitude journaling can help with our stress and mood. In the short term, right after using a gratitude app, you might feel more positive and calm. And as the weeks go by, you might see your stress decline.
One important benefit of online journaling is that websites and apps can send you reminders to practice gratitude. The GGSC did this in our Thnx4 challenge, sending users emails or text messages several times a week to remind them to log on. The app in one study even used participants’ smartphone data to remind them to express gratitude at opportune times, like after they socialized, exercised, or changed location.