In short, gratitude practices boost well-being, according to a 2025 analysis of nearly 25,000 people in 28 countries. The benefit grew when people mixed more than one kind of practice. In my experience, the more you practice, the more everyday joy you notice. Here are three simple ways to start this November.
November always turns my attention to gratitude. Thanksgiving is coming, the days are shorter, and there's something about this season that asks us to notice what we have.
I've been writing down what I'm grateful for consistently for years. And here's what I've noticed: the more I practice, the more I find to be grateful for. It's rarely the big moments. It's the everyday ones.
Here's my list from one recent Sunday. I am grateful:
I chose to go to yoga, even with family coming over at noon for lunch.
For adult children who wanted to come over both Saturday and Sunday to celebrate and be around family.
How simple wild rice soup is to make and how delicious it tastes.
I kept a commitment to myself.
Someone else discovered the raccoon in our garbage bin. I'm so glad it wasn't me.
None of these are big. But each one made the day better, and writing them down helped me see it.
What the research says
In 2025, researchers published one of the largest looks at gratitude ever done. They pulled together 145 papers, with 24,804 people from 28 countries, to ask a simple question: do gratitude practices actually help?
The answer was yes. Across cultures, gratitude practices led to a real, measurable lift in well-being.
Two findings stood out to me:
The lift was biggest for positive feelings. Gratitude showed its clearest effect on things like joy and contentment in the moment.
Mixing practices worked better. Studies that combined more than one kind of gratitude practice saw bigger effects than studies using just one. Gratitude practices in research take a few forms: writing a list of things you're grateful for, journaling, writing a thank-you letter, thanking someone directly, or a quiet gratitude reflection or meditation. Mixing simply means doing more than one. For example, you might write three good things each night and also thank one person each week. Each practice comes at gratitude from a different angle, one by noticing and one by sharing.
A separate 2025 review looked at 51 studies of positive writing, things like gratitude lists and journaling. Gratitude writing, along with writing about your best possible future self, showed the most consistent benefits for well-being and positive feelings. It's still a growing area of research, but I love that imagining your future self showed up right alongside gratitude. That's the Vision step in my PAVE Method™.
Why everyday moments count
A gratitude practice works a bit like training your eyes. When you write down what you're grateful for, you start looking for it during the day.
And what you find usually isn't big. It's soup on a cold day, a promise kept to yourself, a laugh at the end of a long week. Small, doable practice, repeated over days and weeks, is how real change happens. It's the same thing I teach about mindful eating: it's a practice, not a plan.
What helps a gratitude practice stick
Most of us have started a gratitude journal at some point. Here's what research suggests helps it last.
Go deeper, not longer. When a list starts to feel automatic, slow down on one item. Write why it mattered, or what it felt like. Experts who study gratitude say deep engagement matters more than how many things you list.
Give it time. In studies of working adults, people who wrote gratitude lists four times or fewer saw no change. The benefits came with repetition.
Share it. Saying thank you out loud, or in a note, adds something private writing doesn't. Experts point to expressing gratitude to others as one of the most valuable parts of the practice.
And on the busy days, be gentle with yourself. Some days the list is one line. One line is still practice.
Three ways to practice gratitude this week
Pick one. Or, since mixing practices worked better, try two.
Name one thing at the table. Before your first bite at dinner, pause and name one thing you're thankful for today. Say it out loud if someone's with you.
Write three good things. Before bed, jot down three small things that went well. A warm cup of coffee counts.
Thank someone directly. Send a short text or note to someone who made a difference for you, recently or long ago.
If you forget, that's okay. Noticing you forgot is part of the practice.
This month: a gratitude series
This is the first post in a November series on gratitude. Next week, we'll bring gratitude to the table, then to experiences, then to rituals for Thanksgiving week.
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Sources
Choi, H., et al. (2025). A meta-analysis of the effectiveness of gratitude interventions on well-being across cultures. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2425193122
Hoult, L., et al. (2025). Positive expressive writing interventions, subjective health and wellbeing in non-clinical populations: A systematic review. PLOS One. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0308928
Huston, G. E., et al. (2024). Understanding and optimising gratitude interventions: the right methods for the right people at the right time. Psychology & Health. https://researchonline.jcu.edu.au/83467/
Komase, Y., et al. (2021). Effects of gratitude intervention on mental health and well-being among workers: A systematic review. Journal of Occupational Health. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8582291/