Can 2 Weeks of Appreciation Shift Your Outlook?

By 2026, we’ve all heard about the supposed benefits of a gratitude practice. Being thankful for what you have is one thing, but practicing gratitude is a deliberate, actionable shift in mindset that, science says, changes your life for the better. Some of those supposed benefits?

Training your brain to notice what’s going right, not just what’s going wrong.
Improving your overall mood and reducing stress.
Increasing personal resilience and making problems easier to deal with.
Strengthening relationships and deepening connections with those around you.
Improving sleep and physical health (according to 2021 University of Michigan study, a regular gratitude practice can lower blood pressure and increase immune function over time).
Increasing motivation (if you’ve checked out our Trap of Intrinsic Motivation blog, you may know that many of us could use that boost).

With all of these benefits up for grabs, we thought it might be worth our while to get on board. Using our 365 Days of Gratitude Reflection Journals, we took the plunge. Two daily reflections over the course of two weeks to see if we could jumpstart our own gratitude and begin to reap the benefits of positivity, growth, and overall wellness. Join us in giving a gratitude practice the old college try…we’ll be grateful if you read on, we promise!

Before starting this process, we all sat down and came up with our own definitions of the word.

“I define gratitude as intentionally recognizing and appreciating the moments, opportunities, and people in my life, both big and small.” - Shae, Merchandiser

“I think it means reminding yourself how great life can be sometimes, even when it has its moments.” - Sarah, Copywriter

“Gratitude can come from anywhere and anything. I think gratitude is just about what brings you joy in life regardless of what it is.” - Leyla, Buyer

As the days passed, we all started to feel a little more positive. When asked “Have you noticed yourself thinking differently throughout the day?” we said:

“A little! I think personally, my baseline for gratitude is pretty high. I love my life a lot and feel appreciative of small details fairly often. However, the thing that made me think differently was having these observations collected in one place to look back on. I like to journal, but usually do so in a more freeform way, so this focused documentation of assorted happy memories from the past few weeks was just really nice to look through after the fact.” - Elizabeth, Copywriter

“Yes, I noticed myself being more mindful throughout the day. I became more aware of my thoughts and was quicker to shift my focus toward appreciation rather than stress or negativity.” - Shae, Merchandiser

“Yes! Just a little bit but I would find myself in the daytime savoring the little moments and having a mental checklist for what I was grateful for. In the evenings in bed I would sometimes go to bed thinking what my focus for the next day would be.” - Leyla, Buyer

So…can you jumpstart your own gratitude? As far as we’re concerned, there’s really no other way to do it. When you’re trying to build up a muscle, you need to work it. The same applies to increasing your gratitude.

“I definitely think it was successful because even when I forget to write an entry in my journal, I still find myself thinking about my day and everything that made me appreciate my own life.”
-Sarah, Copywriter

“Yes, I believe it is very possible! The practice didn’t change my circumstances, but it changed how I noticed and valued them, which made appreciation feel more natural and consistent.” -Shae, Merchandiser

“YES! As someone who hadn’t really taken the time for this area in her life in the past, I feel like I truly did 'jumpstart' appreciation and reflection within my life through this journal. so GRATEFUL for this experience ;)” -Leyla, Buyer

“100% - while I always had some space for gratitude in my everyday, doing this made me think about it consistently in a way I hadn't been doing before, which inevitably made it a stronger, more persistent thought. It's like working out. You train your body to adapt to a new sport, new stretch, new ways of moving or lifting. While I realize the mind is much more complex and it's certainly not as simple as 'do this and you'll love life' - I also believe that it can't hurt. Even if focusing on the good doesn't change everything in one fell swoop, it can certainly aid in shifting your mindset to a more positive place.” -Elizabeth, Copywriter

Want to try it for yourself? Check out some of our gratitude-minded favorites below.