Why Gratitude is Important for Studying

Gratitude is regularly defined as feeling thankful. It can involve feeling thankful for the sunny weather today, the electricity powering your home/devices, and the people who are part of your life. Feeling gratitude is essential for living a happy life and leads to more optimism towards life in general. In contrast, studying can be viewed in both a positive and negative manner. Each person has a certain threshold when studying before they start to feel like they are burning out. Depending on the subject being studied, your level of will power to finish studying or completing that assignment can be put to the test. For those tasks that probably take more of your time than one pomodoro session (25 minute timed interval study sessions), it's important to find a good medium to regain energy when stress and negativity start piling up by your 8th study session.

I recently started experimenting with this idea: What effect does gratitude have on our ability/capacity to study? I originally found this idea from a Youtuber named Andrew Kirby who challenges the every day norm by citing back to Stoic knowledge and applying it to modern times. I immediately started trying to incorporate this into my study schedule by creating a gratitude journal using the app, "Day One." I would create a new entry in between my breaks from pomodoro sessions and would just brainstorm different ideas to just be thankful for. Surprisingly, this method works! When I don't feel like studying anymore, I would recall various things that brings more positivity to my life allowing me to re-channel a surprising amount of energy back into my work. 

I originally used to browse social media during my breaks such as Facebook, Instagram, or Messenger. I soon realized that these took my attention away from my studies and caused me to become more reactive to different situations that would enter my life. I knew I wanted a creative outlet for energy because learning to maximize for time in our days is absolutely essential when you realize how important each second of our time in this world truly is.

If you are looking for a productive way to spend your break times that doesn't take your attention and energy away from your studies, try gratitude journaling! It returns energy and time back to you which is essentially as valuable as money in modern day society.

Update: After practicing the method mentioned above. I realized for social media use there must be a sense of balance that must exist with use. Obsession is a good reason to stay off for a good amount of time but it's important to also reward yourself through even just a few minutes of checking social media. If you are somewhat introverted like me, you'll find that this will fulfill a certain degree of social happiness that humans need in life. Life can't always be cold turkey sometimes when we sacrifice one habit completely another will grow to try to fill that empty space which can possibly be a good or bad habit. When you get tired of doing the good though, the bad one may creep up so be aware. Once again I go back to this notion of "balance not cold turkey." Of course, everyone is different so examine your emotions and your mind; meditation helps with this process. I hope you find something helpful here.