Glimmer Journaling

For 2026 I'm going to do a different journaling practice: glimmer journaling. A "glimmer" is a small moment of joy or happiness. My intention to capture these little bits of happiness is two-fold.

I don't just want to create a record of these moments of happiness. More important is the practice of looking for and noticing these happiness-inducing moments. There is research that shows this type of practice trains your brain to seek out and notice the good things, instead of focusing on our natural negativity bias.

In the past I have journaled Good Things That Happened, but looking back I noticed they often tended to be difficult things that turned out okay. Which itself is a good practice, to learn that you are capable of difficult things, but that isn't the practice I want this year.

Similarly I've done gratitude journaling in the past, but that tended to be things I was grateful for having (my home and family, for example) because I would suffer without them. Again, it's a good practice for helping you appreciate what you have, but it's not what I'm going for this year.

The types of things I'll write in my glimmer journal: visiting my adult children, a fun day out with my husband, wildlife sightings, catching up with friends over coffee, etc. Even smaller things will count: petting the cat, a beautiful sunset, spending time reading a good book, a funny text.

I'm looking forward to making a point to seek out happiness every day, write it down, and look through my pages of daily happiness. For this practice I will use a dated day per page diary, which will encourage me to write something every day and not skip a day or leave blank pages.

Will you do a journaling practice in 2026?

Day per page minimalist wide rule free printable available from Diaries 2026 tab above