What Went Right This Semester? | Gratitude Exercise for Academics #teachingcollege #professorlife

"Gratitude journaling doesn’t force positivity; it retrains your attention.” — Dr. Arif Khan And whew… don’t we need that kind of retraining in academia? Because if we’re honest, this season can blur together into one long highlight reel of deadlines, emails, meetings, grading, “quick questions,” and trying to finish strong while your brain is whispering, "Please don’t make me think about this semester ever again." But here’s the thing: gratitude isn’t pretending everything was amazing. Gratitude is a practice—an adaptive strategy—that helps you recognize the good that happened and acknowledge that it didn’t happen in a vacuum. (Support showed up. Resources showed up. Strength showed up. God showed up. Your own resilience showed up.) That’s why gratitude journaling matters right now, in December: ✅ It retrains your attention so your mind doesn’t only replay what went wrong or what’s unfinished. ✅ It helps your nervous system exhale because your brain needs closure, not just collapse. ✅ It creates balance: you can hold concerns and still name what was meaningful. ✅ It protects you from overwhelm by widening the lens beyond stress, conflict, and fatigue. ✅ It restores hope because once you spot evidence of good, you start to imagine what’s possible next semester. And no—this doesn’t negate the challenges. It doesn’t erase the student who tested your patience, the workload that felt impossible, or the systems that make higher ed… higher ed. It just keeps those realities from becoming the only story your brain tells. Try this gratitude exercise. Before you toss this term into yesteryear… give yourself this one exhilarating pause. Let your brain find the good again. And if you want a built-in rhythm for this: The Professor’s Week in Review ends every single week with the prompt: "What are you grateful for?” Because ending your week with gratitude is one way to retrain your attention consistently and yes, that reflective rhythm supports brain health. Order the version of your choice here: Paperback + Pen: bit.ly/thewirejournal Hardcover: bit.ly/hardcoverwire Fillable PDF: bit.ly/thefillablewire