About the Book

Book: A Guided Gratitude Journal Author: Donna Wyland Genre: Nonfiction/Christian Guided Journal Release Date: September, 2025

What would you change in your life if you could? Scientific and faith-based research prove that gratitude is the key! 5 minutes a day/7 days a week/7 weeks. CHANGE YOUR MINDSET. CHANGE YOUR LIFE. Let today be the day your new life begins!

Click here to get your copy!

About the Author

Donna Wyland is an award-winning author of fiction, nonfiction, and picture books. Her most recent gift book, Last Best Year – A Short Guide to a Grateful Life – is a Golden Scroll Award Winner, and her picture books, ‘Twas the Night Before Jesus and Psalms in Rhyme for Little Hearts were both Readers’ Choice Award Finalists.‘Twas the Night Before Jesus also won the Illumination Award Silver Medal and Psalms in Rhyme for Little Hearts was the Christian Indie Award winner for picture books. Though she began a career in financial planning, God interrupted those plans and called her to write more than twenty years ago. Donna responded, “Yes, Lord,” and today has numerous books, essays, and blogs attributed to her name. In the future, Donna hopes to continue writing guided journals to encourage and inspire people’s faith and confidence in God and themselves. As a Certified Christian Life Coach, Donna learned the value of asking powerful questions. Through her guided journals she hopes to lead readers to greater clarity, peace, and purpose as they read, consider, and reply to the questions asked. Donna is grateful for her husband, four grown daughters, sons-in-law, and grandchildren. She and her husband currently live in Southwest Florida, but her passion for travel frequently takes her to other states and countries around the world. Only God knows where she will live in five years. Thankfully she has a husband who says he will follow her wherever she goes.

More from Donna

What would you change in your life if you could? Scientific and faith-based research prove that gratitude is the key! 5 minutes a day/7 days a week for 7 weeks could change your life. Let today be the day your new life begins! This journal was inspired by God and written as a result of many personal losses in my life. As I tried to move toward healing, I felt like I was still walking under a dark cloud each day, faking happiness and joy as I went about my responsibilities as a wife, mother, and grandmother. I was still hurting and desperately wanted to know why. That’s when I did a deep dive on the topic of gratitude and discovered its tremendous power to heal. I pray that this journal becomes a legacy of readers’ journeys to joy, emotional and physical health, peace, and a thankful way of life. God knows you and sees you. He is excited to hear your praise and watch you grow into a gratitude-filled man or woman of God who lights the world on fire simply by being your wonderful, beautiful, joyful self.

Interview with the Author

Did you use a functional outline, or was it just chaos that somehow worked?

I generally have a loose outline in my head when I’m writing nonfiction. For A Guided Gratitude Journal, the process was a bit different as each short section includes a quote and a snippet of my personal life and experience before several questions are asked. Researching the Bible verses and quotes I wanted to include took a lot of time. Then actually praying about each section to share what I felt God wanted me to write took longer. It wasn’t chaos, but there was no firm plan. I prayed and wrote as I felt inspired.

How do you handle moments when inspiration seems hard to find?

This can be challenging for me. When I am overwhelmed with responsibilities outside of writing or stressed about too much in my personal life, it affects my inspiration and ability to hear from God. At those times, I generally look at everything I have on my plate and begin to eliminate things that I believe are not critical to my life plan. It’s a constant game as I tend to say yes too easily and then need to back up and regroup so I can get on track to accomplish what I feel God has called me to do. God’s will is always number one.

What surprising discoveries did you make during the writing process?

I was honestly surprised at the ease with which A Guided Gratitude Journal came together. It took weeks to write, but somehow, with God’s help, the words continued to flow until it was finished. It was one of the most rewarding projects I have ever written as I believe gratitude has the power to change lives because it rewires our brains and affects every area of our lives.

How has writing this book changed you?

Because I am an empath, I feel everything around me deeply. Other people’s emotions and struggles can affect me in profound ways. Because of that, I have to guard my mind and heart, so I don’t carry burdens that are not mine to carry. Writing A Guided Gratitude Journal actually helped me step into greater gratitude in my own life and reminded me how different the world looks when we focus on blessings and joys instead of struggles and pain. We acknowledge difficulties for sure, but then reframe and focus on the solution. Gratitude changes everything and writing this book changed me.

What are you working on next?

Well, I have a new picture book being released soon called The Very Busy Family, which I love. It’s a story about a family that doesn’t have time to say hello to new neighbors. But when one of the children gets assigned a project to research the meaning of ‘leisure,’ the family realizes they are TOO busy and decides to remove a few activities from their schedule. In the end, they are no longer TOO busy, just busy… I am excited to share it with the world as I believe most families would find great joy in being less busy.

In addition to that, I am considering writing a new journal on the topic of peace. I need to pray about it more and see what God has to say about it. It will be fun to see how it all comes together in the end.

What is your favorite part of being a writer?

BONUS QUESTION: What’s NOT to love about being a writer? If you love to write and you believe it’s what God called you to do, it’s impossible NOT to write. It constantly pulls at you and moves your mind toward new stories. As my website says, “I just love to write!”