Prana to the People

LEN - prana 1by Judi Romaine

Did you know there’s an app (application) for happiness?  Landmark graduate Matt Elmore designed the iPhone/iPad gratitude journal app, Gratitude Journey, to support practicing and sharing gratitude. Scientific data has shown that when gratitude is a daily practice, it improves mood and motivation. Over time, it generates more and more gratitude for life. And it’s contagious and habit-forming – it can make you happy!

The first seeds of Matt’s invention were planted in yoga teacher training where he kept a gratitude journal, but noticed that while keeping the journal was of great benefit, certain things were missing and the practice could be improved.

LEN - prana 2In July of 2012, Matt participated in Landmark Education’s Self Expression and Leadership Program and as he turned over various ideas for projects, the idea of creating a Gratitude Journey app began to develop. He imagined an app that would remind people of their child’s macaroni artwork, to recall their childhood surprise birthday parties, or even be grateful for their favorite pizza shop.  Users could set times for the app to send them random entries from the past as a pick me up during their daily lives.  Photos could be attached to the entries, which are sorted by category and date.

So Matt designed his application, Gratitude Journey. He set up a nonprofit organization, called Prana to the People, filtering the proceeds from the Gratitude Journey app into various relief organizations chosen quarterly. This quarter, that nonprofit organization is www.KIVA.org. So far his app has been very successful, especially with certain demographics. The app is particularly popular with mothers, yogis, and people in recovery.

As to the future, being involved with the gratitude journal app, Matt says he is constantly researching the psychology of gratitude. Psychologists claim that when gratitude is shared and spoken aloud with loved ones, gratitude grows and its positive effects expand.  He is now at work on integrating a feature where with the press of a button one’s gratitude journal entries can be posted on one’s Facebook timeline or be emailed to a friend.

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