Developing a sense of gratitude can make you healthier, happier and more optimistic. It can also help you create better relationships, get better sleep, lower your blood pressure, and avoid or overcome depression.
What exactly is gratitude?
Gratitude is the sense of appreciating the good things in life. Or it’s the ability to, as some people say, count your blessings. Gratitude can also be more complex and nuanced. It can involve recognizing value in the difficult experiences that helped us grow or learn important lessons – not just “good things.” Gratitude can mean being thankful for what we have, while simultaneously acknowledging hardship and pain. It’s not about ignoring challenges or forcing positivity.
Scientific studies have proved the benefits of gratitude
However gratitude is defined, the benefits are many. And there’s scientific evidence to back it up.
A notable study was conducted by Josh Brown, professor of psychological and brain sciences at Indiana University. He and his team researched gratitude, and the results were released in the March 2016 issue of NeuroImage. They chose as subjects a group of people who were entering psychotherapy for depression and/or anxiety. One group wrote letters of gratitude. The control group did not.
Three months later, both groups were asked to perform a “pay-it-forward” task. In this task, they were given a monetary gift and asked to donate it to a cause depending on how grateful they felt. They performed this task while under an MRI scanner, which measured their neural activity. Not only did the researchers find that those who wrote the gratitude letters increased their gratitude behavior, but the MRI scan showed a significant increase in neural modulation in the medial prefrontal cortex of their brains. This section of the brain regulates emotions and sociability.
Learn more and take a quiz to determine your level of gratitude
Curious about the power of gratitude? Check out this 1-1/2-minute video produced by the John Templeton Foundation, and you’ll find out why in a nutshell.
And if you’d like to find out how grateful you are, you can take a short 20-question quiz developed by the Greater Good Science Center at the University of California, Berkeley. It is based on a scale developed by psychologists Mitchell Adler, a professor at the University of California Davis – School of Medicine, and Nancy Fagley, professor emerita of the Rutgers University Graduate School of Applied and Professional Psychology.
After completing the quiz, you’ll immediately receive a gratitude score, along with tips on how to develop a gratitude practice.
In learning to practice gratitude you consciously focus on the positive things that happen in your life. Rather than major events that only happen rarely, these can be the small, subtle everyday things that can make your life happier and more pleasant if you pay attention to them.
For example, you can be grateful for the fact that a friend took the time to join you for lunch. Or your boss complimented the successful completion of a project at work. Or even, the taste of an apple or the fact that you have a warm place to come home to on a freezing cold day.
And using gratitude to overpower negative thoughts can also be effective. Instead of being upset that your washing machine broke down, be grateful that you no longer have to go to a laundromat and can wash your clothes at home.
Tips to help you develop gratitude
While some people may be naturally prone to experiencing gratitude, others may have to work at it a bit harder. But developing a gratitude practice can have many benefits. And the more often you consciously practice it, the more natural it will become.
There are a variety of things you can do to develop gratitude. Among them are to:
Keep a gratitude journal. – At the end of each day write down three things that you are grateful for. Maybe it’s seeing the flowers in your garden. Or enjoying a cup of coffee from your local coffee shop. Or the fact that you have access to an abundance of food, when many people in the world do not. Or the job interview you managed to get.
And remember to focus on simple kind actions people have taken toward you. Maybe your roommate or partner cooked a delicious dinner. Or your neighbor watered your plants while you were away for a few days. Or a stranger held the door open for you while you were coming through it with a large package. You get the picture.
You can do this every day or every few days, but be consistent. For example, if not every day, maybe every Sunday and Wednesday.
Practice mindfulness. – Practicing the art of mindfulness and becoming more in the present may help you pause to savor the moment and focus on those things that make you grateful.
Commit to your gratitude practice. – Promise yourself that you will count your blessings every day and stick with it. Make space for genuine gratitude alongside life’s challenges.
Write letters of gratitude. – Write letters of gratitude to show how you appreciate your friends and family. Remind them of experiences you’ve shared together and how much their friendship or relationship has meant to you. These letters can be beneficial even if you don’t send them. But it is, of course, better to send the letters of gratitude – or even deliver them in person.
Nancy Davis Kho, a communication professional in Oakland, Calif., decided to celebrate a milestone birthday by writing one thank-you letter a week to people who had impacted her life. The result is a book, The Thank-You Project: Cultivating Happiness One Letter of Gratitude at a Time. In it, she tells how the experience profoundly affected her and how you can create a thank-you project of your own.
Express your gratitude. – Communicate positivity by looking people in the eye as they pass, smile and maybe say hello, making genuine connections with others. Take a moment to sincerely thank those who help you, acknowledging how their kindness enriches your day. These small gestures of appreciation can create ripples of positivity and remind us of the simple ways we’re all connected.
Try these tips to help you develop a practice of gratitude. And you may be surprised at the positive effect it will have on your life and those around you.
