For the last several years, I have been exploring the benefits of a daily gratitude practice. I have explored through experience of practice and seeking deeper understanding through engaging with work by experts in the field of gratitude and mental wellbeing. It is my goal to share with you, what gratitude is and how it is beneficial to living a healthy more fulfilling life. First, let’s define what we mean when discussing gratitude. According to Harvard Medical School, gratitude is “a thankful appreciation for what an individual receives, whether tangible or intangible. With gratitude, people acknowledge the goodness in their lives … As a result, gratitude also helps people connect to something larger than themselves as individuals–whether to other people, nature, or a higher power.” Foster et al. (2017) states that gratitude is an emotion that is typically evoked when one receives costly, unexpected, and intentionally rendered benefits, and is thought to play a key role in regulating the initiation and maintenance of social relationships.”
So why is gratitude important to living a more fulfilling life and how is a daily practice beneficial to you? According to research by Emmons & Crumpler (2000) embodying gratitude can lead to increased levels of wellbeing and expressing your that gratitude has been shown to improve one’s overall sense of wellbeing. Gratitude has been shown to strengthen and deepen relationships because people who express gratitude for one another also tend to embody less narcissistic traits and be more willing to forgive others. According to (Algoe et al., 2008; Algoe, Gable, & Maisel, 2010) the act of giving thanks or showing gratitude to individuals that have helped you, strengthens relationships by promoting relationship formation and maintenance as well as strengthening connection and satisfaction in that relationship. In addition to increasing feelings of wellbeing strengthening relationships, some other ways that research has shown gratitude improves your life is by, increasing happiness, increasing self-esteem, increasing neurologically based morality, increasing mental and physical health, increasing athleticism, and increasing the overall wellbeing of one’s life (Ackerman 2017).
Experts in the mental health field tend to agree that living in a place of gratitude increasing our feelings of wellbeing resulting in a more fulfilled, content life. Living in a state of gratitude does not mean that one is unauthentically positive or that we are ignoring life’s difficulties. It simply means that even in the face of adversity we are finding gratitude in other areas of our life. This may come off as “finding the silver lining” of a situation but showing gratitude does not mean we are finding the best in every situation. Some situations in life are just difficult with no good reason or positive aspect. This is a part of the human experience. Practicing gratitude in situations of adversity without a positive aspect would look like showing gratitude for being physically and mentally healthy while experiencing financial difficulties after losing a job. This allows us to be flexible in our thinking and not engage in all or nothing thinking. The practice of gratitude and flexible thinking go hand in hand.
I encourage you to start a daily gratitude practice by making a gratitude list each day or reflecting on the positive aspects of your day (no matter how insignificant you feel they are as nothing is too small to be of significance) while going to bed at night. You can incorporate this with some deep breathing exercises. If you are looking for a more structured daily practice, I recently released “The Foundations of Gratitude; 30-day guided gratitude journal to help jumpstart your daily gratitude journey.” Available to purchase at https://velvetcollective.org/downloadable-resources/p/foundations-of-gratitude-journal.
References
Ackerman, Courtney (2017). What is Gratitude and Why is it so important?. PositivePsychology.com. https://positivepsychology.com/gratitude-appreciation/
Algoe, S. B., Haidt, J., & Gable, S. L. (2008). Beyond reciprocity: Gratitude and relationships in everyday life. Emotion, 8, 425–429.
Forster, D.E., Pedersen, E.J., Smith, A., McCullough, M.E., Lieberman, D. (2017). Benefit valuation predicts gratitude. Evolution and Human Behavior 38(1), 18-26.
