Cultivate Gratitude, Change Your Life

What is gratitude?

The word gratitude is derived from the Latin word gratia, which means “grace,” “graciousness,” or “gratefulness.” Essentially, gratitude is the expression of a thankful appreciation for what you receive, be it something tangible like a birthday card, homemade snack, or a hug; or something intangible like someone’s friendship, the freedom we experience in the United States, or the feeling of the warm sun beaming down on us. Whatever it is that brings us joy, tangible or intangible, is worthy of our gratitude.

Benefits of gratitude

In positive psychology research, gratitude is strongly and consistently associated with greater happiness. Its expression helps people feel more positive emotions, relish good experiences, improve their health, deal with adversity, and build strong relationships.

Gratitude is one of the most robust predictors of life satisfaction. It is also a strong predictor of healthy relationships, an effect investigators likened to getting a relationship “booster shot.”

These associations and effects have not only been demonstrated in “well-functioning” individuals, but also in those struggling with mental health issues. A recent study sought to determine the impact of a gratitude practice on 300 adults seeking mental health counseling at a university. The participants were separated into three groups: one assigned to write a letter of gratitude to someone each week, a second group assigned to write their deepest thoughts and feelings about negative emotions, and a third “control” group with no assigned activity at all.  Compared with groups two and three, the group writing gratitude letters reported significantly better mental health four and twelve weeks after their writing exercise ended. What was even more interesting was that even those who didn’t send their letters to the person they wrote them to seemed to experience the same level of benefit.

Practicing gratitude also seems to have an effect on a person’s physical health.  One study suggested that those who kept a gratitude journal reported fewer headaches, less stomach pain, clearer skin, and reduced congestion. Yet another study suggested that practicing gratitude could help those with clinically impaired sleep to fall asleep more quickly, sleep longer, have better quality of sleep, and stay awake more easily during the day. Even more studies show that practicing gratitude can improve heart rate variability, lower blood pressure, and improve blood vessel function following a heart attack.

Cultivating gratitude

One nice thing about cultivating gratitude is that it can often be done for free (excluding the costs of pen and some paper in some instances) and can be done with relatively little effort. It simply requires intentionality: remembering to be grateful.  Some methods include:

1. Writing thank-you notes: As mentioned previously, writing a thank you note to someone is a proven way to improve your own happiness as well as nurture your relationship with someone. The effect doesn’t even appear to diminish if you don’t send the letter.  It’s even beneficial to send a letter to yourself every once in a while.
2. Keep a gratitude journal: By taking time to recognize what we have to be grateful for and actually writing it down, we keep positivity front-of-mind rather than focusing on what’s not going right.
3. Practice mindful meditation: As we’ve discussed in a previous post on the benefits of mindfulness, developing a mindfulness meditation practice can help us focus on the present moment and make us grateful for what we have.

Bringing it home

As we come into the season for giving thanks, now is the perfect time to start a habit of gratitude and carry this feeling of thanksgiving through the rest of the year. Whether you tell your spouse how much you appreciate them, your employees how grateful you are for the job they do, or journal on your own, we encourage you to think of all the things you have to be grateful for!

We here at the Kansas Business Group on Health are extremely grateful for all of the incredible organizations and people we are fortunate to work with.  Thank you for your support, your efforts to do what’s best for the health of your employees, and your commitment to the health of our community!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Photo credit.