The Real Benefits of Gratitude
By Tricia Drevets
It’s one of the first things we learn as children. Along with the word “please,” it’s also one of the first things we teach our own kids.
We say it automatically to everyone from the grocery checker, to the waitress, to the bank teller. We often whisper it before our meals, before we go to sleep and after we have a near-miss automobile accident.
It is the phrase “thank you.” But did you know that regularly expressing gratitude – real, honest thankfulness – can have life-changing benefits? An increasing amount of research shows that an attitude of gratitude can help us physically, psychologically and socially.
First, let’s take a look at what we mean by gratitude. The word “gratitude” comes from the Latin word “gratia,” which, depending on the context in which it is used, means grace, graciousness or gratefulness. The Oxford Dictionary defines gratitude as “the quality of being thankful; readiness to show appreciation for and to return kindness.”
Gratitude can also be defined as an appreciation for something you receive, whether that something is tangible or intangible. A grateful person acknowledges the goodness in life as coming from outside himself or herself. As a result, a grateful attitude helps us to connect with others – whether that other person is a friend, a family member, a stranger or a higher power.
Two American psychologists, Robert A. Emmons of the University of California, Davis, and Michael E. McCullough of the University of Miami, have conducted much of the current research on gratitude. Emmons and McCullough’s studies have shown that study participants who increase their levels of gratitude by way of keeping a gratitude journal, writing letters of appreciation or simply voicing their thanks to someone or something have experienced transformative life changes.
In his book Thanks!: How the New Science of Gratitude Can Make You Happier, Emmons contends that “gratitude is literally one of the few things that can measurably change peoples’ lives.”
Physical benefits
In a landmark study published in 2003, Emmons and McCullough showed that gratitude can actually make people feel better physically. The research scientists randomly divided more than 100 college students into three groups. One group was asked to list five things they were grateful for during the past week for 10 consecutive weeks. The second group was asked to list five things that annoyed them each week, and the third group simply listed any five events that occurred during the same time period.
The students also answered detailed questions about their physical and mental health before, during and after the 10 weeks.
The study found that the thankful participants slept an average of one-half hour more per evening and exercised 33 percent more each week compared to the other participants. The findings also showed that study participants who were hypertensive achieved up to a 10 percent reduction in their systolic blood pressure readings and were able to decrease their dietary fat intake by nearly 20 percent.
Study participants who kept gratitude journals also reported that they were less bothered by simple aches and pains than they were before the study. Emmons has since found similar results in studies with participants of wider age ranges.
Mental benefits
In addition to physical benefits, actively practicing gratitude can lead to increased feelings of optimism and joy. Emmons writes in his book Thanks! that expressing and living out a lifestyle of gratitude can actually “re-set” a person’s happiness quotient. He goes on to say that family, friends and colleagues of people who embrace gratitude report that grateful people seem happier and are more pleasant to be with.
Managers who thank their staff members may find that those employees are motivated to work harder. A Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania study on gratitude randomly divided university fund-raisers into two groups. The first group made phone calls to alumni as part of the school’s annual donation drive. Before the second group made calls on a different day, however, the director of annual giving gave those callers a pep talk in which she expressed her gratitude for their efforts. During the following week, the university employees who heard the message of gratitude made 50 percent more calls than those who did not hear the pep talk.
Having a grateful outlook on life may even help you learn better. A 2010 Hofstra University survey of 1,035 high-school students, for example, found that the most grateful students had higher Grade Point Averages (GPAs), while the students more focused on material goods had lower GPAs. “One of the best cures for materialism is to make somebody grateful for what they have,” study leader Jeffrey J. Froh told the Wall Street Journal at the time the study was released.
When we look for ways to say thanks, instead of expressing what may be our more natural impulse to complain, we can block negative emotions, such as resentment, envy and regret. A 2008 study by psychologist Alex Wood that was published in the Journal of Research in Personality shows that gratitude can reduce the frequency and duration of episodes of depression.
Social benefits
Both Emmons’ and McCullough’s findings reveal that people who purposefully practice gratitude report improved relationships. People who express more thankfulness start thinking more outside of themselves, according to Emmons, and start feeling more connected to the outside world.
Emmons calls gratitude “a social emotion.” He points out that gratitude helps us to look for the goodness in the world and “requires us to see how we’ve been supported and affirmed by other people.”
An example of how research bears this out is a California State University study that was presented at the American Psychological Association in 2012. The study revealed that teenagers who exhibit gratefulness are more likely to be well-adjusted and well-behaved at school.
A research team led by Giacomo Bono, Ph.D. conducted the study on 700 young people ages 10 to 14 over the course of four years. At the end of the four-year period, the most grateful teens reported a 15 percent increase in feeling as if they had a meaning for life as well as a 15 percent increase in what the study termed “life satisfaction.” This group also experienced a 17 percent boost in hopefulness and a 15 percent decrease in feeling symptoms of depression.
In addition, the teens who experienced the greatest increase in gratefulness over the study period also experienced the greatest reductions in negative behaviors such as cheating and drug and alcohol use.
According to Philip Watkins, an Eastern Washington University psychologist and author of the book Gratitude and the Good Life, grateful people also are able to achieve some closure of negative events by maintaining a generally positive outlook. He suggests that gratitude helps to focus your attention on what you have rather than what you don’t have. When we are able to reflect on and savor what is good in life — even if the good is pretty simple and down-to-earth –we feel better, Watkins asserts.
Whereas ungrateful people may think that having more material things – such as a new car or a bigger house — will make them happy, grateful people tend to realize that true happiness comes from having better relationships with others.
Gratitude can also improve marriages. A 2011 study showed that when one partner took time the time and effort to express gratitude to his or her partner, he or she felt more positive toward the other person and felt more comfortable discussing any concerns about their relationship.
Let’s say you are convinced that being a grateful person has benefits. How do you go about cultivating a genuine attitude of thankfulness? Well, like many other things that are good for you, such as eating healthier foods and exercising more, you just have to get started.
Here are four steps to developing gratitude:
Keeping a journal
Emmons has pioneered the idea of a gratitude journal and has conducted experiments on how writing down blessings has benefited study participants ranging from the age of eight to 80.
Take a few minutes each day to reflect on what you are thankful for in your life. Start with your most consistent blessings – such as food and clothing, for instance — advises Watkins. As you get more comfortable exploring what you are thankful for, you can add more personalized details and experiences. According to Emmons, after only a few weeks, people who follow this routine will feel better about themselves and notice the other benefits of gratitude.
Gratitude does not depend on your circumstances and does need to be directed at another person to have benefits, Emmons points out. Don’t be overwhelmed by the idea of keeping a daily journal. He says that writing in your journal once or twice per week is fine, and may in fact be more beneficial than writing in a journal every day.
“We adapt to positive events quickly, especially if we constantly focus on them,” Emmons explains. “It seems counterintuitive, but it is how the mind works.”
Write letters of thankfulness
University of Pennsylvania psychologist Martin E. P. Seligman asked each participant in a gratitude study to write a letter of thanks to someone who had never been properly thanked for his or her kindness. There was a marked increase in the 411 participants’ happiness scores after they wrote the letters, and the mental boost of the letter writing lasted for about 30 days.
Chris Peterson, a psychology professor at the University of Michigan, regularly asks his students to write “gratitude letters,” or belated thank-you notes to people who have been important in their lives. After the exercise, Peterson says his students feel happier “100 percent of the time.”
Say prayers of thanksgiving
You don’t need to write down your blessings. Many of the benefits of gratitude can be realized by merely setting aside a time each day to think about what you are thankful for.
Writer Leo Babauta, author of the book The Power of Less, writes in his blog “Zen Habits,” “Many days, I try to humble myself and hold a two-minute gratitude session. I simply sit or kneel, with no distractions, close my eyes, and think about what I’m grateful for and who I’m grateful for.”
No matter what your religion or whom you are thanking for the positive things in your life, the act of offering a spoken or unspoken prayer brings the benefits of gratitude, researchers have found.
Emmons says that grateful thinking helps us by pushing away our ungrateful thoughts. It helps us from taking the good things in our lives for granted. Many people find it helpful to set a regular time for thoughts of thankfulness: perhaps the first thing in the morning or the last thing at night.
Try thinking of what you are grateful for as “gifts,” Emmons suggests. It is important that you avoid turning the idea “being grateful” into another part of your daily to do list. Emmons advises that we make a conscious effort to use the word “gift” to help avoid complacency.
“Be aware of your feelings and how you ‘relish’ and ‘savor’ this gift in your imagination. Take the time to be especially aware of the depth of your gratitude,” Emmons instructs.
Religious and philosophical leaders have written of the importance of gratitude since the beginning of history. Now scientific studies have confirmed that expressing gratitude may be one of the simplest ways for us to feel better. Feeling thankful helps us to broaden our outlook, heal from the past and give us hope for the future. Feeling grateful is an affirmation of goodness and a way to bring joy to yourself and to the other important people in your life.
“If the only prayer you said was thank you, that would be enough.” ― German theologian Meister Eckhart (1260-1328).
References
A little thanks goes a long way. (n.d.). pubmed,gov. Retrieved Jan. 3, 2014, from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20515249
Authentic happiness. (n.d.). authentic happiness. Retrieved Jan. 3, 2014, from http://www.authentichappiness.sas.upenn.edu/
Benefits of expressing gratitude: expressing gratitude to a partner changes one’s view of the relationship. Lambert NM, Clark MS, Durtschi J, Fincham FD, Graham SM. Psychol Sci. 2010 Apr 21 (4):574-80. Epub 2010 Mar 5. Retrieved January 3, 2014, from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20424104
Emmons, R. A. (2007). Thanks!: how the new science of gratitude can make you happier. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co.
Expressing gratitude. (n.d.). psycNet. Retrieved Jan. 3, 2014, from http://psycnet.apa.org/journals/emo/11/1/52/
Gratitude and Happiness. (n.d.). greatergood. Retrieved Jan. 3, 2104, from http://greatergood.berkeley.edu/pdfs/GratitudePDFs/5Watkins-GratitudeHappiness.pdf
Watkins, P. C. (2013). Gratitude and the good life toward a psychology of appreciation. Dordrecht: Springer.