The Power of Gratitude

“The more you practice gratitude, the more you see how much there is to be grateful for, and your life becomes an ongoing celebration of joy and happiness” – Don Miguel Ruiz

Being grateful shifts the lens from what is lacking or not ideal to what is already present and good. By incorporating the practice of gratitude into our lives, we can begin to reap the emotional rewards of this state of appreciation and gratitude. Recent studies have found that ‘counting your blessings’ on a regular basis not only leads to feeling more optimistic and enjoying a greater overall satisfaction with life, it can also have some pretty amazing physical and emotional benefits.

“Without gratitude, life can be lonely, depressing and impoverished. Gratitude enriches human life. It elevates, energizes, inspires and transforms, and those who practice it will experience significant improvements in several areas of life including relationships, academics, energy level and even dealing with tragedy and crisis.” Dr Robert Emmons.

Gratitude is a powerful tool for increasing wellbeing in all sorts of settings.

First, by analyzing the words used by participants in each of the two writing groups, we were able to understand the mechanisms behind the mental health benefits of gratitude letter writing. We compared the percentage of positive emotion words, negative emotion words, and “we” words (first-person plural words) that participants used in their writing. Not surprisingly, those in the gratitude writing group used a higher percentage of positive emotion words and “we” words, and a lower proportion of negative emotion words, than those in the other writing group.

However, people who used more positive emotion words and more “we” words in their gratitude letters didn’t necessarily have better mental health later. It was only when people used fewer negative emotion words in their letters that they were significantly more likely to report better mental health. In fact, it was the lack of negative emotion words—not the abundance of positive words—that explained the mental health gap between the gratitude writing group and the other writing group.

Perhaps this suggests that gratitude letter writing produces better mental health by shifting one’s attention away from toxic emotions, such as resentment and envy. When you write about how grateful you are to others and how much other people have blessed your life, it might become considerably harder for you to ruminate on your negative experiences.

In addition to giving individual benefits, gratitude may also help to strengthen ties with friends, loved ones, and those in our wider communities. The find-remind-bind theory, first proposed by psychologist Sara Algoe—an associate professor at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill—suggests that gratitude can help people identify good candidates for a new relationship (find), appreciate existing relationships (remind), and motivate people to maintain or invest in these relationships (bind). As Sara writes in a 2012 paper on her theory, “Gratitude starts inside one individual and its effects spread to a dyadic relationship and perhaps throughout a social network.”

In one study involving nearly 300 adults seeking counseling services at a university, one randomized group wrote a gratitude letter each week for three weeks. The gratitude group reported significantly better mental health (compared to the control group) at follow-up, 12 weeks after the last writing exercise. Another type of written gratitude practice is counting blessings, or “Three Good Things.”A study of this practice found that people who wrote down three things that had gone well in their day and identified the causes of those good things were significantly happier and less depressed, even six months after the study ended.

Gratitude is more than just a momentary good feeling. Scientists who have studied written gratitude interventions, such as gratitude letters or journals, have found benefits for an individual’s mental health and well-being. Gratitude practices also appear to help you feel more satisfied in life and can boost your self-esteem, according to peer-reviewed research.

Research published in the last decade has shown that grateful people (those who have “trait gratitude”) have fewer common health complaints, such as headaches, digestion issues, respiratory infections, runny noses, dizziness, and sleep problems. It appears that practicing gratitude could also help to alleviate those pesky health problems. In one study, a group of college students who wrote about things they were grateful for once per week for 10 weeks reported fewer physical symptoms (such as headaches, shortness of breath, sore muscles, and nausea) compared to two other control groups.

Sometimes what we didn’t have in the past can prevent us from accepting it in the present. If we never had a healthy relationship, we may push away a loving partner. If we were raised to be perfectionists, it’s difficult to appreciate things that aren’t “just right.” That’s why you must let go of the past in order to learn how to live in gratitude each day. Choosing to give a positive meaning to your past experiences will help you overcome limiting beliefs and know that you are worthy of abundance.

“Enjoy the little things, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things.” – Robert Brault

Gratitude can anchor us to the present moment. By focusing our attention on our sensations, we can appreciate the simple things in lives: the sound of bird chirping away; the warm touch of the sun on our skin; the voice of a loved one; the soft touch of a lover … There is much appreciation that can be felt by focusing on sensations.

Some of us can naturally appreciate the sweet moments as they happen throughout the day, while many of us need to actively cultivate gratitude. Focusing on sensations is a way to disengage from thoughts and appreciate the present moment just as it is.

“There are only two ways to live your life, one is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.” Albert Einstein

The best way to start practicing gratitude is to keep a gratitude journal and write things for which you are grateful each day.

Describe in as much detail as possible how your body feels when you express gratitude. What kind of thoughts do you notice? Which emotions accompany these feelings? What sensations do you feel in your body?

Gratitude cannot be forced. You can’t rush through it. Take the time to explore how you feel.

After letting the feelings arise naturally, you can direct your attention to certain events to elicit gratitude. For instance, you might recall a happy memory for which you feel thankful for. Or you could turn your attention to a past problem you overcame, which might make you feel grateful for being in a better place now and having learned in the process.