What are you grateful for this year?

How will you express your gratitude?

Gratitude is good medicine.

— Robert A. Emmons, professor of psychology at UC Davis

10 Reasons to Practice an Attitude of Gratitude, year round

Gratitude Empowers You

Visit www.gratefulness.org, which is an “online sanctuary” designed to foster grateful living. It can be very powerful to emerge ourselves in what we are grateful for and then act to defend, protect, and advance the world.

Gratitude Helps Fight Addiction

Gratitude can help people positively rethink not only the present but also the past and future. People have made incredible accomplishments in valuing their lives, each other, and life itself as a result of focusing on gratitude rather than what is missing in their lives.

Gratitude Combats the Facebook Blues

In a consumer culture, we’re driven to see what we don’t have, and Facebook, social media, is only making it worse. It can feel like we’re all living in some kinds of substandard world, that something should be different. That’s a form of suffering as opposed to seeing that life itself is a gift.” — Kristi Nelson, executive director of gratefulness.org.

Gratitude Boosts Self-Control

Gratitude make us more patient. Future rewards are generally less attractive, but if you’re in a grateful mood you’re more able to wait. If you are sad or depressed you just want to feel better in the moment, so you eat that whole cheesecake instead of skipping dessert in favor of your weight loss goals. — Jeffrey Froh, associate professor at Hofstra University

Gratitude Improves Sleep

We need to count our blessings instead of counting sheep. Nearly every aspect of good sleep (eg. sleep duration and time needed to fall asleep) is improved by gratitude.

Gratitude Fosters a Sense of Community

The thread of life can unravel very quickly, so we need memories of how we’ve been supported and sustained by other people. So much of life is about giving, receiving, repaying benefits; that’s why gratitude in so foundational and fundamental to human beings and to social life… It’s a cycle of reciprocity.

— Robert A. Emmons, professor of psychology at UC Davis

Gratitude Fends Off Depression

Being grateful is closely tied to more resilience and optimism. Researchers found that counting blessings and gratitude letter writing lowered the risk of depression in patients by 41% over 6 months (Dawson, 2017).

Gratitude Strengthens Relationships

Do not focus on your partner’s negative traits or what you do not like about him or her. Focus on your partner’s strengths. This praise and affirmation might even inspire him or her to improve other aspects of the relationship!

Gratitude Improves Managerial Skills

Managers who show gratitude have more productive employees. Grateful employees are better employees. They’re more engaged… more efficient. — Robert A. Emmons, professor of psychology at UC Davis

Gratitude Increases Life Satisfaction for Children

The way you coach it to kids is: Be on the hunt for the good. Kids who are grateful have better relationships growing up, increased happiness and life satisfaction, more emotional and social support, get higher grades, do better in school, are less envious, and less materialistic. — Jeffrey Froh, associate professor at Hofstra University

 

 

 

 

Reference

Dawson, A. (2017). The key to a happy life? Gratitude that goes beyond Thanksgiving. Los Angeles Times, Health & Wellness. doi: http://beta.latimes.com/health/la-he-thanksgiving-gratitude-20171118-story.html#nt=oft07a-2gp1 Accessed on November 18, 2017.