The Power of a Grateful Heart: Top Benefits of Gratitude
Many people find that while they may have had success with managing stress or reducing anxiety, they desire to go beyond simply coping with life’s challenges. It is understandable that they want to feel happier more often.
Research in the field of psychology has investigated the subjective experience of happiness. One of the key findings from this area of psychological research is the association of gratitude to happiness.
The practice of gratitude is incorporated into many social traditions and is a significant teaching in all major religions of the world. Similarly, the emotional power of gratitude serves as the subject of many poems and other forms of meaningful art.
According to psychological research, people who engage in activities related to practicing gratitude and those who have a more grateful personality type, tend to feel happier. In addition to the feeling of happiness, it turns out that gratitude is related to many other psychological and health benefits as well.
Keep reading to learn more about psychological research on gratitude and the multiple benefits of practicing gratitude that have been identified through this research. If you find yourself inspired by these findings, then you may also be interested in the self-help ideas that are provided on how to bring more gratitude into your own life.
Psychological Research on Gratitude
Though humankind has highly valued gratitude for as long as we have kept a history of it, scientific attention given to the practice of gratitude is, in the big scheme of things, an extremely recent event.
For the first hundred years of psychology in the United States, research was centered on understanding mental illness and how to treat it. By 2000, however, social psychologists led a movement to expand psychological research beyond mental illness and towards improving well-being. This movement is now known as Positive Psychology and involves understanding the strengths and virtues that are associated with happier people and populations.
One of the character strengths investigated in Positive Psychology research is that of gratitude. What is the first thing that comes to mind for you when you think of gratitude?
While we may all have a general idea of what gratitude means, for example, being thankful for or appreciative of something, psychological research requires an operational definition. That is, an agreed upon working definition for a scientific study.
Dr. Robert A. Emmons, renowned researcher in the field of Positive Psychology, has offered a definition of gratitude that has two parts to it. First, gratitude is an affirmation of the good. Second, gratitude involves a recognition that this good originates outside the self.
Research has shown that practicing gratitude is key to the feeling of happiness and is associated with many benefits for our overall well-being and health. Dr. Martin Seligman, who is the founder of the area of psychology known as Positive Psychology, conducted what are now considered two classic studies on the practice of gratitude.
Classic Gratitude Research: Three Good Things
The first classic psychological study on gratitude is the “three good things” study. In this research study, Dr. Seligman instructed research participants to a keep a journal for one week and asked that they reflect on three good things from each day. The research participants also completed questionnaires related to their well-being and depressive symptoms.
At the end of the research study, slight improvements to well-being and reduction in depressive symptoms were observed. The research participants were then seen for follow ups at one month, 3 months, and 6 months after the research study. They continued to show improvement with well-being and decreases in depressive symptoms at each of these follow up points.
A key takeaway from this study is that the journaling about gratitude occurred on a daily basis. So, when developing your own gratitude practice, keep in mind that consistency is important.
Classic Gratitude Research: The Gratitude Visit
The second classic psychological study on gratitude is the “gratitude visit” study. In this research study, Dr. Seligman instructed research participants to write a letter conveying their gratitude to a specific person in their lives.
The second phase of the study involved reading the letter aloud to the person for whom it was written. Participants in this study also reported improvement in well-being and a decrease in symptoms related to depression. The act of verbally expressing one’s gratitude to another appeared to have made a greater impact than identifying and writing about one’s gratitude. The positive impact was still felt by participants at the one month follow up phase.
Psychological Benefits of Practicing Gratitude
Dr. Robert A. Emmons is a leader in the Positive Psychology movement and specifically in the area of gratitude research. He has authored 8 books, written over 200 psychological research publications, and is the founder and editor-in-chief of The Journal of Positive Psychology.
Dr. Emmons and colleagues have found that practicing gratitude is essential to the feeling of happiness and is related to many psychological benefits. There are volumes of scientific research with findings in support of the following psychological benefits of practicing gratitude:
· Increase in positive outlook about one’s future
· Feeling more optimistic
· Better likelihood of achieving personal goals
· Greater ability to focus
· Improved interpersonal relationships
· Lower rates of depression and feelings of hopelessness
· Higher levels of altruism
· Aids in reframing past traumatic experiences in a helpful way
· Greater resiliency against any potential future traumatic experiences
· Higher levels of sobriety for those in recovery from drug addiction
Physical Health Benefits of Having a Gratitude Practice
The psychological research conducted by Dr. Emmons and colleagues also supports the following physical health benefits of having a gratitude practice:
· Increase in amount of physical exercise
· Improved energy levels
· Better sleep
· Healthier diets
· Higher rates of adherence to medical advice
· Lower levels of cortisol (which is also known as the stress hormone)
· Reduced rates of smoking
It is important to note that these impressive findings are coming from an area of scientific research that has only recently begun. Can you imagine what future researchers are going to find?
Gratitude as a Personality Trait
Researchers have also investigated people who seem to be more grateful than others as part of their personality. That is, people who tend to be more grateful than others even in the absence of prescribed activities meant to promote the experience of gratitude. Dr. Emmons and colleagues looked at 4 different dimensions of having a grateful personality.
The first dimension was frequency, which is how often one experiences gratefulness. They also looked at intensity, which is how strongly one feels gratitude. Another dimension of a grateful personality is span. That is, how many different sources of gratitude one experiences at a given moment.
The final dimension of gratitude as a personality trait that was measured by Dr. Emmons and colleagues was density. This facet refers to the depth of one’s gratitude. People with a more grateful personality are able to go to great depths with their gratitude by recognizing multiple sources outside of oneself for their experience of gratitude.
Just as engaging in prescribed gratitude activities intended to magnify the feeling of gratitude in a given moment resulted in helpful outcomes like improved feelings of overall well-being and lessened depressive symptoms, the researchers saw similar connections for those with a more grateful personality.
Gratitude and Neurotransmitters
The impressive findings from research on gratitude that began in the field of Positive Psychology prompted other disciplines to learn more about the benefits of practicing gratitude. From neuropsychological research studies, we now know that at the neurotransmitter level, gratitude involves increases of serotonin and dopamine. Medications intended to help with depression and anxiety operate in a similar way within our bodies.
In other words, gratitude is associated with well-established and naturally occurring feel good chemicals in our bodies!
Self-Help Ideas to Bring More Gratitude into Your Own Life
Are you feeling inspired by the above research findings and interested in bringing more gratitude into your own life? The above research results from scientific studies can inform us on how to get the most out of our own gratitude practices.
Practicing gratitude involves being thankful for the good things in life. We may be grateful for the small things, more big picture matters, or both. The things for which we are grateful are quite individualized. For this reason, gratitude practice suggestions need to be flexible so they can be personalized for each individual.
For those who wish to incorporate the practice of gratitude into their day to day lives, they could consider using either the journal method or the letter of appreciation approach. In terms of keeping a gratitude journal, it can be helpful to have some prompts meant to turn our attention to areas of life for which we may be grateful.
Here are some ideas for those who are just getting started with a gratitude journal. Some people find it helpful to focus on gratitude for the fact that one’s basic human needs are met. We often take for granted the fact that we have fresh water and nutritious food to eat.
We may feel grateful for the beauty of the natural world that surrounds us. This gratitude prompt involves picturesque scenery or pleasant weather. A walk in a favorite location can also remind us of all for which we have to be grateful in our natural surroundings.
Perhaps we are grateful for the work we do in life. This area may involve reflecting on the positive impact we have on others or for our salary.
We may be particularly grateful for our mobility or other things we can do with our bodies. This may also involve gratitude for our health or the resources available to us when we do not feel well. It may be the use of our senses that we really appreciate.
We may wish to journal about a particular item we possess. Meaningful and treasured objects can be the source of much gratitude.
Our gratitude may focus on a pet and all the joy or comfort they bring to you.
Gratitude for a particular kindness we have experienced is another topic for a gratitude journal. Here we consider something someone else has done for us. Perhaps it was a small gesture that made a really hard day a bit easier. Or maybe you are grateful for the actions of another that were on a much larger scale such that your entire life was changed for the better.
This last type of gratitude journal exploration may evolve into writing a full gratitude letter. One may choose to write a letter expressing gratitude to an important person in their life and then read the letter aloud to that special person. If you do not have access to the person, imagining that you are reading it to them can also be helpful.
With any gratitude practice, it is important that we genuinely feel grateful about the area of focus. While there are some aspects of life where we can fake it until we make it, a gratitude practice that brings desired results is not one of those areas. To set yourself up for a better likelihood of experiencing the above listed psychological and health benefits of practicing gratitude, you cannot just go through the motions.
Be careful too of shaming yourself or getting guilt tripped into feeling gratitude. The helpful experience of gratitude comes from authentically feeling grateful for something. Thinking we should or being told we should feel grateful for something does not start out as genuine or authentic gratitude. Should statements, whether from our own thoughts or in a message received from another, are often associated with feelings of guilt and shame.
Remember that the above studies pointed to immediate and long term benefits of practicing gratitude. This means that you might feel an emotional boost while writing in a gratitude journal, composing a letter to someone for whom you are grateful, verbally expressing your gratitude to another person, or your own totally unique gratitude practice. Plus, you may benefit long after engaging in the gratitude practice as well. The long-term benefits are supported by staying consistent with your gratitude practice.
By having an understanding of the many psychological and other health benefits of practicing gratitude, it brings new meaning to savoring the good things in life, practicing random acts of kindness, and telling loved ones how special they are and how much they mean to us.
Dr. Jennifer McManus is a licensed psychologist who regularly integrates the value of having a gratitude practice into her therapeutic work with psychotherapy clients. If you think you may benefit from psychotherapy, please contact the therapy practice of Dr. Jennifer McManus to learn more about available support. You can schedule a complimentary consultation, email, or call the office at 866-706-3665.
