Having an attitude of gratitude is one of the quickest and easiest ways to ratchet up the level of happiness in your life. Gratitude means being thankful or appreciative for benefits you have received or are expecting to receive and the desire to return the kindness or favor. It has long been a focal point of several of the world's major religions, but has only just come under the scrutiny of psychologists in the 21st century. This is understandable given psychology's traditional focus on problems and distress rather than positive states of being. Here's how gratitude can play a positive role in your life.
Expressing gratitude can reinforce desirable behaviors. One interesting study tracked the results of a jewelry store's interactions with its customers. When the jewelry store took the time to call customers just to thank them after they had been in the store and made purchases, there was a subsequent 70% increase in purchases. If the store called customers to thank them and make them aware of an upcoming sale, there was a 30% increase in purchases. Customers who were not called at all did not display any increase whatsoever. A similar study revealed that waitresses who wrote "thank you" on their customers' checks received bigger tips. What a simple and yet powerful tool to shape and reinforce the behaviors you'd like to see more of in other people!
Learn to express gratitude for better well-being. Many studies have now been conducted that prove the expression of gratitude has a tremendous positive impact on your overall well-being. Grateful people are happier, less depressed; less stressed, more satisfied with their lives and relationships and have more control over their environment, personal growth, life purpose and self acceptance. Grateful people tend to have more positive coping skills when faced with challenges and setbacks, are more likely to spend time planning how to deal with the problem, seek needed support from others and see how they are growing through the experience. Grateful people are more likely to think positive thoughts at bedtime, resulting in higher quality sleep. Oddly enough, gratitude seems to be the best indicator of overall well-being, beating out more than 30 other commonly studied personality traits. Not surprisingly, grateful people also tend to be more generous and altruistic.
Here are 3 strategies for cultivating your own attitude of gratitude;
Given that gratitude has powerful positive effects on everyone involved, actively cultivating an attitude of gratitude seems like a win-win proposition. But gratitude is an emotion. How do you make yourself feel it? Like anything in life, you have to learn how to do it, practice it to get better at it, and exercise it to keep it going. Here are some strategies based on scientific studies that will help:
1. Gratitude Thinking. One study showed that immediate well-being benefits were recorded in people who were asked to spend time just thinking about someone for whom they were grateful. Think about different people who have helped you without being asked (teachers, nurses, pastors, etc.).
2. Gratitude Visits. In a study about various therapeutic interventions to increase people's quality of life, the biggest short-term benefits were obtained by a gratitude visit where the participant wrote and delivered a letter of gratitude to a person in their life. The jump in happiness scores (10%) lasted as long as one month after the deed.
3. Gratitude Journals. In the same study, the intervention resulting in the longest-lasting impact was keeping a gratitude journal where participants wrote down three items each day for which they were grateful, including good things that happened to them that day. With just one week of journaling, their happiness scores began increasing and continued to rise for quite some time, with peak benefits occurring some six months after treatment began.
For some additional perspectives on gratitude and kindness, watch the 2005 movie Pay It Forward, visit the Pay It Forward Movement and Foundation and check out The Newton Project that tries to quantify the benefits of a Pay It Forward kind of system.
As you can see, gratitude is one amazing emotion. We would all be much better off if we learned how to regularly indulge this powerhouse of happiness. If I were to start a gratitude journal today, taking the time to learn and write about expressing gratitude would be the first entry!
This article is brought to you by MATCHMAKING.
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