Benefits of Gratitude: A Review

 

There are so many benefits to gratitude. 

In August, I highlighted some of the many benefits of having a personal gratitude practice. To review, here's a list of all 15 benefits with links to the individual posts (or visit Benefits of Gratitude to view all 15 on one page). 

• Benefit #1 - Increases joy and happiness.
• Benefit #2 - Helps shift the focus from life's problems to its gifts.
• Benefit #3 - Helps reduce stress and anxiety.
• Benefit #4 - Helps develop a more positive mental outlook.
• Benefit #5 - Increases awareness of life's many blessings
• Benefit #6 - Helps improve the quality of life.
• Benefit #7 - Helps prioritize what's important in life.
• Benefit #8 - Helps lower blood pressure.
• Benefit #9 - Improves physical and mental health.
• Benefit #10 - Strengthens connections with others and improves relationships.
• Benefit #11 - Strengthens the immune system.
• Benefit #12 - Improves sleep quality.
• Benefit #13 - Strengthens coping skills.
• Benefit #14 - Can help develop greater enthusiasm and optimism.
• Benefit #15 - Makes it easier to forgive and let go of past hurts.

Benefits of Gratitude #15: Forgiveness

According to Forgiveness Specialist, Fred Luskin, “gratitude and compassion help people look beyond themselves to enable forgiveness.” Click Here to view a video lecture on the subject... Forgiveness Requires Gratitude.

Benefits of Gratitude #14: Optimism

Studies have shown that people who have a regular gratitude practice are optimistic about the future and are more likely to approach their daily lives with enthusiasm and energy. They are able to carry a zest for life with them throughout the day and are more likely to hold onto their positive outlook when things do not necessarily go their way.

Benefits of Gratitude #13: Coping

When the mind is overwhelmed with worry, anxiety, and stress, it becomes difficult to muster up the ability to cope with conflicts, pressures, and the unexpected. Gratitude helps create a foundation for greater coping skills by developing a more positive mental attitude and making it easier to let go of the worry and struggles that cloud the mind.

Benefits of Gratitude #12: Sleep

Multiple studies have shown that gratitude can play a role in getting a better night’s sleep. Grateful people seem to sleep more peacefully, fall asleep faster, and feel more refreshed.

To learn more about these studies and their findings, visit this article at PsychologyToday.com.

Benefits of Gratitude #11: Immune System

Gratitude helps promote positive thinking and therefore a positive emotional state. An optimistic outlook on life helps strengthen the immune system. Grateful people have a tendency to live healthier lives.

To read more, visit: this article at Dr. Weil.com.

Benefits of Gratitude #10: Relationships

Cultivating a sense of gratefulness for our friends, relatives, and romantic partners can help strengthen those relationships. First of all, gratitude helps us look at the positives in our lives and helps develop our minds to look for what is good in the world around us. With gratitude as a tool, its easier to notice the good in others and appreciate the positive effects they have on our lives. The more we are able to see the good in others and increase our awareness of their positive traits, the more willing we are to open our hearts and let them in.

Second…a gratitude practice helps increase feelings of joy and a desire to be more giving…these, along with a spirit of appreciation, are excellent traits from which to develop stronger relationships.

Try using a gratitude journal to develop more appreciation for your spouse or significant other. All it takes is writing three things each night, including whatever you are thankful for, from that day with your partner. Try it for 30 days and see what effects it has on your relationship. It's even more powerful if both of you are involved in this process, each keeping your own daily gratitude list. Who knows, you may choose to continue after the 30 days are over.

Read more about Gratitude Journals for Relationships.

Benefits of Gratitude #9: Health

A gratitude practice not only improves a person’s outlook on life, their sense of well-being, and mental health, it also can positively impact their physical health. Those who consistently practice gratitude do not get sick as often as those who do not and studies have shown heart patients to have a lower risk of a second heart attack. In addition, people with life threatening illnesses have a better overall outlook on life and are happier when maintaining a gratitude practice.

"There is nothing that can have a more powerful effect on your mental health than the spirit of thankfulness."

                                             ~George E. Vandeman

Benefits of Gratitude #8: Lower Blood Pressure

According to the studies done by Professor Robert Emmons, University of California at Davis, the use of a gratitude journal can reduce blood pressure levels by 10 percent…as mentioned in this article.

By lowering blood pressure you are taking an important step towards reducing heart and kidney issues. High blood pressure can cause damage to your vision, so reducing blood pressure levels helps minimizes that risk.

Benefits of Gratitude #7: Helps to Prioritize

A gratitude practice is an exercise in focusing on what’s important to you, what you value, and who and what you appreciate. It stands to reason that this experience with gratitude would help to prioritize what you are most thankful for.

Benefits of Gratitude #6: Quality of Life

Grateful people are more likely to be successful in achieving their goals. They are less likely to suffer from depression and tend to experience a greater degree of satisfaction with their lives.

In 2011, David Brooks wrote an opinion piece on Gratitude's Gifts. In referring to the findings of the Journal of Happiness Studies with high school student, he wrote; "They found that high gratitude scores powerfully predict higher grades, better social integration and lower envy and depression levels. Students with more materialistic attitudes earned lower grades."

Benefits of Gratitude #5: Aware of Blessings

 

Increased Awareness of Life's Gifts

A gratitude practice helps to fine tune an awareness of life’s many blessings. In fact, it doesn’t take long, to begin to notice the good things that fill our daily lives…much of which may have been taken for granted in the past.

 "Gratitude can transform common days into thanksgiving, turn routine jobs into joy, and change ordinary opportunities into blessings."

                                        ~William Arthur Ward 

Benefits of Gratitude #4: More Positive

People who choose the path of gratitude, are more likely to feel satisfied with their lives, experience a more natural flow of positive thoughts and feelings, and more readily see the positives in life's situations.

This benefit is key. The ability to acknowledge the positives in our lives, is the most important ingredient to help manifest most of the other benefits of gratitude.

Overcoming Fear

How I used gratitude to deal with my fear of flying

For many years, when I fly, I get freaked out during take offs. Until the plane levels off, I grab hold of my husband’s or daughter’s hand and won’t let go. And if I’m alone, I have to make do with the arm rest (not the best substitute). I don’t think I’m exaggerating when I say that there are times when I feel a bit terrified, and I definitely overreact to any shaking or jerking around that the plane makes before reaching full altitude.

Last year I had to take several flights at the end of the year. It was just a few weeks after publishing The Gratitude Habit and I decided to see how I’d react to focusing on the things I was grateful for during take off. On the first flight, it was hard to focus but I noticed how much calmer I was than usual. On the second, I was able to spend the entire time thinking of the many things I appreciate in my life. By the third flight, it seemed that the time it took to become airborne was shorter than expected as I got lost in my thoughts of gratitude. Thankfulness really seemed to help.

But the biggest surprise was this summer during a trip to Asia, with a number of flights each way. Every one of those take offs was easy and fairly comfortable. I wondered if it was the planes, the pilots, or something miraculous. Each take off was a pleasant surprise. It wasn’t until recently that I began to suspect that gratitude had played a part in this transformation. Maybe I had reprogrammed my brain during last year’s flights. I began this recent journey feeling very grateful to be able to make such a special trip and every flight began with unexpectedly peaceful feelings…and for that I am grateful.

Benefits of Gratitude #3: Reduced Stress

Reduced Stress and Anxiety

When you find yourself feeling stressed, try making a mental list of some of the things you appreciate and the people you are grateful for. It’s hard to maintain the same level of stress and anxiety when feeling grateful.

To read more, visit my blog post: Replace Fear With Gratitude.

"Gratitude is one of the sweet shortcuts to finding peace of mind and happiness inside. No matter what is going on outside of us, there's always something we could be grateful for."

                                             - Barry Neil Kaufman  

Benefits of Gratitude #2: Problems Can Become Gifts

Shifting Focus from Problems to Benefits

When gratitude is an integral part of one’s life, it becomes easier to shift perspective from the difficulties, struggles, and set backs of everyday life…and focus on all of the many gifts that present themselves throughout the day. (Some examples of gifts: a smile from a stranger, catching sight of a rainbow, a great dinner, a hug from a loved one, a kindness shown, easily finding a parking spot in a crowded lot, a great cup of coffee.)

"Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos into order, confusion into clarity.... It turns problems into gifts, failures into success, the unexpected into perfect timing, and mistakes into important events. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today and creates a vision for tomorrow."     
                                                                ~ Melodie Beattie

Benefits of Gratitude #1: Happiness

Increased Joy and Happiness 

Grateful people have an overall higher level of happiness and satisfaction with their lives. They are more easily able to keep the “ups and downs” of life in perspective and look at the good, even during difficult times.

A Video: An Experiment in Happiness

The video starts out by saying that "Psychologists have scientifically proven that one of the greatest contributing factors to overall happiness, in your life, is how much gratitude you show." Watch to see the experiment they set up to prove those studies.

Benefits of Gratitude

There Are So Many Benefits To Gratitude

Gratitude is an easy way to improve your life. It doesn't take much time at all and can become part of any activity, at any time of day. There are so many benefits to making gratitude an integral part of your life. Studies have shown that people who regularly give thanks experience more happiness, better sleep, and feel a greater sense of well being. Gratitude is a great way to reduce stress and increase positive thinking.

I have been amazed at how many benefits there are to incorporating gratitude into your life. From personal experience, I can definitely say that it has helped reduce my fear of flying and has helped me eliminate stress whenever I remember to utilize it. Gratitude kept me company one evening when I was having difficulty breathing and couldn't sleep...a very uncomfortable night turned into a magical memory filled with joy.

A daily gratitude practice might include: making a daily list of things you are grateful for, keeping a gratitude journal, noticing and appreciating the many big and small blessings throughout the day, and/or letting others know how much you appreciate them.

Whether you've already incorporated a gratitude practice into your life or you are thinking of starting one, check here, over the next couple of weeks, for posts designed to help increase awareness of the many benefits of making gratitude a habit.

Choose Gratitude

In Any Given Moment, embrace love, choose gratitude, release fear...in the NOW.

No matter what you are experiencing in life, you can choose gratitude and improve your day. In doing so you will find it easier to release fear, stress, and anxiety.

Click Here for more Benefits of Gratitude.

Happy Thanksgiving Day

Happy Thanksgiving Day!
Or should I say Happy Gratitude Day? Of course, we can look at it as everyday is a day of gratitude and a chance to be grateful for the gifts that fill our lives.

How wonderful to have a day set aside for celebrating thankfulness and to share our gratitude with others. Imagine what it would be like to have that same focus for 365 days a year. Many do.

Just as people choose to make resolutions on New Year's Day, you can start a new tradition on Thanksgiving Day. Make a commitment to gratitude with a plan for keeping gratitude present in your life throughout the year. What can you do to foster gratitude in your daily life?

If you need some reasons for developing a gratitude practice, check out the Benefits of Gratitude.