How a simple gratitude practice can radically change one’s life

How many of us have ever thought of making a brief halt to celebrate life through a simple “thank you “? We are so overwhelmed with everyday routine, worry, stress and frustration that we eventually forget that we still have too much to be thankful for. Yet, overlooking such a detail which is the main basis of gratitude largely explains how much we need to be reminded of the power and the benefits of practicing it.
Over time, the area of gratitude has attracted many researchers and neuroscientists attention leading them to conduct an in-depth enquiry on the subject. One of them is Professor Robert Emmons who is the world’s leading scientific expert on gratitude. According to Emmons and McCullough in “Psychology of Gratitude” published in 2003, gratitude can be defined as “an emotion, an attitude, a moral virtue, a habit, a personality trait, or a coping response”. They maintain that a person is likely to feel grateful if they perceive that they have a positive personal outcome that they have either not earned, or are deserving of, as a result of the actions of another person.

Benefits of being grateful
According to experts, showing gratitude has a multitude of positive effects on one’s health, self-care, happiness, and fulfillment. Amy Morin, a psychologist and the author of “13 things mentally strong People don’t do” provided in her article - entitled “seven scientifically proven benefits of gratitude” on Psychology Today - various and significant research findings on the field. Here are these 7 proven benefits:

• Gratitude strengthens relationships. A simple act of thanking or any kind of good deed expressed toward others might be an excellent way of maintaining a stronger and healthier relationship.
• Gratitude promotes physical health. She argues that grateful individuals are more likely to take care of their health by practicing sports more often.
• Gratitude enhances psychological health. It decreases harmful emotions and It help people cope with stress
• Gratitude benefits empathy and lower aggression. Grateful people are likely to be more pro-socially oriented and usually avoid quarrel
• Gratitude allows people to sleep tight and longer
• Gratitude increases self-esteem. It is said that grateful people are able to show a real appreciation towards others’ successes that enable them to gain more confidence and performance.
• Gratitude boosts mental strength by helping overcome mental disorder like depression and trauma and build resilience

Here are a few tips on cultivating gratitude
It is notable that gratitude is any act of thankfulness and appreciation in response to all the gifts life has granted to each of us. In this regard, practicing gratitude essentially requires a minimum of effort from us so that we can get some of its benefits. A few easy approaches such as maintaining a gratitude journal, writing personal thank you notes, and spending a few minutes each day to acknowledge all that we have or just expressing gratitude to others can be of paramount importance as far as developing an attitude of gratitude is concerned.

Sources: Psychology Today/ Psychology of Gratitude (Robert Emmons & McCullough)

Edited by Volahanta RAHARIMANANA