Gratitude refers to grace, graciousness, or gratefulness in some ways. Gratitude is the ability to express appreciation for what an individual receives. There are so many emotional benefits of gratitude that anyone can reap.
The appreciation might comes for giving out a gift, which could be tangible or intangible. People, by virtue of gratitude, acknowledge the goodness in their lives.
So, show gratitude to whatever anyone does for you. You expressing appreciation could lift a soul-tinged with sadness, anxiety, or depression.
Such a person you express appreciation to will feel overwhelmed, and you end up lifting such spirit.
According to findings in positive psychology, gratitude is strongly and consistently associated with greater happiness. Gratitude brings about more positive emotions, and people relish good experiences, improve their health, deal with adversity, and build strong relationships from it.
Ways People Feel And Express Gratitude.
Past: As gratitude is express in multiple ways, it can apply to the past, which concerns retrieving positive memories. In such an instance, you are thankful for elements of childhood or past blessings.
Present: As for the present, which could be your standard of living or status, you are thankful by not taking where you are for granted as it comes.
Future: Sice you appreciate the past and present, you have a strong hope for the future. This is a form of optimistic attitude, regardless of your current level of gratitude. This is a quality you need cultivate further.
Research on gratitude conducted by two psychologists, Dr. Robert A. Emmons, Davis, and Dr. Michael E. McCullough, will be used to simply explain why you need to understand the benefit of gratitude.
In the study, participants were told to write a few sentences each week, focusing on particular topics.
One group expressed appreciation for things that had occurred during the week. The second group of participants wrote about their daily irritation while the third wrote about events that had effects on them, not emphasizing them being positive or negative.
After ten weeks of the study, it was discovered that the first responders who wrote about gratitude were more optimistic and felt better about their lives. They were not the usual clients of physicians.
This is in contrast to the other two groups of people.
Showing gratitude can also help you connect to something larger than yourself — it could be to other people, nature, or a higher power.
Even showing gratitude will bring positivity to your mental health and chase depression away. Relationship-wise, it will boost interaction between two people, and feelings are easily shared.
Expressing gratitude to each other brings about positivity between you two, and you are move free to each other and even take your relationship to a better level.
There has been a lot of research that has proven the cause and effect of gratitude. Express appreciation today and see the positive result and energy around you.
So, to show gratitude, you must cultivate the habit. It helps your mental state to grow further.
Ways To Cultivate Gratitude And Practice It Regularly.
- Compose a thank-you note and send it to that person to show you appreciated the gesture.
- When you have no time to write, thank someone mentally.
- You can keep a gratitude journal that will include thoughts about the gifts you’ve received from some people.
- Pick three good things that you see or experience at the end of the day, then write them down.
- If you miss someone, don’t try to dismiss the feeling; rather use it to feel thankful.
- Take time to thank someone every day
- See the silver lining in every situation
- Switch your point of view.
Emotional Benefits of Gratitude
1. Gratitude boost relationships
Expressing gratitude opens doors for further connections. Saying “thank you” constitute good manners, but expressing appreciation can help you get new friends. A study on emotion in 2014 found out that thanking a new acquaintance makes them more likely to seek an ongoing relationship. Expressing gratitude can improve your social health and social skills.
So, thanking a stranger for holding the door or sending a quick thank-you note to that co-worker for helping with a project or acknowledging other people’s contributions can bring about new opportunities.
2. Improvement in physical health
Expressing appreciation makes you experience fewer aches and pains. According to a 2012 study published in Personality and Individual Differences, this makes you feel healthier than other people.
This is more because grateful people take care of their health because most of them exercise more often. They are also likely to attend regular check-ups with their doctors.
3. Boost in psychological health
Expressing appreciation reduces many toxic emotions, ranging from envy and resentment to frustration and regret and improves your psychological health.
Multiple studies done by Robert A. Emmons, PhD, a leading gratitude researcher on the link between gratitude and well-being, confirm that gratitude effectively increases happiness, reducing depression.
4. Gratitude eradicates aggressions and enhances empathy
A 2012 finding by the University of Kentucky show that most grateful people have more social behaviour while others behave less kind.
According to the finding, participants ranked higher on gratitude scales were less likely to be aggressive, even when given negative feedback. This is because they are more sensitive to the situation and show empathy toward other people. This reduced their desire to seek revenge.
5. Better Sleep
Being a grateful person can guarantee you a better sleep. You can have a gratitude journal to do this. By this way, you document what someone has done for you to express gratitude. By this way, you are guaranteed a better and longer.
6. Boost in self-esteem
Expressing appreciation also boosts your self-esteem. According to a 2014 study published in the Journal of Applied Sport Psychology, gratitude increased athlete’s self-esteem, resulting in optimal performance.
7. Boosts mental strength
Gratitude is seen as a major boost in mental strength. Over the years, research has shown that appreciation plays major roles in reducing stress and overcoming trauma.
Research on Behavior and Therapy conducted in 2006 and published found that Vietnam War Veterans with higher gratitude levels experienced lower rates of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.
We need to discover that ability and opportunity to cultivate gratitude as it is ingrained in all human beings.
To be grateful, focus on all that you have rather than a complaint about the things you don’t have, and you think you deserve them.
All in all, Develop a gratitude attitude because it is one of the simplest ways to improve your satisfaction with life.
Expressing or getting appreciation makes you happier: This boosts your confidence that you have impacted on the life of someone through one way or the other if you are the that helped the person.
Such a sense of gratitude goes a long way to brighten your day.
In conclusion, it has been noted that gratitude is a major contributor to healthy human life and social meddling. If soldiers can recognize all they have to be thankful for during a war, it shows gratitude also fosters resilience.
Came right on time. I will start my gratitude attitude by thanking you for an awesome and amazing blogpost. Keep it up