The gift of gratitude

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Thanksgiving Day through Christmas is considered the giving thanks and being grateful season. When people seem happier and kinder, many often wish such an atmosphere could continue into the New Year and beyond.

As it turns out, gratitude doesn’t have to be seasonal. But rather, an attitude of gratitude can be part of our everyday lives with transformative benefits.

Psychologists Robert Emmons and Michael McCullough are considered pioneers in scientific research on gratitude. Emmons is a retired professor of psychology at the University of California, Davis. McCullough is a professor of psychology at the University of California, San Diego, and director of its Center for Research on Experimental Evolutionary Psychology.

In 2003, Emmons and McCullough began studies on gratitude’s impact on psychological and physical well-being. In 2004, the duo published “The Psychology of Gratitude,” a collection of their scientific investigations on gratitude.  

According to Emmons and McCullough, gratitude is defined as having two components: affirmation and recognition. First is the affirmation of the goodness of the gifts and the benefits we’ve received. Second is the recognition that the sources of this goodness are outside of ourselves; we recognize that other people and/or even a higher power gives us many gifts, big and small, to achieve goodness in our lives.

“Gratitude seems to be an emotion that produces improvements in positive emotion, reductions in negative emotion and even small improvements in satisfaction with life,” said McCullough. “This is perhaps not so surprising because when you contemplate gratitude, you end up bringing to mind people in your life who have cared enough about you to do valuable and important things for you. We all need people like that in our lives.”

At the heart of Emmons and McCullough’s numerous studies over the years was the practice of people keeping gratitude journals for three weeks. People of all ages from all walks of life kept gratitude journals, where they regularly listed what they are grateful for on a daily or weekly basis for three weeks. By the end of the three weeks, the participants consistently reported benefits in three areas: physical (lower blood pressure, better sleep, fewer aches and pains); psychological (more joy and feeling more alive) and social (more compassionate, outgoing, less lonely).

Psychologist Martin E.P. Seligman, director of the University of Pennsylvania’s Positive Psychology Center, also has studied practicing gratitude’s impact on a person’s well-being. In one study, he had half of the participants write weekly about early memories of growing up; the other half wrote and personally delivered a letter of gratitude each week. At the end of the study, those who wrote and delivered gratitude letters exhibited a larger increase in happiness scores than those who wrote about early memories.

THIS IS YOUR BRAIN ON GRATITUDE

Dr. Joshua Brown, professor of Biological Brain Sciences, and Dr. Joel Wong, professor of Counseling Psychology, at Indiana University Bloomington, utilized functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) to show the effects of practicing gratitude on the brain.

Brown and Wong’s study involved nearly 300 adults, mostly college students who were just beginning mental health counseling at a university. The participants were experiencing issues related to depression and anxiety.

The study participants were randomly put into three groups: the first group was instructed to write one letter of gratitude to another person for three weeks; the second group was asked to write about their deepest thoughts and feelings about negative experiences; the third group did not do any writing activity and just received counseling.

At the end of the three weeks, those who wrote gratitude letters while undergoing the counseling self-reported the best outcome of better mental health four weeks and 12 weeks later. And brain scans of the participants three months later backed up this result. Practicing gratitude was shown to encourage the development of new neural pathways with the release of dopamine and serotonin, the two neurotransmitters crucial for our emotional health.

As a function of survival, our brains tend to have a negative bias and this signals the release of cortisol, the flight-or-flight hormone, to protect us. But sometimes this response goes off too much, leading to chronic stress. Feelings of gratitude help regulate cortisol and reduce anxiety.

When all is said and done, when research study after research study reveals the benefits of gratitude, it really comes down to something we can all say more often, “Thank you.”

TIPS FOR PRACTICING GRATITUDE

Keep a gratitude journal: You can use something as generic as a spiral notebook or buy yourself something fancier such as a leather journal. The important thing is set up a gratitude journal that appeals to you. Research shows that it is more beneficial to write in a physical journal rather than keep an electronic one. Set aside time each day to write in your journal and be as consistent as possible in keeping that time dedicated to the practice.

Be specific: If nothing else, at least write yourself a gratitude list each night of three things you are grateful for and be as specific as possible.

Be personal: Focus on the people in your life you are grateful for as much as the things or events. There is someone to thank who made the latter possible in your life. Consider what your life would be like without the people who matter to you and the good things in your life.

Recognize gifts: Think of the good things in your life as gifts to avoid taking them for granted. Enjoy and savor any gifts that you receive.

Spread gratitude: Write a gratitude note or letter to anyone who brightens your life in small and big ways and deliver/mail it. Bring a meal to someone who is ill, run errands for an elderly neighbor, bake cookies to cheer up someone. Research shows that practicing gratitude has a ripple effect and is paid forward.

SOURCES: psychology.today, health.harvard.edu, greatergood.berkeley.edu. whyy.org and adaa.org