The Gratitude Attitude

‘Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all others’. Marcus Tullius Cicero

Gratitude is ‘the feeling or quality of being grateful’, according to the Cambridge Dictionary. It is often a feeling directed towards someone else for something they have done for us, although it needn’t be – we can be grateful to see the rising of the sun or the dew on the grass; we can be grateful for our health, and our friends, and for a million other good things. Whatever we feel grateful for, gratitude is about appreciation and there is good evidence to suggest that practising gratitude improves our mental health – indeed, research suggests it has lasting effects on the brain: grateful people tend to be happier people; they get depressed less; practising gratitude unshackles us from toxic emotions that drain our spirit.

Two psychologists, Dr Robert A. Emmons of the University of California, and Dr Michael E. McCullough of the University of Miami, have carried out a lot of research on gratitude. In one study, they asked all participants to write a few sentences each week, focusing on particular topics: one group wrote about things they were grateful for that had occurred during the week; the second group wrote about the daily things that irritated them; and the third group just wrote about events that had affected them, with no emphasis on them being positive or negative. After ten weeks, the three groups were tested and those who wrote about gratitude were more optimistic and felt better about their lives; they were also exercising more and visiting their GP less than those who had written about their irritations.

Martin Seligman, a psychologist at the University of Pennsylvania, tested the impact of various positive psychology interventions on 411 people; when their week’s assignment was to write and personally deliver a letter of gratitude to another person, they exhibited a huge increase in happiness scores.

Individual studies are not conclusive, of course, but most studies published about gratitude support a link between gratitude and wellbeing; that feels instinctively right, doesn’t it?

I was fascinated to read that feeling grateful towards someone else is helpful for our wellbeing even if we don’t share it: we might write a thank-you note to someone and even if we don’t send it, we can still enjoy the benefits of having felt the gratitude; we feel uplifted just by doing it!

We get the most benefits by making a habit of being grateful – having an attitude of gratitude; the benefits accrue over time. This is a very important point: we can cultivate gratitude – like a Grow-Your-Own-Gratitude recipe. Here are three things we can do to cultivate our gratitude:

1. Remind ourselves every day of the good things in our lives – like having a kind of gratitude daily mental checklist

2. Keep a gratitude journal covering good things that happen, no matter how small; this could be on paper or in the Notes section of our mobile phone

3. Say thank you a lot, in person, and by writing a note/email – Can we say thank you too much? Probably not.

‘Cultivate the habit of being grateful for every good thing that comes to you, and give thanks continuously. And because all things have contributed to your advancement, you should include all things in your gratitude’ Ralph Waldo Emerson

When will you start your gratitude journal? Who will be the first person you thank after reading this blog?

Thank you very much for your time.

References

• ‘How gratitude changes you and your brain’ – Joshua Brown and Joel Wong, 6 June 2017
• ‘Giving thanks can make you happier’ – Harvard Health Publishing (Harvard Medical School), 14 August 2021
• ‘What is gratitude and why is it so important?’ – Courtney E Ackerman, 5 February 2022
• Cicero
• Ralph Waldo Emerson