Best of 2010, Society & Culture - Posted by Claudia Morain-UC Davis on Wednesday, November 24, 2010 8:44 - 18 Comments 
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(7 votes, average: 4.29 out of 5) Loading ...Why gratitude isn’t for wimps
Psychologist Robert Emmons says his 10 strategies can help anyone cultivate a more grateful approach to life. But he warns that the exercises are not for the "intellectually lethargic." And he stresses that gratitude is incompatible with feelings of victimhood or entitlement, or with the inability to recognize one's shortcomings or to admit one is not self-sufficient. "Far from being a warm, fuzzy sentiment, gratitude is morally and intellectually demanding," he says. "It requires contemplation, reflection and discipline. It can be hard and painful work." (Credit: iStockphoto)
UC DAVIS (US) — A research team studying the positive effects of daily gratitude says it can change people’s lives—but it takes mental toughness and discipline.
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The payoff, however, can be significant.
Compared with those who dwell on daily hassles, people who take time instead to record their reasons for giving thanks exercise more regularly, complain of fewer illness symptoms, and feel better about their lives overall. They also feel more loving, forgiving, joyful, enthusiastic, and optimistic about their futures, while their family and friends report that they seem happier and are more pleasant to be around.
“Gratitude is literally one of the few things that can measurably change people’s lives,” Robert Emmons writes in his book Thanks! How the New Science of Gratitude Can Make You Happier. The book outlines 10 strategies for cultivating a feeling of thanksgiving throughout the year.
Emmons, a psychology professor at the University of California, Davis, and Michael McCullough, a psychology professor at the University of Miami, are gathering a large body of novel scientific data on the nature of gratitude, its causes, and its potential consequences for human health and well-being.
“Scientists are latecomers to the concept of gratitude,” Emmons says. “Religions and philosophies have long embraced gratitude as an indispensable manifestation of virtue, and an integral component of health, wholeness, and well-being.”
Gratitude was unexplored terrain for psychologists when Emmons began studying it in 1998. His first research subjects were students in his health psychology class at UC Davis.
Then, the professor assigned some students to write down five things they were thankful for each day and others to record five complaints. Three weeks later, the grateful students reported measurable improvements in psychological, physical and social well-being compared with their complaining classmates.
Since then, Emmons has conducted variations of the experiment in dozens of other study populations, including organ transplant recipients, adults with chronic neuromuscular disease, and healthy fifth-graders.
“We always find the same thing,” he says. “People who keep gratitude journals improve their quality of life.”
Emmons says his 10 strategies can help anyone cultivate a more grateful approach to life. But he warns that the exercises are not for the “intellectually lethargic.” And he stresses that gratitude is incompatible with feelings of victimhood or entitlement, or with the inability to recognize one’s shortcomings or to admit one is not self-sufficient.
“Far from being a warm, fuzzy sentiment, gratitude is morally and intellectually demanding,” he says. “It requires contemplation, reflection, and discipline. It can be hard and painful work.”
Here are Emmons’ evidence-based prescriptions for becoming more grateful:
- Keep a gratitude journal. Write down and record what you are grateful for, and then when you need to reaffirm your good lot in life, look back on the journal.
- Remember the bad. If you do not remind yourself of what it was like to be sick, unemployed, or heartbroken, you will be less likely to appreciate health, your job, or your relationship.
- Ask yourself three questions every evening. Fill in the blanks with the name of a person (or persons) in your life. What have I received from ___? What have I given to ___? What troubles and difficulty have I caused ___?
- Learn prayers of gratitude. One Emmons suggests in his book from the Buddhist teacher Thich Nhat Hanh: Waking up this morning, I see the blue sky. I join my hands in thanks; for the many wonders of life; for having 24 brand-new hours before me.
- Appreciate your senses. One approach: Practice breathing exercises.
- Use visual reminders. For example, Emmons has a refrigerator magnet in his home bearing this quote from Eleanor Roosevelt: “Yesterday is history, tomorrow is mystery … today is a gift.”
- Make a vow to practice gratitude. “Swearing a vow to perform a behavior actually does increase the likelihood that the action will be executed,” the psychologist notes.
- Watch your language: It influences how you think about the world.
- Go through the motions. Research shows that emotions can follow behavior.
- Be creative. Look for new situations and opportunities in which to feel grateful, especially when things are not going well.
Though he practices these techniques, Emmons acknowledges that maintaining an attitude of thanksgiving is hard work even for him.
“Most psychologists study what they’re bad at,” he says.
However, his long study of the subject has convinced him that Cicero had it right centuries ago. The Roman philosopher ranked gratitude as the chief virtue, parent of all the others.
The work is supported by the John Templeton Foundation.
More news from UC Davis: www.news.ucdavis.edu/
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18 Comments
Gus
This looks like it was built on top of Stoic philosophy, half of it is be thankful for what you have, enjoy your senses, use negative visualization to achieve the first two.
Is there any attribution?
m
I don’t even know where to start with this article. It’s definitely one of those articles that just sort of reinforces your life (if you have been practicing this) or illuminates your life. For me, I have had an ongoing self-effort to improve myself. It only started last year. I realized I was so much happier looking for opportunities when I did poorly on my exam (I’m a college student) rather than moping around and being miserable. I realized the present is now not the past or the future. I need to breathe in the “now”. When I had a conflict with a friend, I would actively search for alternatives to fix the imbalance of the friendship. When I did poorly in academia, I would fix the problem and see where I could better my situation (maybe review the material a different way).
I believe actively being grateful for every moment (even if they are terrible moments) is the key to happiness. And isn’t that all we want in life? There is no substitute for happiness. I’m glad someone who is 65 has this mentality. It’s comforting for a twenty-one year old.
Avoid ingratitude would be my motto.
SS
I am a successful, pragmatic and conservative Chief Executive, who has practiced yoga and meditation for over 15 years. While I feel I’ve “practiced” gratitude for quite a while now, it’s only in the last several years, as my children have matured, that I’ve begun to realize that gratitude has a tremendous “pay it forward” component that incrementally compounds itself and ultimately affects a population that I’d have no way of even calculating.
As a result, on the short list of my legacies, or ways that I feel that I will leave a positive impact on the world, gratitude is a central theme.
At Costco yesterday, as I observed the “intensity” with which a consumer will ensure that they get the perfect pumpkin pie, I was very grateful, that after the fray, there was one left for me; because I know that it will bring happiness to both the bellies and souls of my guests tomorrow. For that, both they and I will be quite grateful. Thank you for this timely article
Yes! Authentic gratitude has a 360 degree inside-out power.
When I whisper to myself, with meaning, ‘ thank you’, my soul just leaps – I can feel it; my Higher Self says ‘hello’ to the world.
And, when spoken to another, with authenticity – especially when I look into the receiver’s eyes, I notice a that a wide smile and bright glow almost always lights up the face of the other.
The result is a positive energy burst and cross-energy exchange. Gratitude is the no-brainer, all-round communications tool of now.
Let’s all draw the courage to embrace the practise inter- and inner- appreciation for the collective good!
Let’s all draw the courage to embrace the practise inter- and inner- appreciation for the collective good!
dianne ritter
Great article I have been using gratitude for years (except for the periods of time that I’m just too busy) Guess what? Life gets tough and I remember to get grateful again!
Yes. Choose to be grateful. Thank you for publishing the research on what we know to be true in our bodies, minds, and hearts. Happy Thanksgiving!
Gratitude, in its way, keeps us alive.
Thank you
:-)
:-)
josh
I’m going you try the gratitude journal, for sure.
yodawan
Gratitude is truly the breath of LIFE!
Kay
An important component of recovery in 12 step programs is learning and practicing gratitude. I keep a daily journal that has a short gratitude list. Gratitude also reminds me that if I compare my inside to other people’s outsides that I set myself up for not being happy with myself and what I have. When I am in a positive state of gratitude life is good no matter the obstacles.
ms
Finally, an philosophy that makes sense based in science, and divorced from religious gibberish. Such a simple practice that could totally change your outlook without the need for some made up gods or spirits. Well done!
it is real hard in trying to tell yourself to be thankful of what you have. Currently, I am in such a situation, being jobless for 5 months and time and time again try to tell myself to be thankful with what I have and not to lose hope and at certain moment drifting into brief depression and despair!
GratefulMomma
@ms- Religious gibberish? Was it really necessary to make such a hateful and snide remark in response to such an upbeat article? Wow.
Steven Grateful
@GratefulMomma Although MS could have put it a different way, I’m assuming he/she is not religious. I’m also assuming that the negitivity you picked up was uninteltional. MS has a right to think that way just as you have a right to believe in whatever god you believe in. From MS’s perspective, he/she may have been told several times the only way to improve their life is to go to church or to pay to god. If you don’t believe in a god, this is probably pretty hard to do. I can see why this article could have helped him/her and many other people whose religious belifs may vary.
Chris
One of the Reiki principles is “Be grateful”. As a Reiki practitioner I find the principles help with my situation, but the healing is also important. The energy definitely helps.
Lila Waters
Thank you for your comments on gratitude. I am a Christain I am so thankful, a priceless gift.
I agree with this. I’m 65, healthy, alive with a loving family. Why would I not be grateful? I’m a professional coach writing a book about positive ageing ‘Grow Old and Happy’. My research tells me that people are more likely to live a happy, healthy, long life if they let go anxiety, laugh every day and are grateful. Congratulations on your book. I haven’t read it yet, but I will get it. It’s so liberating once you step over the line to an optimistic outlook and optimism happens as a consequence of being grateful. As a friend once said to me: ‘people fall into 2 camps. Either you perceive the world as safe with islands of danger or you perceive the world as dangerous with islands of safety’.