The Science of Gratitude:
Gratitude is the secret to life. The greatest thing is to give thanks for EVERYTHING. He who has learned this has penetrated the whole mystery of life—giving thanks, for EVERYTHING.
--Albert Schweitzer
“Whatever you are in search of—peace of mind, prosperity, health, love—it is waiting for you if only you are willing to receive it with an open and grateful heart,” writes Sarah Breathnach in the Simple Abundance Journal of Gratitude. Elsewhere in this volume, gratitude is referred to as “the most passionate transformative force in the cosmos.”
How do these extraordinary claims fare when scientific lights are shine on them? Can gratitude live up to its billing?
What is Gratitude?
Gratitude has a dual meaning: a worldly one and a transcendental one. In its worldly sense, gratitude is simply a feeling that occurs in interpersonal exchanges when one person acknowledges receiving a valuable benefit from another. In gratitude, we humbly acknowledge the countless way in which we have been and are supported and sustained by the benevolence of others.
Gratitude’s other nature is ethereal, spiritual and transcendent. For a person who has religious or spiritual beliefs, gratitude sets up a relationship to the source from which all good comes. Choosing to live in that space of recognition puts one in a heavenly sphere of humility, awe and recognition of how blessed one is to have the opportunity to learn, grow, love, create, share, and help others. True gratefulness rejoices in the other. It has as its ultimate goal reflecting back the goodness that one has received by creatively seeking opportunities for giving. The motivation for doing so resides in the grateful appreciation that one has lived by the grace of others
Gratitude has been well established as a universal human attribute. Its presence is felt and expressed in different ways by virtually all peoples, or all cultures, worldwide. The fact that gratitude is universal across all cultures suggests that it is part of the fabric of human nature. Gratitude is not simply a mere attitude, a deep feeling, or even a desirable virtue. It is as elemental as life itself.
The New Science of Gratitude
A scientific perspective can provide an evidence-based approach to understanding how and in what ways gratitude brings benefits into the life of the practitioner. Recently, the tools and techniques of modern science have been brought to bear on understanding the nature of gratitude and why it is important for human health and happiness.
A number of rigorous, controlled experimental trials have examined the benefits of gratitude. It has been scientifically examined at the level of an emotion by asking people to cultivate it through journaling exercises. Recent research has demonstrated that mood and health benefits can accrue from grateful thinking cultivated in this manner. This indicates that, relative to a focus on complaints, an effective strategy for producing reliably higher levels of pleasant affect is to lead people to reflect, on a daily basis, on those aspects of their lives for which they are grateful.
In these studies, participants were given the following instructions:
“We want to focus for a moment on benefits or gifts that you have received in your life. These gifts could be everyday pleasures, people in your life, personal strengths or talents, moments of natural beauty, or gestures of kindness from others. We might not normally think about these things as gifts, but that is how we want you to think about them. Take a moment to really savor or relish these gifts, think about their value, and THEN write them down every night before going to sleep.”
In daily studies of emotional experience, when people report feeling grateful, thankful, and appreciative, they also feel more loving, forgiving, joyful and enthusiastic. These deep affections appear to be formed through the discipline of gratitude. In addition, the family, friends, partners, and others who surround grateful people consistently report that people who practice gratitude seem measurably happier and are more helpful, more outgoing, more optimistic, and more trustworthy.
Why is Gratitude Good?
Simply put, gratitude feels good. Gratitude implies a recognition that it is possible for other forces to act toward us with beneficial, selfless motives. Being grateful is an acknowledgement that there are good and enjoyable things in the world to be enjoyed in accordance with the givers, intent. Good things happen by design. Gratitude depends upon receiving what we do not expect to receive or have not earned, or receiving more that we believe we deserve. This awareness is simultaneously humbling and elevating.
Gratitude maximizes enjoyment of the pleasurable in our lives. Adaptation to pleasant circumstances occurs more rapidly than adaptation to unpleasant life changes. This is why even a major windfall, tends to impact happiness for only a few months. The only thing that can chant this and prolong the increase in happiness is gratitude. Gratitude promotes the savoring of positive life experiences and situations, so that the maximum satisfaction and enjoyment are derived from one’s circumstances. Gratitude recalibrates peoples “set points” for happiness.
Gratitude protects against the negative by mitigating toxic emotions and states. Grateful people tend to be satisfied with what they have and are less susceptible to emotions such as regret and frustration. The sense of security that characterizes grateful people makes them less susceptible to needing to rely on material accomplishments for a stable sense of self.
Perhaps most important of all is that gratitude strengthens and expands social relationships. It cultivates a person’s sense of interconnectedness. An unexpected benefit from gratitude journaling, was that people who kept gratitude journals reported feeling closer and more connected to others, were more likely to help others, and were actually seen as more helpful by significant others in their social networks. Gratitude takes us outside ourselves, where we see ourselves as part of a larger, intricate network of sustaining mutually reciprocal relationships.
Lastly, there is growing evidence that gratitude can impact physiological functioning and physical health. Researchers have found that the heart rhythm patterns associated with gratitude differ markedly from those associated with relaxation (neutral emotion) and anger (negative emotion). The conscious activation of gratitude through journaling resulted in increased calmness and alertness.
As a prevailing orientation toward life, a sense of gratefulness can serve as a resource that a person can draw upon in times of need, including coping with stress and dealing with the recovering from physical illness. There is evidence that grateful individuals are at less risk for depressive symptoms and other indicators of traumatic stress disorder following a major upheaval in their lives.
The data are clear. Gratitude is good. Science has demonstrated that gratitude results in enhanced and sustained positive emotional experience and effective functioning. Yet despite all of the benefits that living a grateful life can bring, for some gratitude can seem hard and painful work. It does not seem to come easily or naturally to many. At least initially, it requires discipline.
A number of evidence based-strategies have proven effective in creating sustainable gratefulness. All of the strategies converge on the importance of three principles: Attention, Interpretation, and Memory.
Attention is noticing and becoming aware of blessings that we normally take for granted. It is tuning in to the many reasons for gratitude that already exist in our lives.
Interpretation is the conscious decision to see blessings instead of burdens, contributions instead of curses. Grateful people have a way of interpreting reality that enhances and sustains a grateful outlook on the world. They describe their lives in terms of gifts, givers, fortune, fortunate, abundance, favors even luck. This allows them to be less reactive to everyday life events.
Finally there is remembering. Grateful people draw upon positive memories of being the recipients of benevolence. There is a French proverb that states that gratitude is the memory of the heart—it is the way the heart remembers. Those who live under an aura of pervasive thankfulness by holding on to memories of received kindnesses will reap the rewards of grateful living.
--Albert Schweitzer
“Whatever you are in search of—peace of mind, prosperity, health, love—it is waiting for you if only you are willing to receive it with an open and grateful heart,” writes Sarah Breathnach in the Simple Abundance Journal of Gratitude. Elsewhere in this volume, gratitude is referred to as “the most passionate transformative force in the cosmos.”
How do these extraordinary claims fare when scientific lights are shine on them? Can gratitude live up to its billing?
What is Gratitude?
Gratitude has a dual meaning: a worldly one and a transcendental one. In its worldly sense, gratitude is simply a feeling that occurs in interpersonal exchanges when one person acknowledges receiving a valuable benefit from another. In gratitude, we humbly acknowledge the countless way in which we have been and are supported and sustained by the benevolence of others.
Gratitude’s other nature is ethereal, spiritual and transcendent. For a person who has religious or spiritual beliefs, gratitude sets up a relationship to the source from which all good comes. Choosing to live in that space of recognition puts one in a heavenly sphere of humility, awe and recognition of how blessed one is to have the opportunity to learn, grow, love, create, share, and help others. True gratefulness rejoices in the other. It has as its ultimate goal reflecting back the goodness that one has received by creatively seeking opportunities for giving. The motivation for doing so resides in the grateful appreciation that one has lived by the grace of others
Gratitude has been well established as a universal human attribute. Its presence is felt and expressed in different ways by virtually all peoples, or all cultures, worldwide. The fact that gratitude is universal across all cultures suggests that it is part of the fabric of human nature. Gratitude is not simply a mere attitude, a deep feeling, or even a desirable virtue. It is as elemental as life itself.
The New Science of Gratitude
A scientific perspective can provide an evidence-based approach to understanding how and in what ways gratitude brings benefits into the life of the practitioner. Recently, the tools and techniques of modern science have been brought to bear on understanding the nature of gratitude and why it is important for human health and happiness.
A number of rigorous, controlled experimental trials have examined the benefits of gratitude. It has been scientifically examined at the level of an emotion by asking people to cultivate it through journaling exercises. Recent research has demonstrated that mood and health benefits can accrue from grateful thinking cultivated in this manner. This indicates that, relative to a focus on complaints, an effective strategy for producing reliably higher levels of pleasant affect is to lead people to reflect, on a daily basis, on those aspects of their lives for which they are grateful.
In these studies, participants were given the following instructions:
“We want to focus for a moment on benefits or gifts that you have received in your life. These gifts could be everyday pleasures, people in your life, personal strengths or talents, moments of natural beauty, or gestures of kindness from others. We might not normally think about these things as gifts, but that is how we want you to think about them. Take a moment to really savor or relish these gifts, think about their value, and THEN write them down every night before going to sleep.”
In daily studies of emotional experience, when people report feeling grateful, thankful, and appreciative, they also feel more loving, forgiving, joyful and enthusiastic. These deep affections appear to be formed through the discipline of gratitude. In addition, the family, friends, partners, and others who surround grateful people consistently report that people who practice gratitude seem measurably happier and are more helpful, more outgoing, more optimistic, and more trustworthy.
Why is Gratitude Good?
Simply put, gratitude feels good. Gratitude implies a recognition that it is possible for other forces to act toward us with beneficial, selfless motives. Being grateful is an acknowledgement that there are good and enjoyable things in the world to be enjoyed in accordance with the givers, intent. Good things happen by design. Gratitude depends upon receiving what we do not expect to receive or have not earned, or receiving more that we believe we deserve. This awareness is simultaneously humbling and elevating.
Gratitude maximizes enjoyment of the pleasurable in our lives. Adaptation to pleasant circumstances occurs more rapidly than adaptation to unpleasant life changes. This is why even a major windfall, tends to impact happiness for only a few months. The only thing that can chant this and prolong the increase in happiness is gratitude. Gratitude promotes the savoring of positive life experiences and situations, so that the maximum satisfaction and enjoyment are derived from one’s circumstances. Gratitude recalibrates peoples “set points” for happiness.
Gratitude protects against the negative by mitigating toxic emotions and states. Grateful people tend to be satisfied with what they have and are less susceptible to emotions such as regret and frustration. The sense of security that characterizes grateful people makes them less susceptible to needing to rely on material accomplishments for a stable sense of self.
Perhaps most important of all is that gratitude strengthens and expands social relationships. It cultivates a person’s sense of interconnectedness. An unexpected benefit from gratitude journaling, was that people who kept gratitude journals reported feeling closer and more connected to others, were more likely to help others, and were actually seen as more helpful by significant others in their social networks. Gratitude takes us outside ourselves, where we see ourselves as part of a larger, intricate network of sustaining mutually reciprocal relationships.
Lastly, there is growing evidence that gratitude can impact physiological functioning and physical health. Researchers have found that the heart rhythm patterns associated with gratitude differ markedly from those associated with relaxation (neutral emotion) and anger (negative emotion). The conscious activation of gratitude through journaling resulted in increased calmness and alertness.
As a prevailing orientation toward life, a sense of gratefulness can serve as a resource that a person can draw upon in times of need, including coping with stress and dealing with the recovering from physical illness. There is evidence that grateful individuals are at less risk for depressive symptoms and other indicators of traumatic stress disorder following a major upheaval in their lives.
The data are clear. Gratitude is good. Science has demonstrated that gratitude results in enhanced and sustained positive emotional experience and effective functioning. Yet despite all of the benefits that living a grateful life can bring, for some gratitude can seem hard and painful work. It does not seem to come easily or naturally to many. At least initially, it requires discipline.
A number of evidence based-strategies have proven effective in creating sustainable gratefulness. All of the strategies converge on the importance of three principles: Attention, Interpretation, and Memory.
Attention is noticing and becoming aware of blessings that we normally take for granted. It is tuning in to the many reasons for gratitude that already exist in our lives.
Interpretation is the conscious decision to see blessings instead of burdens, contributions instead of curses. Grateful people have a way of interpreting reality that enhances and sustains a grateful outlook on the world. They describe their lives in terms of gifts, givers, fortune, fortunate, abundance, favors even luck. This allows them to be less reactive to everyday life events.
Finally there is remembering. Grateful people draw upon positive memories of being the recipients of benevolence. There is a French proverb that states that gratitude is the memory of the heart—it is the way the heart remembers. Those who live under an aura of pervasive thankfulness by holding on to memories of received kindnesses will reap the rewards of grateful living.