Had you ever thought gratitude makes a difference in your happiness? Gratitude is listed first in a list of five things that make you happy. Being optimistic, counting your blessings, using your strengths and committing acts of kindness follow gratitude.
Expressing gratefulness: gratefulness needs expression to make a difference. What are some of the ways you express thanks to others? Here are 5 for you to consider:
1. Expressive writing is one way to practice gratitude. Dr. Steve Toepfer tried an experiment with students in his class. He asked student volunteers to write letters of gratitude to people positively impacting their lives. Students wrote a letter every two weeks with ground rules that it had to be "positively expressive, required some insight and reflection, was nontrivial and contained a high level of appreciation or gratitude."
"I saw their happiness increase after each letter, meaning the more they wrote, the better they felt," says Toepfer, who also witnessed improvement in participants' life satisfaction and gratitude throughout the study.
2. Pay gratitude forward: A kind act often is what makes us grateful to others. For instance, when I first started blogging, Ellen Weber, Brad Shorr and Servant of Chaos were three people who took time to comment on articles. That encouraged me. As a result, I began to pay it forward by commenting on many other blogs.
3. Reconsider lack of gratitude to family and people close to us: At times family members get the brunt of our emotions because we take them for granted without realizing it. But, what if we were to think of ways we are grateful for them? "See if it's possible to notice and get in touch with helpful, supportive ways in which your family has loved you," Jonathan Kaplan urges.
4. Gratitude fills your glass half way: It's up to us to make it full. Good news is that gratitude increases levels of serotonin, a brain hormone, which flows through your brain, and increasing your well-being. "Grateful thinking—and especially expression of it to others—is associated with increased levels of energy, optimism, and empathy." Pouring serotonin into your glass at daybreak makes sense.
5. Embrace your job through gratitude: Begin by reviewing the "sweet spot" of your day. For example a physician, "eased his professional struggles with a positive trick of the brain. 'Every morning when I start my internal rant against the ridiculous requirements of my new practice group, I force myself to STOP and picture one patient I feel I helped the day before. That soothing image brings my stress level down enough to get through another day.'"
Next time I waken, "cranky," I'll work on shifting gears by thinking of something meaningful from the day before. Hmmm... I'll even write a note. You?
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