What is a Gratitude Practice?

Having an attitude of gratitude has been shown in research to have significant positive health effects on mental health and wellbeing.  It's termed in different ways; finding the good, counting your blessings, seeing the silver lining. It is not to be confused with ‘positive affirmations’ (which are often used when you are trying to convince yourself of something which you deep down don’t believe. This is not helpful and can worsen your mood). Having gratitude for ‘what is’ however, is an effective and useful tool to improve mood, decrease anxiety, reduce stress and in some studies has been shown to reduce doctor visits, lower blood pressure, improve resilience and - well - it tends to make us more grateful.

It’s simple and it is powerful.

“Gratitude predicted greater subjective sleep quality and sleep duration”. (Wood et al. 2009)

The Happier Human website lists all the positive aspects that practising gratitude impacts. This includes decreasing depressive symptoms (by a whopping 30%), increasing exercise, reducing physical pain in chronic pain sufferers and promoting an induction of the relaxation response (which has a myriad of health benefits).

Why is practising gratitude so effective?

What makes it so effective? Getting in the habit of focusing on things to be grateful for, slowly but surely retrains your brain to focus on the positive. You start to notice and pay attention to things which you are grateful for throughout your day which in turn, becomes a habitual way of viewing your world. How this relates to so many physical health improvements is not quite so easy to understand, but the results seem to speak for themselves.

How to do a gratitude exercise? 

• Select a journal or pad of paper, but one that is going to be kept just for this purpose.

• Label it ‘Gratitude’ or 'Things I am grateful for'.

• Preferably before you go to bed, sit and list at least three things that you are grateful for that you noticed for that day.

• Spend a bit of time on each one. Why are you grateful for these things? How does it make you feel?

• Do this every night for a few nights and then regularly thereafter. If you have someone you can share this exercise with - even better.

• Once you have done this a few nights in a row, research suggests the best thing is to use the gratitude exercise a few times a week (as opposed to every night) - it has a greater impact and is less likely to become a chore.

When you struggle to find something to be grateful for?

It's not necessarily an easy task. Sometimes you have to dig a little. We all know those days when nothing appears to have gone right. Sometimes you might even need to go down the ‘well the car broke down, but I was thankful that someone stopped to help'. Or ‘I was thankful it wasn’t raining'  when the car broke down.

Thinking this way can be called: gratitude with a twist or cognitive re-appraisal or simply finding the silver lining.

Examples of gratitude exercise

Personally - I go for the very simple. Examples from my list would include:

• I felt the sun on my skin today, it’s been a while, and it reminds me that spring is around the corner

• I noticed the flower that looked perfect in the garden, it was beautiful and had a lovely fragrance

• The rain overnight watered the garden so I didn't have to.

I may have had a delicious meal, a good coffee, a conversation with a friend or something that made me laugh.

(I once had to do this exercise and list 50 things, every day, for three days. Believe you me, after the obvious, you get inventive!)

Other ways of experiencing gratitude

Other things such as simply writing a thank you note, letting someone know how much you appreciate them also embrace the concept of gratitude. Taking on an attitude of gratitude gets into our very being, assisting us to become more positive, and improving our mood. It can extend out and affect our relationships, our work ethic and how much exercise we do.

Gratitude has also even been linked to improved responses of our immune function.

For a quick regular gratitude fix - stop at any moment during any time of the day and ask yourself: "What three things am I grateful for right in this moment?" or even "What is perfect about my life right now?" After a while, you notice that you will do it naturally. People will think you are a little crazy as you make a comment on the sun or the flower or the bird song – but you can gently smile to yourself, knowing that the attitude of gratitude will make your day.

It is, after all, the little things that count…

References:

Jiang, D., Chiu, M. M., & Liu, S. (2021). Daily Positive Support and Perceived Stress During COVID-19 Outbreak: The Role of Daily Gratitude Within Couples. Journal of happiness studies, 1–15. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-021-00387-0

Watkins, P. C., Woodward, K., Stone, T., & Kolts, R. L. (2003). Gratitude and happiness: Development of a measure of gratitude and relationships with subjective well-being. Social Behavior and Personality: An international journal, 31(5), 431-452.

Emmons, R. A., & Mishra, A. (2012). Why gratitude enhances well-being: What we know, what we need to know. In Sheldon, K., Kashdan, T., & Steger, M.F. (Eds.) Designing the future of positive psychology: Taking stock and moving forward. New York: Oxford University Press.

Volume 31 Issue 5 | e1266 | Published: August 2003 | DOI: https://doi.org/10.2224/sbp.2003.31.5.431

Sansone, R. A., & Sansone, L. A. (2010). Gratitude and well being: the benefits of appreciation. Psychiatry (Edgmont (Pa. : Township)), 7(11), 18–22.

Wood, A. M., Joseph, S., Lloyd, J., & Atkins, S. (2009). Gratitude influences sleep through the mechanism of pre-sleep cognitions. Journal of psychosomatic research, 66(1), 43–48. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpsychores.2008.09.002

Happier Human; 31 Benefits of Gratitude: The Ultimate Science-Backed Guide https://www.happierhuman.com/benefits-of-gratitude/