The majority of us express gratitude by saying “thank you” to someone who has given us a gift or to those who have helped us. Gratitude is not only an action from a scientific perspective, but rather a constructive emotion that gives us a biological purpose.
Psychology describes gratitude in a way in which scientists can estimate its effects, and thus it is declared that gratitude is more than a feeling. Gratitude produces long lasting positive effects by providing a deeper appreciation of someone.
For increasing happiness, expressing gratitude is one of the most overlooked tools. According to research, gratitude is the most powerful method of increasing happiness.
Next, we are going to explain the benefits of gratitude, explain why the expression of gratitude is important to increasing our happiness, and also state the science behind each claim.
Gratitude makes people like us:
Gratitude generates our social circle. Research was done with approximately 243 participants. Those individuals who were 10% more grateful had a 17.5% larger social circle.
Gratitude makes us more social, more trusting, makes us nicer, and more appreciative. As a result of it, it helps us to develop deeper relationships, make more friends, and also improve our marriage.
Gratitude makes us socialize. It makes us seem happier and nicer in front of others and strengthen our relationships and friendships.
Gratitude shifts your focus:
Gratitude can change your life by prompting you to shift your focus. You can see that life is all about focus. When we live in a state of lack and negativity, we see more of that. When our thinking is habitually geared towards a particular situation, it’s easy to see all the problems and dilemmas surrounding that situation.
On the other hand, it is also easy to look at things in a positive light, even when problems arise. You will come to know that this statement is true with optimistic individuals. Optimists look for the silver lining in situations even when something goes wrong. When they fail to find a positive point in a stressful situation, they simply state that good things will eventually come out of whatever they are going through.
Gratitude can change your life because it indulges positivity in all the things that you are doing and it’s not all about the positive person. It’s a tremendous shift in focus and is a new way of observing things. It involves an appreciation for the beauty of all things around us. Your life will be changed from living in a state of lack, to the state of sheer abundance, in every possible way.
However, this does not happen overnight. This shift in focus requires habitual retraining of the mind and your precious time. By recalling all of the things that you have to be grateful for, you can easily move from a negative state to a positive state. You should try this activity every day and write down the things that you are grateful for.
Gratitude makes you feel happier
Gratitude can change your life by making you happier and more satisfied. According to a study, it has been found that gratitude makes you feel happy. Two psychologists, Dr. Micheal E.McCullough from the University of Miami, and Dr.Robert Emmons from the University of California, have done much of their research to find the effects of gratitude.
In one study, the researchers gathered a group of individuals, and asked them to write a few sentences about a specific topic every week. One group was asked to write about the things that do not make them happy. Another group was asked to write about the things that they are grateful for. And the control group was asked to note down all the things that had occurred without the focus of negative and positive.
The results were very surprising. The group that was asked to write about the things that make them feel grateful were far more optimistic and happier than the group that was asked to focus upon the negative things. It’s a natural occurrence to be happier about life when we are grateful.
When you are grateful for the things you have, it’s far easier to enjoy your day in a state of appreciation than when you are not grateful.
Gratitude improves your quality of life
Wellness, mental health, spiritual aptitude, emotional fortitude and physical strength can all be acquired from the basic and simple behaviour of gratitude. Gratitude is a means of changing the quality of your life, ultimately improving it.
According to some studies, satisfaction of life is linked with gratitude. It is no secret that those who are grateful for all they have are more satisfied. Gratitude is not something that is linked with having a lot of money. When one is able to appreciate the things in your life, there is a sound stability.
Many people write down all those things for which they are grateful. For successful people, it may be easy to express gratitude, as they have so many things in which they count as blessings. It is important to note that this is not about materialism. Keep in mind that money can also bring about a lot of problems in life.
Gratitude strengthens and enhances your Faith
By enhancing and strengthening your faith, gratitude can transform your life. Whatever religion you believe in, whether it’s Allah, Buddha, God, or spiritual oneness, it is gratitude that can enhance and strengthen your belief and faith.
When expressing gratitude, you are expressing a deep-rooted appreciation. This appreciation strengthens our beliefs and faith. For me, I am very grateful by realizing that I have all the things in my life, including my problems, and it’s my belief in God that helps me through. By instilling the belief that you are not alone in difficult times, hard times will pass, and ultimately your gratitude transforms into faith. You will overcome your obstacles, accomplish your goals, and become a better person. A person who is more empathetic is usually more sympathetic to the plight of others.
In return, you will discover ways to contribute to your fellow man, woman, child, and society.
You will find opportunities as you become aware that what you already have is enough, and that the main focus should be to help others. That’s the stage when true spiritual enlightenment begins.
Gratitude reduces your innermost fears
Gratitude can change your life by reducing your fears, as it is really hard to be grateful and fearful at the same time. Fear occurs at the stage when we are left to dwell on topics that we feel we cannot control. We generalize the worst possible results, scenarios, and pictures for our future, when we are living in a state of fear.
But fear can be overcome by being grateful. Fear has little place to live in our minds, however when we are fearful of things, we are always put in a state of scarcity. The things that put us in a state of scarcity are the events when we have a lack of money to pay the house bills, or buy the groceries for our fridge. Instead of living in a state of abundance, we are living in a state of lack.
However, being grateful puts us in a state of abundance rather than lack. It shifts your thinking to being thankful for all the things that you have right now at this moment, instead of worrying about what you have or don’t have. Now, decide right now that you will make a habit of gratitude, and list all the things that you are grateful for. Overtime, you will notice your fears slowly dissipate.
Gratitude gives you peace of mind
When you are truly grateful, you will manifest an inner belief. It gives a sound peace of mind that you cannot achieve with the higher expectations of certain things.
A form of respect develops for the individuals who stay humble and calm, even they achieve success, fame or stardom. Humility is one of the best qualities of successful people in the world because they recover from failures, defeat, heartache, and pain.
In the hearts of truly successful people, empathy and humility is instilled in them. To taste the sweet victory of life, they endured a lot of failures and pain to get there.
Having an attitude of gratitude assists in reaching peace. You need to be grateful to add value to this world, and to become successful.
It encourages you to reach for your goals
I entirely believe in the art of goal setting. When you set your goals, you can do anything to achieve them. This needs consistent work and persistent effort (for years!) because you couldn’t achieve change in a night, week, or month. Gratitude helps you to reach these goals to change your life.
By creating a platform of internal success, gratitude can help you to succeed, and give you the confidence you need to achieve your future goals. It’s become much harder to push forward when you are living in a state of negativity and lack, or you are unhappy with your current state of affairs.
Try this: Take 5 minutes every morning to write down the things that you are grateful for every day. Write down the small things, even if it’s just the fact that you are 6 feet above the ground. Practice this daily. After that, embody that feeling.