Overdosing on Gratitiude

Is there such a thing as having too much gratitude? Just like everything, gratitude is best in small doses.

Lyubomirsky and colleagues conducted a study about gratitude journaling. They found that people who wrote in their gratitude journals once a week for six weeks reported boosts in happiness afterward; people who wrote three times per week didn’t.

Some ways to make gratitude journaling more effective can be focusing more on the details of the thing that you are grateful for than the amount of things you are grateful for. Another way to think about gratitude could be what your life would be like with out certain blessings, than trying to tally up all the good things. Don’t just go through the motions, focus on the motivation on becoming a happier and more grateful person.

Showing gratitude in your everyday life is a great strategy to promote happiness, but there is a dark side to it. You can be showing gratitude to the wrong people or things in your life or be using gratitude as a way to escape serious problems. In cases like that it’s best to face the issues and work through them instead of distracting yourself with the positives.

Remember to be grateful for yourself. It is important when good things happen to you that you are grateful to the people and things that made it possible. But it is equally important to take time to be grateful for yourself for playing a role in the process. Try not to downplay your own hard work. People who use gratitude for other people than themselves have lower self-esteem. Take time to be grateful for your own individual worth and self.

Even though gratitude can have some downsides, if implemented correctly it can be a great addition to your life. Want to know how grateful you are? Check out this quiz to see your gratitude score.

 

“ Showing gratitude is one of the simplest, yet powerful things humans can do for each other” -Randy Rausch

Can Gratitude Make Me a Better Person?

So now that have established that gratitude is a good attitude, what other things can it to for you?

Studies have found that people who practice gratitude have greater levels of self-improvement. They experience increasing connectedness, elevation, humility, and specific negative emotions such as indebtedness and  guilt.

Connectedness

Gratitude leads people to feel closer and more connected with others by strengthening relationships. This can be seen in the find-remind-and bind theory, which says that gratitude helps people to acknowledge relationships and friendships, and reminds them that these relationships are important, in turn bringing them closer together. The social support of these relationships increases life satisfaction and gives them a sense of security to reach their goals.

Elevation

Have you ever felt a wave of warmth flow over you after helping or being with others? This feeling is called elevation. Elevation causes people to be more likely to uplift others around them and to engage in good deeds. This motivates people to engage in prosocial behavior and motivates self-improvement.

Humility

A person who experiences humility is open to feedback, open to self-improvement, and aware strengths and weaknesses. Humility increases prosocial behavior and repaying others for their help.

Increasing Specific Negative States

On the other hand gratitude can evoke negative emotions such as guilt, discomfort, and indebtedness. While these feelings seem bad, they actually motivate individuals to better themselves and help others. Gratitude helps people to realize that their own successes are not entirely their own, thus bringing to light their own weaknesses. This creates the feeling of obligation to repay others and the feeling of guilt because they did not help or thank the person who helped them soon enough. This motivates people to be a better version of themselves.

IS GRATITUDE THE BEST ATTITUDE?

Everyday we as humans experience so many people, places, and things. But do we ever take enough time to truly appreciate them? Many studies show that people who practice gratitude in their daily  lives have a better psychological well-being and are happier than people who do not practice gratitude?

 

So What is Gratitude?

In the article “Thankful for the Little Things: A Meta-Analysis of Gratitude Interventions” written by Davis, et al. (2015) http://web.b.ebscohost.com.liblink.uncw.edu defines gratitude as “as a generalized tendency to recognize and respond with grateful emotion to the roles of other people’s benevolence in the positive experiences and outcomes that one obtains”. So basically gratitude is just the being grateful for the people and experiences in your life.

 

Will Gratitude Really Make Me Feel Happier?

In the same article they conducted a meta analysis and used multiple studies that found evidence that by participants who practiced gratitude in their lives had greater psychological well being and were more satisfied with their lives than participants who did not practice gratitude. This being said, people who have greater psychological well being tend to be happy.

 

How can I practice gratitude in my life?

There are a lot of different ways that you can practice gratitude! Some ways include keeping gratitude journal and expressing gratitude to another person. In your gratitude journal you write down at least five things you are thankful for that you experienced that day. Gratitude Journals have been found that just by taking a small amount of time each day to turn your thinking around about being thankful for a situation, leads to less anxiety and helps people to get out of mental ruts. In expressing gratitude to another person it could be as simple as taking the time to tell another person “thank you” and that you are grateful for them or even taking it a step farther and writing a gratitude letter. In the gratitude letter exercise you write a letter to someone you have never properly thanked, after you have written the letter you read it to the person. Although it seems a little weird at first, it will show the other person how much you care about them and appreciate them.

 

Personal Account of Gratitude

In this 10 minute Ted Talk, photographer Louie Schwartzberg talks about his experience with gratitude. We encourage you to watch it to gain more insight on what it means to appreciate life’s beauty! Louie Schwartzberg Ted Talk

The Journey Begins

Thanks for joining me!

Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter. — Izaak Walton