In this blog I will discuss the definition of gratitude, why being grateful contributes to our health and well-being, the decisions involved in being grateful on a daily basis, how to develop the habit of gratitude, along with some questions to ponder about gratitude.

WHAT IS GRATITUDE?

According to Dr. Robert Emmons, gratitude consists of two parts action and emotion. Action–the affirmation of goodness–an awareness of goodness in ourselves that we have received many gifts for the goodness in our own lives and an awareness of the goodness of others. Emotion refers to the pleasant feeling that occurs when we are affirmed and supported by the goodness of others. So, gratitude includes action–writing a thank you note, saying thank you–and emotion–the pleasant social feeling when we recognize the goodness that others have done for us.

WHY PRACTICE GRATITUDE?

Gratitude contributes to our health and well-being. Let us recall to mind the definition of health for my blogs: Health is not only the absence of disease, but also the prevention and/or management of disease and having a sense of well-being, self-worth, (liking oneself), having meaning and purpose in life, and having enough energy to do things. Healthy people make an ongoing decision to be thankful for the goodness of others and the goodness of self. So, therefore, gratitude promotes our health when decisions are made to CHOOSE to be grateful, to EXPRESS our gratitude, to REFLECT on and to remember the goodness in our lives, and to REFLECT and ACKOWLEDGE the goodness of others. Lets explore more on how the action and emotion of gratitude promote our health. Reflecting on gratitude–recognizing with our intellect the goodness from others, acknowledging that we choose to be grateful for what we have and for what has NOT HAPPENED IN OUR LIVES, and appreciating the pleasant feeling emotionally, the health outcome is a sense of joy and sense of well-being. Why is EXPRESSING our gratitude good for our health? I offer four ways that expressing gratitude promotes health: 1) strengthens our relationships to other people. Increasing positive social relationships with others increases our sense of belonging; 2) decreases stress. Decreasing the high levels of hormones, such cortisol levels produced during stressful times, as well as decrease in inflammation improves our sense of feeling healthy; 3) increases our sense of self-control. An increase in sense of self-control helps us to choose more choices that are healthy; 4) increases our sense of hopefulness. Feeling more hopeful assist in giving our life more meaning and we just feel better about ourselves.

HOW GRATEFUL ARE YOU?

There is a gratitude questionnaire that is published (Gray, SA, Emmons RA, & Morrison, A. 2001, that you can take that will help you determine how grateful you are. Here, in the meantime, based on Gray et al., I have posed some questions for your consideration. The questions are: 1) How much in your life are your thankful for?; 2) If you made a list of all the things you are grateful, how long would the list be?; 3) How much are you thankful for in the world?; 4) How thankful are you for people, events, opportunities in your life?; 5) With each birthday, are you more thankful and more appreciative of the events, things, people in your life; 6) How much time passes before you express gratitude to self or others?

WHAT ARE SOME WAYS TO PRACTICE GRATITUDE?

Gratitude can be practiced or expressed in three major ways based on your preferred learning styles: 1) writing; 2) talking/telling; 3) combination of writing, talking/telling.

Suggestions for practicing gratitude by writing would include 1) make a gratitude list–identify 3-5 things grateful, thankful right now; 2) keep a gratitude journal; 3) write down 3-5 things grateful for self or other; 4) write a short thank you note to self or other.

Examples for practicing gratitude by talking or telling could include 1) think about something or someone (include self) you are grateful for and say out loud; 2) meditate on gratitude and then say out loud; 3) say thank you out loud and in a sincere manner.

Ideas for practicing gratitude in a combination mode of writing, talking/telling would include 1) write a thank you note or email or letter and deliver it in person and read it aloud to the person; 2) write a thank you note and giving it to the person(s) and telling them how much you appreciate them; 3) writing a thank you note (or card) expressing your thanks and send it the postal mail.

You can probably think of other ways to express thanks. I would like very much to hear from you about your ideas.

The take home message is that gratitude contributes to our health and well being. Being and expressing gratitude improves our health by strengthening our relationship to ourselves and other people, decreasing stress by decreasing cortisol levels, increasing our self-control–we choose more healthy choices, and being thankful helps us to feel more hopeful, gives our life more meaning and we just feel better about ourselves. Healthy people make a decisions to be thankful for the goodness of others and self. Whatever ways is easiest for us and according to our learning styles we can practice being grateful by three major ways: writing, talking, or by combination of writing, talking/telling.