Gratitude: The Medicine We Need!

Gratitude: The Medicine We Need!

One of the best practices for opening the heart and keeping it open is the practice of Gratitude.  It is important to stress the word “practice” as it is one thing to experience a feeling of gratitude and another to actively work with it.  

When we speak about practice, whether it be exercise, meditation or gratitude practice, we know there can be many obstacles to developing a new practice or sustaining an ongoing one. 

You may even ask “why should I practice gratitude?”  Aren’t there other ways I can be more open-hearted?  I would answer “yes and no”.  Yes, there are many ways to open the heart but gratitude is one of the most powerful ways.  Also, without an experience of gratitude it is difficult to maintain an open heart.

Spiritual traditions have honored the practice of gratitude for thousand of years and now science is getting on board as well.  There are a number of amazing research projects on gratitude. 

One is long-term project is led by Robert A. Emmons of the University of California, Davis; he is an author of the mant books on Gratitude. He suggests that:

“Gratitude is fertilizer for the mind, spreading connections and improving its function in nearly every realm of experience.”

Here is a brief overview of Dr. Emmons research on how Gratitude affects both psychological and physical well-being:

• In an experimental comparison, those who kept gratitude journals on a weekly basis exercised more regularly, reported fewer physical symptoms, felt better about their lives as a whole, and were more optimistic about the upcoming week compared to those who recorded hassles or neutral life events (Emmons & McCullough, 2003).

• A related benefit was observed in the realm of personal goal attainment:  Participants who kept gratitude lists were more likely to have made progress toward important personal goals (academic, interpersonal and health-based) over a two-month period compared to subjects in the other experimental conditions.

• A daily gratitude intervention (self-guided exercises) with young adults resulted in higher reported levels of the positive states of alertness, enthusiasm, determination, attentiveness and energy compared to a focus on hassles or a downward social comparison (ways in which participants thought they were better off than others).  There was no difference in levels of unpleasant emotions reported in the three groups.

• Participants in the daily gratitude condition were more likely to report having helped someone with a personal problem or having offered emotional support to another, relative to the hassles or social comparison condition.

• In a sample of adults with neuromuscular disease, a 21-day gratitude intervention resulted in greater amounts of high energy positive moods, a greater sense of feeling connected to others, more optimistic ratings of one’s life, and better sleep duration and sleep quality, relative to a control group.

So, as you can see there are many potential benefits from the practice of Gratitude, on all levels – body, mind, emotion and spirit!

• Wouldn’t you like to have more energy?
• Sleep better?
• Be more optimistic?
• Feel more connected to others?
• Have less stress? 
• Live a happier life?

I invite you to explore gratitude practice as a foundation for mental well-being and resilience as well as a path to cultivating an open heart and  spirit!

Write a Gratitude List: 

Take a few moments to make a Gratitude list just for today. It can be as short or long as you’d like.  You may want to put it in your journal or create a special Gratitude notebook.  

You may just want to write it on a slip of paper and when you are done recycle it.  It’s not necessarily something you need to keep. Explore what feels good to you. 

For some people it helps to have a list to look back on when they are having a bad day or just want to review what they have been grateful for.  Keep it simple and make it work for you. 

Taking just a few moments everyday to practice Gratitude can make a big difference in how you experience life. It can be as simple as naming three things on the spot that you are grateful for. That’s one of my favorite on the go compassion practices!

Are you ready to cultivate an attitude of Gratitude to see what’s possible?

Here is my Gratitude list for today as an example. 

Today, I am grateful for:

1. Being Alive
2. Doing work I love to do
3. Books 
4. The sense of fun my cats bring to my life
5. My loving relationship
6. Going for a walk today
7. Feeling my feelings even when they are intense
8. The joy of writing and being with a writing circle today
9. Having a warm home and a bed to sleep in
10. The sound of the wind chimes ringing outside my window

Ways to practice gratitude include:

There are some wonderful books on gratitude that you might like to explore. Here are a my favorites are:

• Living In Gratitude ~ Angeles Arrien (2013)
• Thanks: How Practicing Gratitude Can Make You Happier ~ Robert Emmons (2008)
• The Gratitude Project: How the Science of Thankfulness Can Rewire Our Brains for Resilience, Optimism and the Greater Good ~ Smith, Newman, Marsh & Keltner, Editors (2020)