"Thank You" is the best prayer that anyone can say!

“Gratitude can transform common days into thanksgivings, turn routine jobs into joy, and change ordinary opportunities into blessings.” —William Arthur Ward

Gratitude is the attitude!

I could not emphasize more the merits of practicing thankfulness as it profoundly affects one’s well-being and quality of life. Most of the research discovered that there is more validity to gratitude than I first thought.

I hope you find this blog interesting as I endeavor to convey my perception of what it means to be grateful, the benefits of practicing gratitude with research backing it up, and methods of how one can practice gratitude.

What does it mean to be grateful?

If I asked you to recall the things you are grateful for, the ‘good stuff’ is likely to be what springs, or dawdles, to mind. In fact, much of the research on gratitude asks us to focus on the positives. I would agree, and recommend that this is certainly how you go about commencing a gratitude practice – more on that later. However, gratitude isn’t necessarily just about the good stuff. A seasoned practice invites us to be thankful for everything in life.

There are likely to have been times in all our lives when something that seemed bad turned out to be a blessing. Have you ever been turned down for a job and later been thankful as something better came up? Or had a relationship ended only to find a more meaningful relationship with someone else? In these instances, we may be able to choose to see the blessing in the experience, if only by looking back and seeing that it helped us to learn and grow.

Scientifically Backed reasons to be thankful:

Grateful people are happier

An article in the Huffington Post, ‘The Neuroscience of Why Gratitude Makes Us Happier’ quotes – ‘If you’ve forgotten the language of gratitude then you’ll never be on speaking terms with happiness’.

Included in the article is a ten-week study, conducted by Robert A. Emmons, Ph.D., at the University of California at Davis, along with his colleague Mike McCullough, at the University of Miami, which links practicing gratitude to happiness levels.

All participants in the study were asked to keep a short journal and were randomly assigned to one of three groups:

· Group 1 was asked to journal five things they were grateful for that had occurred in the past week.

· Group 2, had five daily hassles that displeased them from the same period.

· A neutral group was asked to list five things that affected them – they were not asked to focus on these being either positive or negative.

After the study, participants in group one reported feeling better about their lives as a whole and were recorded as being 25% happier than group two.

How incredible is that and in only 10 weeks!

Grateful people have better relationships

An article in Psychology Today ‘How Gratitude Influences Loving Behaviour’ references the research by Kubacka, Finkenauer, Rusbult, and Keijsers (2011).

Kubacka and colleagues, looked at the effects of gratitude on loving relationship maintenance behaviors, specifically how it influences behaviors towards a spouse over time. The results listed were:

· Spouses feel gratitude for a partner when they perceive that partner’s behavior as being responsive to their needs.

· That feeling of gratitude then motivates behavior return that is responsive back to the needs of the partners.

· When that reciprocal behavior is perceived by the partner, feelings of gratitude result in them as well.

· A positive cycle develops over time, with increasing gratitude and caring behavior for both individuals.

So, in simplistic terms, when you express gratitude to a partner you create the potential for a gratitude loop to develop, where both parties feel grateful and behave in a loving way towards each other. I think that’s known as a win-win.

Grateful people have better health and wellbeing

The Greater Good Magazine published an article ‘A “Thnx” a day keeps the Doctor Away’ detailing data captured in response to the launch of a gratitude journal.

What they found was that participants who kept an online gratitude journal for two weeks had a happier disposition and reported more positive (e.g. happy, inspired, loving) and fewer negative (e.g. sad, bored, discouraged) emotions.

They also reported better physical health including fewer headaches, less stomach pain, clearer skin, and reduced congestion.

Putting Gratitude into Practice

There are many ways to go about enhancing your well-being, and practicing gratitude is definitely one that is achievable for most and comes with some pretty significant benefits.

Creating a habit of being grateful takes effort but, with practice, creating an ‘attitude of gratitude is doable. If you would like to build some practices into your life, that develop your relationship with gratitude, here are some suggestions.

I am thankful for:

• The mess I have to clean up after the party because it means I have been surrounded by friends

• The taxes I pay because it means that I am in employment

• The clothes that fit a little too snug because it means I have enough to eat

• My shadow who watches over me because it means I am out in the sunshine

• A lawn that needs to be mowed, windows that need to be cleaned, and gutters that need fixing because it means I have a home

• The spot I find at the far end of the parking lot because it means I am capable of walking

• The complaining I hear about the government as it means I have freedom of speech

• The person speaking loudly on their mobile phone because it means I can hear

• The huge piles of laundry and ironing because my loved ones are close by

• The alarm that goes off in the morning because it means I am alive

• It’s never about glossing over the challenges of daily life, it is just about recognizing that all, well many, clouds do have a silver lining.

Count Your Blessings

Counting your blessings, by noticing the many gifts you regularly receive, is a good way to commence a daily practice, and start to shine a light on gratitude in daily life.

Acknowledge the contribution

Take time to contemplate, or write down, the value that individuals, groups, and organizations do to support your daily life and acknowledge their contribution.

Say Thank You

Saying thank you isn’t just about being polite, it’s about showing your appreciation.

When someone does something nice for you, take the time to genuinely say thank you.

Meditate

There are lots of benefits to regular meditation practice and many different types of meditation are available. A Gratitude Meditation, as the name suggests, brings about a focus on the things and people in your life that you are grateful for, and helps to cultivate feelings of gratitude in all situations.

Summary

We all can bring more focus to the people and things in our life that we are grateful for. By putting gratitude into practice, we can cultivate an ‘attitude of gratitude that can come with profound benefits to our happiness, relationships, health and wellbeing, and more. I’m grateful for the opportunity to share this blog and my knowledge with you and I hope that it brings you many reasons to be grateful. You can always contact me for a free consultation for online traininig for leadership coaching and counselling and my other successful program which is mindset transformation. Learning should never stop. Happy Learning!