1) Increase psychological well-being–we can reap the best benefits of gratitude by embodying gratitude and truly living a life of gratitude–a state we can get to by regular practice and commitment. 2) Enhance our positive emotions–research has shown that gratitude reduces envy, facilitates positive emotions and makes us more resilient (*4. Amin, 2014). 3) Increase our self esteem–gratitude can help you feel better about your circumstances, which can lead to feeling better about yourself. 4) Keep suicidal thoughts and attempts at bay–a study on the effects of gratitude on depression, coping and suicide showed that gratitude is a protective factor when it comes to suicide ideation in stressed and depressed individuals (*5. Krysinska, Lester, Lyke and Corveleyn, 2015).
Gratitude and Social Benefits “Happy and fun people are fun to be around.” Gratitude can:
5) Make people like us. 6) Improve our romantic relationships–showing our gratitude to loved ones is a great way to make them feel good, make us feel good, and make the relationship better in general. 7) Improve our friendships–those who communicate their gratitude to their friends are more likely to work through problems and concerns with their friends and have a more positive perception of their friends (*6. Lambert & Fincham, 2011). 8) Increase social support–gratitude not only helps you get the social support you need to get through difficult times, but it lessens the need for social support in the first place (*7. Wood, Maithy, Gillette, Linley & Joseph). 9) Strengthen family relationships in times of stress–gratitude has been found to protect children from anxiety and depression acting as a buffer against the internalization of symptoms (*8. Stoeckel, Wessbrod, & Ahrens, 2015). Gratitude and Personality Benefits Aside from the social and emotional benefits gratitude can provide, the regular practice and general “Attitude of Gratitude” can even affect your personality. Gratitude can: 10) Make us more optimistic–regular gratitude journaling has been shown to result in 5%-15% increases in optimism (*9. Amin, 2014) meaning that the more we think about what we are grateful for, the more we find to be grateful for. 11) Increase our spiritualism–the more spiritual you are, the more likely you are to be grateful and vice versa (*10. Urgesi, Aglioti, Skrap, & Fabbro, 2010). 12) Make us more giving–evidence has shown that promoting gratitude in participants makes them more likely to share with others, even at the expense of themselves , and even if the receiver was a stranger (*11. Urgesi, Aglioti, Skrap, & Fabbro, 2010). 13) Indicate reduced materialism–those who are grateful and less materialistic enjoy greater life satisfaction (*12. Tsang, Carpenter, Roberts, Frisch, & Carlisle, 2014). 14) Enhance optimism–a study on the effects of gratitude on positive affectivity and optimism found that a gratitude intervention resulted in greater tendencies toward positivity and an
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