Gratefulness: How it changes you (and your life)

Everyone wants to live a happy life. A comfortable career, a wonderful family, financial security, and vibrant social life. And, in our never-ending quest for happiness, which is largely an illusion, how often do we take a moment to appreciate what we already have?

Gratitude is one of the most powerful human emotions. We can genuinely receive the joy we seek elsewhere by sending and receiving simple “thank you” texts. Gratitude comes from the Latin word gratia, which signifies appreciation or gratitude.

Gratitude is defined as a “state of appreciation” or “state of being grateful” in its most basic form. But how much do we really know about it? Today, we’ll take a deep dive into this topic and see how gratitude works to benefit you.

What is gratitude?

In positive psychology, gratitude is the human way of acknowledging the great things of life. Psychologists have defined gratitude as a positive emotional response that we perceive as giving or receiving a benefit from someone.

Why is gratitude good?

It improves your health

Gratitude has a positive influence on both mental and physical health. In recent decades, positive psychology and mental health experts have discovered a strong link between thankfulness and well health. Maintaining a thankfulness diary reduces stress, improves sleep quality, and increases emotional awareness. Gratitude is linked to increased vitality, energy, and motivation to work harder.

It rewires your brain

Moral judgments including sentiments of gratitude have been shown to be activated in the right anterior temporal cortex, according to studies. The reason why some of us are inherently more thankful than others, according to the same study, is due to neurochemical variations in the Central Nervous System. The amount of grey matter in the right inferior temporal gyrus is greater in people who express and experience appreciation.

How to be more grateful?

Here are three simple techniques for cultivating grateful awareness.

• Keep a gratitude notebook and write down at least three items each day. The optimum times to write in your diary are first thing in the morning or right before bedtime.
• Make it a habit to tell individuals you care about what you admire about them on a regular basis.
• Give yourself a minute to think about a trait you appreciate about yourself or something you’ve recently accomplished when you gaze in the mirror.

The bottom-line

It might be tough to feel appreciative in times of adversity or stress. However, if you think about it, we all have something to be thankful for!