By Shannon Bussnick, LSW
Often, we’re encouraged to “look on the bright side,” acknowledge the good around us, and cultivate a mindset of gratitude. This advice, while sure, can be reiterated to exhaustion, holds profound truth.
Embracing gratitude can transform our perspective, fostering a sense of optimism and strengthening our connections with ourselves, others, and the world.
Still, one may raise the question: Can the practice of gratitude really change everything?
Delving into Gratitude
Throughout history, various cultures, religions, and individuals from all walks of life, have celebrated gratitude’s role in enhancing well-being. Contemporary research continues to explore this connection, revealing the complex interplay between gratitude and our overall quality of life.
Here we’ll be breaking down the following queries:
Why does gratitude resonate so deeply with us?
Is gratitude merely a social construct, encompassing more or less a placebo effect, or does it have a physiological basis?
Understanding Gratitude’s Essence
Robert Emmons, a leading gratitude researcher, describes it as encompassing an emotion, a virtue, a moral sentiment, and more.
Gratitude’s expression varies widely; for some, it’s verbal acknowledgment, while for others, it’s demonstrated through acts of kindness or support for meaningful causes.
Yet, how gratitude manifests from one person to the next is not solely what’s important, but rather ensuring the space for this mindset to develop, flourish, and evolve, is ultimately more impactful.
The Multifaceted Nature of Gratitude
Psychologists identify three primary forms of gratitude: a character trait, a mood, and an emotion. Each reflects a different aspect of gratitude, from an inherent disposition to momentary feelings of thankfulness following acts of kindness.
The Transformative Benefits of Gratitude
Adopting a grateful mindset can lead to a myriad of benefits, including, but certainly not limited to:
• Increased happiness
• Improved energy and physical health
• Enhanced optimism leading to positive experiences
• Openness to mindfulness and self-reflection
• Increased resilience
• Greater generosity and forgiveness
• Lowered stress and anxiety
• Reduced pain symptoms and somatic complaints
• Stronger relationships
• Enhanced purposefulness
(Allen, 2018; Chowdhury, 2022; Pratt, 2022).
These positive outcomes underscore the power of gratitude in fostering a well-rounded, fulfilling, and purposeful life.
Exploring Individual and Social Dimensions
The experience of gratitude can be influenced by personal disposition, gender, and cultural factors, adding layers of complexity to how gratitude is perceived and expressed.
Social contexts, including family upbringing and societal values, also play a crucial role in shaping our relationship with gratitude.
The development of either a positive or negative outlook on gratitude is often influenced by one’s early childhood development. Research suggests that if a positive association with gratitude is developed early on in someone’s upbringing, particularly in childhood or adolescence, then there is a greater likelihood they’ll experience more gratitude in their life.
Makes sense… doesn’t it?
We know that the brain of a child is like a sponge, soaking up positive social-emotional responses and creating such neuro connections in their brains, along with the negative ones.
The Scientific Perspective of Gratitude
Gratitude is not only emotionally enriching but also physiologically beneficial.
Studies have linked gratitude to lower blood pressure, improved heart health, and better sleep, among other health advantages. These findings highlight the tangible effects of gratitude on our well-being.
Researchers have also developed methods to measure gratitude, employing various scales and neuroimaging techniques to gain insights into its impact on our lives.
These measures consist of a range of questionnaires and surveys, including (but not limited to):
• The Gratitude Adjective Checklist (GAC)
• The Gratitude Questionare-6 (GQ-6)
• The Gratitude Resentment and Appreciation Test (GRAT)
• The Multi-Component Gratitude Measure (MCGM)
• and the Expression of Gratitude in Relationships Measure
In addition to these methods, researchers have utilized neuroimaging techniques to examine areas of the brain that are likely to be connected to feeling and expressing gratitude.
Enhancing Gratitude in Our Lives
Gratitude interventions, such as keeping a gratitude journal or writing letters of appreciation, can amplify the positive effects of gratitude, contributing to our mental and emotional well-being. These interventions serve to enhance gratitude, in the present, and the future—strengthening muscle memory over time to receive enhanced benefits.
While most of us can certainly benefit from partaking in activities and exercises that increase self-awareness and an awareness for others, research does suggest that gratitude interventions may produce better results for individuals who possess a less than optimistic life outlook compared to their peers, who tend to be more self-critical, and who are less reliant on others.
Gratitude cannot exist without help, support, and feedback from other people, places, and things; therefore, we must view gratitude as a collective responsibility, a multi-dimensional approach, with each of us contributing in our unique way.
Here, we share some helpful interventions to explore on your gratitude journey:
Counting blessings (Gratitude Journals)
A proven way to increase happiness and well-being, this intervention includes jotting down five things that you’re grateful for daily, weekly, or monthly. Reflecting on these blessings can reinforce the positive effects of gratitude on the mind and body, thus creating a positive feedback loop.
Three Good Things
Along the same lines as Counting Blessings, this two-step intervention focuses on writing down three things that went well in your life and identifying the cause of them.
This activity helps us understand that ‘good input’ exists due to ‘good output.’ Similar to the law of attraction, we attract what we believe. How we perceive ourselves and the world around us accounts for many of the happenings in our own lives.
Gratitude Letters and Visits
This intervention involves writing a letter of gratitude and delivering it to someone whose had an impact on your life, no matter the magnitude.
Perhaps, you haven’t fully expressed your thoughts to this individual or would like to elaborate further on how their actions influenced you to carry it forward.
Mental Subtraction
Research has proposed that mental subtraction works to help us not take what we have for granted. This intervention works by imagining the absence of (subtracting) a good thing in your life rather than thinking about its presence. When we envision living without such goodness, we feel more grateful in return.
In a Gratefull Nutshell..
The science of gratitude is truly an amazing phenomenon as it encompasses a range of biological, physiological, and social factors that typically develop in one’s early childhood but continue to evolve—even going as far as to change the neural functioning of the brain by acting as a catalyst for the release of feel-good neurotransmitters.
Gratitude looks and feels different for all of us, and while we all will experience gratitude in various contexts throughout life’s journey, implementing just one or two interventions mentioned above can produce and recycle the incredible benefits of gratitude for all.
The verdict is in: Gratitude really can change everything.
References
For further exploration of gratitude’s impact, the following resources provide unique, comprehensive insights:
• Allen, S. (2018). The Science of Gratitude. University of California, Berkeley.
• Chowdhury, M. R. (2022). The neuroscience of gratitude and effects on the brain. PositivePsychology.com.
• Peterson, C. (2010). Giving thanks by mental subtraction. Psychology Today.
• Pratt, M. (2022). The Science of Gratitude. Mindful.org
viennalane.blog 
Leave a comment