Start by listing 3-5 things, and you can work your way up later if you wish. You’ll be surprised at how this can change your perspective and shift your day for the better. Dr. Rufus Tony Spann is a nationally certified school psychologist, licensed professional counselor, yoga teacher and reiki master. Over the years, he has served as a department chair, adjunct professor, assistant professor, speaker and trainer. Dr. Spann is a founding team member and the former chief clinical officer of Hurdle, a digital health platform for people of color.
We have a dedicated article offering gratitude meditation guidance for you to peruse. If a person experiences gratitude, they are more likely to recognize the help and then later reciprocate that help (Wood et al., 2010). People who are thanked are presumably more apt to extend help to others in the future. The two stages of gratitude comprise the recognition of the goodness in our lives and then how this goodness came to us.
Download 3 Free Gratitude Exercises (PDF)
Take some time to write a letter to someone you’re grateful for. Not only are you sharing your gratitude with this person, but that person may be inspired to pay it forward https://ecosoberhouse.com/ to someone else. Therefore, gratitude can also be thought of as an emotion, since it is from our emotional state that we feel gratitude and are able to express it.
- Create a routine that works for you and find three things each day you are grateful for.
- Gratitude blocks toxic emotions, such as envy, resentment, regret, and depression, which can destroy our happiness.
- Gratitude is all about recognizing the good things in your life and the role that others play in those positive events.
- Groups two and three were nearly the same as each other.
- There were further links between gratitude and healthy activities.
The UN report is a survey of global happiness that ranks 156 countries by respondent ratings of their own lives. Just like a muscle, when you exercise your thankfulness more often, you’re more gratitude in recovery likely to see beneficial effects. When we feel deep happiness, our bodies are producing all sorts of wonderful chemicals. Keller explains more specifically how rewarding it is for our body.
Challenges to gratitude
In turn, you are better able to bounce forward when challenges occur in life. Gratitude is good, and it has plenty of positive effects. It may also be what can help get us through the last miles of the pandemic marathon.
