Gratitude helps you make and keep more friends. Gratitude helps us perceive kindness. And since it’s natural to want to reciprocate kindness when we receive it, we’re naturally kinder beings if we refine the skill to recognize kindness. A study published in 2014 by Emotion showed that thanking a new acquaintance made the more likely to pursue on ongoing relationship.
Gratitude improves optimism. If we perceive our current life to have more good, we will also believe our future life will have more good. It’s that simple. So much of what determines our next steps in life is our current perspective. Seeing the good over the bad can mean the difference between seeing opportunities and missing them.
Gratitude increases your energy level. Studies show a strong correlation between gratitude and vitality. Those who feel more grateful seemed to report more physical and mental vigor. But we don’t need science or research to understand simple math: the less energy we expend feeling sorry for ourselves or envying others, the more energy we’ll have to focus on positive movement.
Gratitude makes you more resilient. When life hits you hard - and life will hit everyone hard at some point - you’ll be faced with a decision: Do you see your life half full or half empty. Is life better than you deserve or worse than you deserve? If you can still see the beauty in life amidst adversity, you’ll be able to dust yourself off and seek the positive that you trust is in store.
Gratitude makes us happier. If we can sum up all of the benefits of gratitude into a single point, it’s that gratitude makes us happier. It’s been said that five minutes of journaling a day has the same impact of increasing happiness as doubling your income. Imagine what five minutes a day of gratitude journaling can do for a child. It can change the course of his life.
Deborah Song
