It’s that time of year when family and friends prepare to gather for a shared feast, celebrating the harvest season, community, and reflecting on what we are thankful for. In many far eastern traditions, especially the Buddhist tradition, there are formal practices around evoking gratitude that one can choose to do regularly. And although the purpose of many such practices is about moving towards a new inner state of being, are there other tangible benefits for those who experience feeling of gratitude and thankfulness regularly?
We will get that the answer to that question in a moment, but first let’s get on the same page as to what “gratitude” is. One study I came across defines it in the following way that I quite like: “the appreciation of what is valuable and meaningful to oneself; it is a general state of thankfulness and/or appreciation.” With this definition in mind, let’s turn to what we know from research about cultivating gratitude.
There are a growing number of studies on gratitude looking at the effects of practices that increase feelings of gratitude. The findings to date are compelling: such practices tend to increase feelings of well-being and life satisfaction. Research also shows increasing levels of gratitude can improve physical and mental health, improve interpersonal relationships, and reduce stress. Higher levels of gratitude are associated with better quality of sleep and sleep duration. On a physiologic level, these practices have been shown to lower cortisol levels and blood pressure, improve heart rate variability (sign of heart health), and increase parasympathetic activity (associated with the relaxation response in our nervous system).
And as we mention in my book Yoga for Healthy Aging, feelings of gratitude stimulate areas of the brain that release dopamine and serotonin, resulting in increased feeling of satisfaction, pleasure and happiness.
How do you know how much gratitude you already experience in your life? Modern psychology has developed some effective questionnaires for assessing one’s baseline level of gratitude (see example below). This is obviously useful in doing studies on improving levels of gratitude, but can be of interest for you and me in assessing our own present levels of gratitude. And there are a number of fairly simple exercises, which include meditation, that have been shown to be effective in cultivating and increasing feelings of gratitude in the practitioner (see list below).
Although the modern research shows benefits most of the time, there are some studies that show no effect on well-being, including one study looking at people in work settings, and another involving divorced women doing a regular journaling practice. This area of study is still relatively new, but the results so far do not suggest any negative impacts on practicing gratitude techniques. So, with mostly upside benefits to such practices, how can you start to incorporate these techniques into your wellness routines?
In Yoga for Health Aging, we suggest the following ways to use your meditation practice to cultivate more gratitude:
• Use the word “gratitude” as a mantra.
• Choose one thing for which you are grateful and use it as the object for your meditation, either as a mantra or as an image.
• Set the intention that as you meditate you will notice things you are grateful for as they naturally arise in your mind.
• Practice any formal meditation practice designed to cultivate gratitude.
(Chapter 10, pg. 165)
Below you will find a list of other practices that might better suit your unique personality and needs. But the bottom line is that there are plenty of options of things you can start do now without needing to wait for a once-a-year holiday to reap the benefits of experiencing thanks and gratitude in your life. Why not try one today?
Example of an Assessment Tool for Gratitude:
The Gratitude Questionnaire-Six Item Form (GQ-6)
from Resource 1 below
Using the scale below as a guide, write a number beside each statement to indicate how much you agree with it.
1=strongly disagree, 2=disagree, 3=slightly disagree, 4=neutral, 5=slightly agree, 6=agree, 7=strongly agree
___ 1. I have so much in life for which to be thankful.
___ 2. If I had to list everything that I felt grateful for, it would be a very long list.
___ 3. When I look at the world, I don't see much for which to be grateful.*
___ 4. I am grateful to a wide variety of people.
___ 5. As I get older I find myself more able to appreciate the people, events, and situations that have been part of my life history.
___ 6. Long amounts of time can go by before I feel grateful to something or someone.*
*reverse scored items
From resource 1
Practices to Cultivate Gratitude
from Resource 1 below
• Journaling about things for which to be grateful
• Thinking about someone for whom you are grateful
• Writing/sending a letter to someone for whom you are grateful
• Meditating on gratitude (present moment awareness)
• Undertaking the “Count Your Blessings” exercise (at the end of the week, writing down three things for which you were grateful)
• Practicing saying “thank you” in a sincere and meaningful way
• Writing thank you notes
• If religious, praying about your gratitude
Resources:
1) Review article on Well-being and Gratitude 2010
2) Newsletter from National Alliance on Mental Illness/California
3) Harvard Newsletter 2021
4) Yoga for Healthy Aging, by Baxter Bell, MD and Nina Zolotow. Order a copy here!
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