Psychology Facts

▲ Gratitude ▲

》In positive psychology research, gratitude is strongly and consistently associated with greater happiness. Gratitude helps people feel more positive emotions, relish good experiences, improve their health, deal with adversity, and build strong relationships.

》The benefits of gratitude are split into five groups:

Emotional benefits
Social benefits
Personality benefits
Career benefits
Health benefits

》Grateful people experience fewer aches and pains and they report feeling healthier than other people, according to a 2012 study published in Personality and Individual Differences.

》Gratitude is an emotion that directly targets at building and sustaining social bondings

》Studies have demonstrated that at the brain level, moral judgments involving feelings of gratefulness are evoked in the right anterior temporal cortex

》People who express and feel gratitude have a higher volume of gray matter in the right inferior temporal gyrus

》The effects of gratitude, when practiced daily can be almost the same as medications. It produces a feeling of long-lasting happiness and contentment, the physiological basis of which lies at the neurotransmitter level.

》When we express gratitude and receive the same, our brain releases dopamine and serotonin, the two crucial neurotransmitters responsible for our emotions, and they make us feel 'good'. They enhance our mood immediately, making us feel happy from the inside.
By consciously practicing gratitude everyday, we can help these neural pathways to strengthen themselves and ultimately create a permanent grateful and positive nature within ourselves.

》A national survey on gratitude, which included over 2,000 American citizens found that the last place where people are likely to receive or express gratitude is at their workplace. 60% of people reported they have never voiced gratitude at work, while only 10% of them would say "thank you" to their colleagues on any given day.

》Gratitude releases toxic emotions
The limbic system is the part of the brain that is responsible for all emotional experiences. It consists of the thalamus, hypothalamus, amygdala, hippocampus, and cingulate gyrus. Studies have shown that hippocampus and amygdala, the two main sites regulating emotions, memory, and bodily functioning, get activated with feelings of gratitude.

》Gratitude reduces a multitude of toxic emotions, ranging from envy and resentment to frustration and regret. Robert A. Emmons, Ph.D., a leading gratitude researcher, has conducted multiple studies on the link between gratitude and well-being.

》For years, research has shown gratitude not only reduces stress, but it may also play a major role in overcoming trauma. A 2006 study published in Behavior Research and Therapy found that Vietnam War Veterans with higher levels of gratitude experienced lower rates of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.

》A five-minute daily gratitude journal can increase your long-term well-being by more than 10 percent.

》Writing in a gratitude journal improves sleep, according to a 2011 study published in Applied Psychology: Health and Well-Being. Spend just 15 minutes jotting down a few grateful sentiments before bed, and you may sleep better and longer.

》Researchers from the University of Kentucky have shown that grateful people are more likely to have prosocial manners.
They expressed more empathy and sensitivity and were less revengeful.

》Gratitude opens the door to more relationships. Not only does saying "thank you" constitute good manners, but showing appreciation can help you win new friends, according to a 2014 study published in Emotion.

》Algo, Fredrickson and Gable conducted a study and found that after receiving gratitude, participants reported their significant others were more responsive to their needs and generally more satisfied with their relationship. These effects were still present six to nine months later.

》Some ideas on how to be more grateful: P

Don't be picky, appreciate everything

Find gratitude in your challenges

Keep a gratitude journal

Volunteer

Spend time with loved ones

Every day, say aloud three good things that happened

Say thanks

Savor the good moments.

Look outward, not inward.

Change your perspective.