The Benefits of Daily Gratitude

What is Daily Gratitude?

Daily gratitude is the simple act of taking time to think about all the positives in your life. It can be as simple as the first sip of coffee in the morning or as big as your Mum/Dad or Best Friend. Gratitude is often overlooked as a tool for increasing happiness but studies have suggested it is the single most powerful way of increasing happiness. 


So, what are the benefits of daily gratitude? There are so many huge benefits of taking time out your day to think about what you are grateful for. We will be telling you the first 15! 

 

1. Gratitude Makes Us Happier


Spending 5 minutes of your day to write down what you are grateful for, can increase your long-term wellbeing by more than 10%¹. The reason for this is because gratitude can make us feel more gratitude. It is like a positivity loop that increase that feeling over time!

 

2. Gratitude Makes People Like Us

A study has suggested that those who were 10% more grateful, had 17.5% more social capital compared to average people². Gratitude can make us nicer, more trusting, social and more appreciative. Therefore, it aids us to make more friends, deepen our already existing relationships and improves marriages.

 

3. Gratitude Makes Us Healthier

Studies have actually shown that gratitude can decrease pain, reduce bad health symptoms, increase time spent exercising, increase sleep time and quality, lower blood pressure, increase energy, plus a lot more. There is even suggestions that gratitude can extend your lifespan by a few months or even years!!!³.

 

4. Gratitude Boosts Our Career

A study has claimed that gratitude can make you a more effective managerhelp you network, increase your decision-making capabilities, increase your productivity, and help you find mentors and proteges. Meaning, gratitude can help you achieve your career goals, as well as make your workplace a more friendly and enjoyable place to be.

 

5. Gratitude Strengthens Our Positive Emotions

Gratitude reduces feelings of envy, makes our memories happier, lets us experience good feelings, and helps us bounce back from stress.

 

6. Gratitude Makes Us More Optimistic

Gratitude is strongly associated with optimism. Optimism, in turn, makes us happier, improves our health, and has been shown to increase lifespan by as much as a few years.

 

7. Gratitude Reduces Materialism

Materialism is strongly correlated with reduced well-being and increased rates of mental disorder⁶.


However, Gratitude can help reduce our tendency to compare ourselves to those who have more power, wealth and material items. Those who have an attitude of gratitude are more likely to perceive an environment of kindness, whereas those who are less grateful are less likely to perceive acts of kindness, which in turn causes grateful people’s brains to assume they are in an environment full of social support, which in turn kills insecurity and materialism.

 

8. Gratitude Increases Spiritualism 


Spiritual transcendence is highly correlated with feelings of gratitude. That is – the more spiritual you are, the more likely you are to be grateful.

 

9. Gratitude Makes Us Feel Less Self-Centred


The very nature of gratitude is to focus on others (on their acts of benevolence).

 

10. Gratitude Increases Self-Esteem


Gratitude makes you feel better about yourself. Chances are good that you do not do good things simply because it makes you feel good about yourself. But it is a nice side effect.

 

11. Gratitude Improves Your Sleep


Gratitude has been shown to increase sleep quality, reduce the time required to fall asleep, and increase sleep duration. Said differently, gratitude can help with insomnia⁷.


If it’s thinking about a few things we have to be grateful for today, it will induce the relaxation response, knock us out, and keep us that way.

 

12. Gratitude Increases your Energy Levels


Gratitude and energy levels are strongly correlated – the grateful are much more likely to report physical and mental vigour.

 

13. Gratitude Makes You More Likely to Exercise


In a US Study, those who were instructed to keep a weekly gratitude journal exercised 40 minutes more per week than the control group.

 

14. Gratitude Helps Us Bounce Back From Bad Times


We all have bad periods and go through tough times in our lives. Depression. Anxiety. Loneliness. It happens to us all. 

Gratitude is never going to make you magically “immune” to these negative feelings. They are a part of life’s experience. However, people who express gratitude are more resilient. Meaning they “bounce back” faster. These negative emotional swings simply do not last as long.

 

15. Gratitude Makes Our Memories Happier 


Our memories are not set in stone, like data stored on a hard-drive.

There are many ways our memories get changed over time – we remember things as being worse than they actually were, as being longer or shorter, people as being kinder or crueler, as being more or less interesting, etc. Our memories are not set in stone at all. 

Experiencing gratitude in the present makes us more likely to remember positive memories in a positive light. It can actually transform some of our neutral or even negative memories into positive ones.

 

Keep your eyes peeled for Part 2 of This Blog Post!

 

References 

  1. Positive Psychology Progress (2005, Seligman, M. P., Steen, T. A., Park, N., & Peterson, C.)
  2. Why Gratitude Enhances Well-Being: What We Know, What We Need to Knowc1. Stone, D. I., & Stone, E. F. (1983). The Effects of Feedback Favorability and Feedback Consistency. Academy Of Management Proceedings (00650668), 178-182. doi:10.5465/AMBPP.1983.4976341
  3. Positive Emotions in Early Life and Longevity: Findings From The Nun Study . Optimistics vs. Pessimists Survival Rate Among Medical Patients Over a 30-Year Period. Prediction of All-Cause Mortality by the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory Optimism-Pessimism Scale Scores: Study of a College Sample During a 40-Year Follow-up Period.
  4. Jaworski, B. J., & Kohl, A. K. (1991). Supervisory Feedback: Alternative Types and Their Impact on Salespeople’s Performance and Satisfaction. Journal Of Marketing Research (JMR), 28(2), 190-201.
  5. Prediction of All-Cause Mortality by the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory Optimism-Pessimism Scale Scores: Study of a College Sample During a 40-Year Follow-up Period
  6. Kashdan, T. B., & Breen, W. E. (2007). MATERIALISM AND DIMINISHED WELL-BEING: EXPERIENTIAL AVOIDANCE AS A MEDIATING MECHANISM. Journal Of Social & Clinical Psychology, 26(5), 521-539.
  7. Counting Blessings Versus Burdens: An Experimental Investigation of Gratitude and Subjective Well-Being in Daily Life
  8. Watkins, P. C., Cruz, L., Holben, H., & Kolts, R. L. (2008). Taking Care of Business? Grateful Processing of Unpleasant Memories. Journal of Positive Psychology, 3, 87-99.

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