The Attitude is Gratitude

We have taken gratitude for granted...

Yes, “thank you” is an essential, everyday part of family dinners, trips to the store, business deals, and political negotiations. That might be why so many people have dismissed gratitude as simple, obvious, and unworthy of serious attention. But that’s starting to change. Recently scientists have begun to chart a course of research aimed at understanding gratitude and the circumstances in which it flourishes or diminishes. They’re finding that people who practice gratitude consistently report a host of benefits:

• Stronger immune systems and lower blood pressure;
  
• Higher levels of positive emotions;
  
• More joy, optimism, and happiness;
  
• Acting with more generosity and compassion;
  
• Feeling less lonely and isolated.
  

That’s why the Greater Good Science Center at the University of California, Berkeley—in collaboration with the University of California, Davis— launched a $5.6 million, three-year project, Expanding the Science and Practice of Gratitude. The project is supported with funding from the John Templeton Foundation. 

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Gratitude: Film by Louie Schwartzberg

You think this is just another day in your life? It's not just another day. It's the one day that is given to you today. It's given to you. It's a gift. It's the only gift that you have right now, and the only appropriate response is gratefulness. ~ Brother David Steindl-Rast

ABOUT THIS VIDEO: Nature’s beauty can be easily missed -- but not through Louie Schwartzberg’s lens. His stunning time-lapse photography, accompanied by powerful words from Benedictine monk Brother David Steindl-Rast, serves as a meditation on being grateful for every day. [Filmed at TEDxSF in June 2011]

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Why gratitude is good...

Two Components of Gratitude

Robert Emmons, perhaps the world’s leading scientific expert on gratitude, argues that gratitude has two key components, which he describes in a Greater Good essay, “Why Gratitude Is Good.”

“First,” he writes, “it’s an affirmation of goodness. We affirm that there are good things in the world, gifts and benefits we’ve received.”

In the second part of gratitude, he explains, “we recognize that the sources of this goodness are outside of ourselves. … We acknowledge that other people—or even higher powers, if you’re of a spiritual mindset—gave us many gifts, big and small, to help us achieve the goodness in our lives.”

At times our own light goes out and is rekindled by a spark from another person. Each of us has cause to think with deep gratitude of those who have lighted the flame within us. ~ Albert Schweitzer 

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How to Cultivate Gratitude

Are you a natural pessimist? Take heart: The benefits of gratitude aren’t only available to people with a naturally grateful disposition. Instead, feeling grateful is a skill we can develop with practice, reaping its rewards along the way. Here are some of the most effective ways to cultivate gratitude, according to research.

• Keep a gratitude journal
  
• Write a “gratitude letter” to an important person in your life whom you’ve never properly thanked. 
  
• Savor the good in your life
  
• Focus on intentions
  
• Teach gratitude to children
  
• Recognize the positive
  
• Get metaphysical
  

Source: Greater Good Science Center

Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all the others. ~ Marcus Tullius Cicero