Being Thankful…
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It can be easy to get caught up in how we could be happier if we had different possessions, opportunities, situations or people in our lives. However, 1 Thessalonians 5:18 says to give thanks in all circumstances. There is not a moment that goes by that we do not have something to be thankful for. Sometimes it is easy to find a lot to be grateful for; other times it feels more difficult to have a thankful attitude.
Focusing on God helps us to develop an attitude of being thankful. Seeking God allows us to see what He has done in our lives and what we have to be thankful for. We become able to see how He is working in our lives, even in less-than-ideal circumstances.
People feel and express gratitude in multiple ways. They can apply it to the past (retrieving positive memories and being thankful for elements of childhood or past blessings), the present (not taking good fortune for granted as it comes), and the future (maintaining a hopeful and optimistic attitude). Regardless of the inherent or current level of someone's gratitude, it's a quality that individuals can successfully cultivate further.
One group wrote about things they were grateful for that had occurred during the week. A second group wrote about daily irritations or things that had displeased them, and the third wrote about events that had affected them (with no emphasis on them being positive or negative). After 10 weeks, those who wrote about gratitude were more optimistic and felt better about their lives. Surprisingly, they also exercised more and had fewer visits to physicians than those who focused on sources of aggravation.
Other studies have looked at how being grateful can improve relationships. For example, a study of couples found that individuals who took time to express gratitude for their partner not only felt more positive toward the other person but also felt more comfortable expressing concerns about their relationship.
Say someone helped you replace a flat tire. Gratefulness is when you let that someone know how much you appreciate their help. But thankfulness is when you appreciate the fact that your flat tire is replaced.
A positive attitude is formed by the choices we make daily and how we react to situations and others around us. When we brush off disappointment or rude comments, we maintain a positive attitude. Our attitude is also influenced by how well we ignore negative self-talk and accept our current circumstances. There are other ways that people embrace a positive attitude and those include being thankful or practicing gratitude.
When something good or exciting happens, it is easy to be thankful. We appreciate the warm feelings that come with gifts or happy news. Thankfulness involves how we feel in the moment, and like all feelings, eventually, it fades. Thankfulness is a temporary emotional response to a temporary circumstance.
It is important to express thankfulness when something good happens. Being thankful is not inherently bad. It is part of showing appreciation to others or for your good fortune. We are thankful when we get a new job or meet a new friend. However, thankfulness is not enough to keep us in a positive mindset. Setbacks and things that we are most certainly not thankful for will always interfere with our thankfulness. Because of this, we must rely on other ways to maintain a positive attitude. One such way is by expressing gratitude.
Where thankfulness is an emotion, gratitude is an attitude of appreciation under any circumstance. Gratitude involves being thankful, but it is more than that. Gratitude means expressing thankfulness and being appreciative of life daily even when nothing exciting happens.
Gratitude is about being content physically and mentally with the state of your life. You may not always be happy, but you can still practice gratitude. In fact, the same study from Berkely asserts that practicing gratitude is not only good for you but for your relationships as well.
So how do you know if you are operating from a spirit of gratitude? As already mentioned, gratitude is an important part of keeping a healthy psychological outlook, but it is closely related to thankfulness. So, what are the differences?
Although gratitude and thankfulness are closely related, gratitude provides you with a longer-lasting feeling of satisfaction and improved well-being. Practicing gratitude is proven to offer many benefits to individuals.
There is no right or wrong way to practice gratitude. Gratitude should be an internal expression of your own thankfulness, but many people find physical acts of gratitude increase and maintain their happiness on a long-term basis.
The World Health Organization (WHO) defines health not only as the absence of disease but as a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being. Gratitude is one of the concepts most commonly associated with well-being from the empirical point of view. Despite of this, we seldom use the concept, possibly due to the lack of dissemination of its scientific bases and possible clinical applications. At an anatomical level, it is related consistently with the medial prefrontal cortex and at molecular level, with the neuropeptide oxytocin. It has been associated with better physical and mental health parameters, both in healthy and sick populations. It is usually measured using scales, being the most used worldwide the Gratitude Questionnaire-6 item (GQ-6). There are exercises that can enhance gratitude and its benefits, such as the gratitude letter and the gratitude journal. Given the current state of knowledge about gratitude, and considering its potential benefits, low risks, ability to complement other treatments, the simple and cost-effectiveness of gratitude interventions, a continuing research on this topic and its practical implementation is warranted.
We often remember to be grateful for big events, like graduating from university or getting married, but it can be more difficult to feel grateful for the small things we do every day. Reminding yourself that eating a meal, for example, is in itself special can be very powerful. Your immediate awareness of the food in front of you, combining flavors while removing hunger, is a great way to enjoy gratitude as often as you eat! Another example is feeling grateful in the morning for being able to comfortably sleep at night. We gain comfort, satisfaction and peace by practicing mindfulness and gratitude in this repeated fashion.
Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts. And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.
As we were reading before bed, Dad stopped the story and said, "There are a lot of people who would love to have things like ours. You should be thankful for what you have, instead of focusing on what you don't have."
People who are thankful are more positive instead of negative. When they see a glass with water in it, they say the glass is half full. Negative people will see that same glass of water and say it's half empty.
Taking the time to feel gratitude may improve your emotional well-being by helping you cope with stress. Early research suggests that a daily practice of gratitude could affect the body, too. For example, one study found that gratitude was linked to fewer signs of heart disease.
We tend to think of thankfulness as something that lasts for a short moment, often with little thought given to the act again once thanks has been shared. Showing that one is thankful is often easy to do, as it is a surface-level response. Few think of being thankful as something hard to do. Most consider it pretty simple.
3. Gratitude improves psychological health. 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. His research confirms that gratitude effectively increases happiness and reduces depression.
It can be easy to get swept away in the fast lane and forget to stop and show your appreciation for what you do have. A life well lived is one of gratitude and thankfulness. To help you on your gratitude journey, here are 8 ways to have more gratitude in your daily life.
For many people, the key to having more gratitude is to give back to others in their local community. Not only will it make you more grateful for the things that you may take for granted, but studies have shown that volunteering for the purpose of helping others increases our own well-being, and thus our ability to have more gratitude.
University of Pennsylvania professor, Martin Seligman, supports this theory with his research in Flourish: A Visionary New Understanding of Happiness and Well-Being. After testing all kinds of variables that help improve our well-being, he found that volunteering is the single most reliable way to momentarily increase your well-being.
Studies show that religious people tend to be more grateful, yet existing research tends to rely on small, non-representative samples and limited measures of religiosity. Therefore, we use a national sample (the National Study of Youth and Religion) and multiple measures of religiosity to examine the extent to which religion is associated with feelings of gratitude. We find that religious efficacy and having religious friends positively predict the extent to which young adults feel grateful. In contrast, religious affiliation, participation in organized religion, private devotion, religious salience, otherworldly beliefs, and being spiritual but not religious are unrelated to experiencing feelings of gratitude. 2b1af7f3a8