Have an attitude of gratitude
Gratitude is a powerful human emotion. By conveying and receiving simple ‘thank you’ messages, we can truly derive the pleasure that we seek everywhere else. Gratitude, derived from the Latin word ‘gratia,’ means gratefulness or thankfulness.
In positive psychology, gratitude is the human way of acknowledging the good things in life. Psychologists have defined gratitude as a positive emotional response that we perceive on giving or receiving a benefit from someone.
Gratitude can transform common days into thanksgiving, turn routine jobs into joy, and change ordinary opportunities into blessings.”
Thanking others, thanking ourselves, Mother Nature, or the Almighty – gratitude can enlighten the mind and make us feel happier. It has a healing effect on us. The benefits of gratitude are endless, and in this article, let us explore gratitude, discuss its scientific base, and understand how we can use gratitude to be happier in life.
Enjoy the little things. For one day you may look back and realize they were the big things.”
-Robert Brault
Gratitude in all forms is associated with happiness. Whether we say ‘thank you’ to someone or receive the same from others, the feeling it brings is that of pure satisfaction and encouragement. Expressions of gratitude help in building and sustaining long-term relationships, dealing with adversities, and bouncing back from them with strength and motivation.
Gratitude brings happiness
Gratitude improves interpersonal relationships at home and work (Gordon, Impett, Kogan, Oveis, & Keltner, 2012). The connection between gratitude and happiness is multi-dimensional. Expressing gratitude not only to others but also to ourselves, induces positive emotions, primarily happiness. By producing feelings of pleasure and contentment, gratitude impacts our overall health and well-being as well
Gratitude is the healthiest of all human emotions.”
-Zig Ziglar
Gratitude was significant in ancient philosophies and cultures, for example, in the Roman culture, where Cicero mentioned gratitude as the ‘mother’ of all human feelings.
Gratitude and the brain
Neural mechanisms that are responsible for feelings of gratitude have grabbed attention. 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
Emily Fletcher, the founder of Ziva, a well-known meditation training site, mentioned in one of her publications that gratitude is a ‘natural antidepressant’. The effects of gratitude, when practiced daily can be almost the same as medications.
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 every day, we can help these neural pathways to strengthen themselves and ultimately create a permanent grateful and positive nature within ourselves.
Gratitude and social psychology
Gratitude has a social aspect to it that argues it to be a socially driven emotion. Social psychologists believe it to be entwined with the perception of what we have done for others and what others have done for us.
According to them, gratitude is an emotion that directly targets building and sustaining social bondings and reinforces prosocial responses in the future
“It is not happiness that brings us gratitude. It is gratitude that brings us happiness.”
Be thankful for what you have, you’ll end up having more. If you concentrate on what you don’t have, you will never ever have enough.”
Oprah Winfrey
Life is so great when you are grateful for what you have
When you are happy with what you have, then you have everything.
The best way to become more positive and joy-filled is to look for the best in people. No one’s perfect and all of us really do have gifts. Seek the finest in others, leave them better than you found them and remember that they might not be around tomorrow. This will be good for them and great for your happiness.
If you have food in your fridge, clothes on your back, a roof over your head and a place to sleep you are richer than 75% of the world.
If you have money in the bank, your wallet, and some spare change you are among the top 8% of the world’s wealthy.
If you woke up this morning with more health than illness you are more blessed than the million people who will not survive this week.
If you have never experienced the danger of battle, the agony of imprisonment or torture, or the horrible pangs of starvation you are luckier than 500 million people alive and suffering.
If you can read this message you are more fortunate than 3 billion people in the world who cannot read it at all.”
Now you also agree that to ask for more from God is like a greedy offer to him. It’s like having two chocolates in two hands and still ask for more choclotes to pick up from feet. 😃. To have happiness with what you have, and spreading that happiness with others who don’t have what you have, then only you will see the change in your life. It’s like dialogue from my fav movie kal ho na ho,
” तुम्हारे पास जो है तुम्हारे हिसाब से कम है… लेकिन किसी दूसरे के नजर से देखो… तो तुम्हारे पास बहुत कुछ है।”
Gratitude from the Bhagavad Gita
It is said in the Bhagavad Gita, ‘Yadrccha-labha-santusto Dvandvatito Vimatsarah.
‘ Whatever is coming to you, you should have some level of contentment and with contentment comes gratitude.’ Kritajna, the sanskrit word for gratitude is made up of two words. Krita meaning cultivated, and jna which is a state of consciousness. Kritajna is about cultivating awareness of consciousness so we can be fully present to enjoy the gifts for which we are grateful.
Summary
Gratitude drives happiness. Happiness boosts productivity. Productivity reveals mastery. And masstery inspires the world.