5 Ways How Gratitude Helps Improve Your Mental Health
The positive psychology behind developing a thankful mindset
Let’s face it: life is pretty insane right now.
COVID continues to cause widespread economic distress and a global health crisis with no end in sight. Systematic flaws, poor social infrastructure, and a lack of urgency are leaving the nation sick and divided. Millions of people are losing their jobs. Science is now political. Protests against racism and police brutality are widespread, asking for change from federal leadership that honestly, doesn’t care to address it.
Calling today’s society stressful would be an understatement.
Over the past few months, I’ve often found myself consumed with sadness, uncertainty, and frustration. My social media, the news, and the majority of my conversations were full of reasons to be scared and angry. I mean, rightfully so.
We all know what it’s like to feel negative effects on our emotions, and that’s okay. It’s normal to feel negativity, reflect on why you’re feeling the way you are, and then work on finding healthy ways to cope. However, it’s not healthy to allow your negative emotions to overpower the positivity in your life, which is exactly what I was allowing myself to do.
In order to remind myself of my happiness and well-being, I decided to start a gratitude journal.
First of all, what exactly is gratitude? Robert Emmons, one of the world’s leading experts on the topic, defines it as, “an affirmation of goodness. We affirm that there are good things in the world, gifts and benefits we’ve received.” To feel grateful is to feel the good of what you provide for yourself, for others, and what others can also provide for you.
Every night — well, almost every night… I try — I sit down and reflect on my day. During this reflection, I write down all of the things, people, and events of the day that made me feel grateful and why. I’ve noticed that the more I continue my practice, the more consistently I feel happiness and contentment.
I believe that taking time to practice gratitude has helped my mental health substantially; I feel more comfortable with what I have, who I am, and where I’m at in my life.
Starting my journal helped me feel happier, but it also had me wondering about the benefits of gratitude on overall mental health. What are some proven psychological benefits of being grateful? How does gratitude affect mental health and well-being? Why do I feel the way I feel when I put my gratitude practice into play?
Well, I found some answers.
Here are five simple, yet impactful ways in which practicing gratitude benefits your mental health and wellbeing.
1. Enhances Empathy and Reduces Aggression
According to a 2015 Psychology Today article, people who practice gratuity are more likely to behave in a prosocial manner, even when faced with unkindness from others. They highlight a 2012 University of Kentucky study which found that participants who ranked higher on gratitude scales were less likely to retaliate and more likely to express empathy and sensitivity to others.
2. Relieves Stress
Stress is the body’s normal response to external demands or threats. However, feeling stress in large quantities has been linked to a multitude of health problems, such as depression, anxiety, sleep problems, skin conditions, heart disease, and a suppressed immune system. Yikes.
A key component to stress management is heightening one’s emotional regulation, something that practicing gratitude has been shown to do. This 2017 study focused on the effects of gratitude meditation on heart rates. It found that the participants’ heart rates decreased when they focused on things they were grateful for, reflecting a sense of calmness and emotional stability. The opposite effect occurred when the participants were told to focus on resentment.
The study also revealed that when the participants were experiencing gratitude, the communication between areas of the brain associated with anxiety was more relaxed.
These findings suggest that reducing the mental symptoms of stress can be done by reallocating the brain’s energy from stressful situations to real-time gratitude, calming both the body and mind.
3. Enhances Postive Emotions
Let’s talk dopamine, one of the leading neurotransmitters for positive emotions.
According to mindbodygreen.com, dopamine is a neurotransmitter that’s related to feelings of pleasure and reward-motivated behavior. Dopamine is produced whenever a person expresses or receives gratitude, meaning that the more often someone feels grateful, the more often this valuable neurotransmitter is used by the brain. In an interview with mbg, licensed clinical psychologist and board-certified neurologist, Catherine Jackson, states in practical terms that, “a grateful mind will allow you to be less stressed and feel more positive emotions.”
In the end, being grateful for where you are and what you have leaves little room for negative emotions to slide in.
4. Improves Your Relationships
Showing gratitude towards your friends, family, and significant others will help both build and maintain healthy relationships. In fact, feelings of gratitude can do three important things for interpersonal relationships: demonstrate care, foster a healthy reliance on the relationship, and encourage those in the relationship to willingly increase their acts of support.
Also, as mentioned before, practicing gratitude helps increase empathy and decrease resentment towards others, making it easier to understand other people and show compassion for their points of view, two key building blocks to developing both social and intimate relationships.
Showing gratitude in your relationships will feed the cycle of mutual love, happiness, and care between the members.
5. Provides a Self-Esteem Boost
Comparing yourself to others. Let’s be real, we all do it. It’s normal human nature to do so. However, this normal habit can do damage to one’s self-esteem, also known as the confidence and satisfaction in oneself.
Gratitude is positively connected to self-esteem and well-being, as discussed by this study published in ScienceDirect. The study shows how higher levels of gratitude were associated with higher self-esteem, which in turn acts as a valuable connection to well-being.
Think of this as a cycle: people who practice gratitude are more satisfied with what they have and what they’ve done, lessening the chances of them negatively comparing themselves with others, thus increasing their self-esteem and moreover their overall well-being. And when someone experiences strong well-being, it becomes easier to remain happy, confident, and yes, grateful.
And the most amazing part? Research suggests that the more you express gratitude, the stronger and more long-term the psychological benefits are for doing so.
Put briefly, a study highlighted by Mind Body Green found that participants who were given a three-week gratitude practice were still showing its positive psychological effects nearly three months later. As two of the psychologists behind the study’s research team, Joel Wong and Joshua Brown, wrote in Greater Good Magazine, “this finding suggests that practicing gratitude may help train the brain to be more sensitive to the experience of gratitude down the line, and this could contribute to improved mental health over time.”
The positive effects of gratitude on mental health are both long-lasting and unmatched. The next time you’re feeling down, realize what you have, who you are, and how far you’ve come. Then, reflect on why it’s enough. This practice won’t fix all of the problems in the world, but it can help bring attention to a few positive things within your own.
