Gratitude Module – Part 1 of 4
Psych for Life®
Gratitude Module – Part 1 of 4
Hi, I’m Kate. And this is Psych for Life.
When you were a kid, did your parents make you write thank you notes when you received a gift or someone gave you dinner or even a ride home from school? In my house growing up, it was a rule that we had to sit down and write a handwritten thank you note any time we received a gift. And I really didn’t love it. But as we’ll learn in this module, expressing gratitude is about so much more, both for the giver and the receiver than politeness. Every human society on earth expresses gratitude in some form or another. And there’s a great deal of research showing that expressing gratitude has benefits for our relationships, our mood, and even our health. So what is gratitude?
Gratitude comes in three forms. Gratitude can be a feeling. It can be an expression. And it can also be a trait. When we feel gratitude, this is a mood we are experiencing. Generally, it’s a positive response to the way someone has helped us – a feeling of thankfulness. So if you think back on a big favor or a nice gift, you may feel gratitude. Expressions of gratitude are the actions and words we use to show our thankfulness to other people. For example, if a friend holds the door open for you, you may express gratitude by thanking them or holding the next door. Or if a coworker helps you with a project, you can express gratitude by treating them to lunch as a thank you for their help or writing them a thank you note. The trait of gratitude reflects your predisposition to feel thankful or grateful about the world around you. This trait can vary from person to person. There are things you can do to increase your own predisposition toward gratitude.
How can gratitude impact you? Gratitude can impact our physical and mental health, our happiness, our stress and anxiety levels, our thought processes, our perception of pain, our relationships, and the decisions we make every day. In addition to the benefits of practicing gratitude, having the trait of gratitude is associated with less depression and anxiety and increased life satisfaction. When we have a tendency or make it a habit to practice gratitude, this shifts our physiology and changes the way we react to our surroundings in everyday life. Gratitude can not only improve our mental and physical health, it can also improve our relationships. Expressing gratitude in romantic relationships can increase relationship, connection and satisfaction. It can also increase how comfortable individuals feel about sharing concerns with a partner. Similar to romantic relationships, expressing gratitude in friendships can strengthen them, often creating a mutual appreciation in which each individual feels valued.
We know feeling grateful and expressing gratitude can be good for us. But sometimes it can be hard to feel grateful. For example, we all have times when it feels like everyone else around us is more successful and happy than we are. And sometimes things just aren’t going our way. Are we just stuck then? Unable to gain the benefits of gratitude? Fortunately, no. The science of psychology has a lot to say about how we can find gratitude and benefit from it, whether we’re starting from a place of feeling pretty grateful already, or we’re struggling to feel grateful at all.
Here are the key takeaways for what is gratitude and why it’s important:
In the next few videos, we’ll show you how to feel gratitude, and how to express gratitude in ways that will improve your life.
¡Hola, soy Kate! Y esto es Psych for Life. ¿Cuando eras niño, tus padres te hicieron escribir notas de agradecimiento cuando recibiste un regalo o alguien te dio de cenar o incluso un paseo a casa desde la escuela? En mi casa creciendo, era una regla que teníamos que sentarnos y escribir una nota de agradecimiento a mano cada vez que recibíamos un regalo. Y realmente no me encantaba. Pero como veremos en este módulo, expresar gratitud es mucho más que simple cortesía, tanto para el donante como para el receptor. Toda sociedad humana en la Tierra expresa gratitud de alguna forma u otra. Y hay una gran cantidad de investigación que muestra que expresar gratitud tiene beneficios para nuestras relaciones, nuestro estado de ánimo e incluso nuestra salud. ¿Entonces, qué es la gratitud?
La gratitud se presenta en tres formas. La gratitud puede ser un sentimiento. Puede ser una expresión. Y también puede ser un rasgo. Cuando sentimos gratitud, esta es una actitud que estamos experimentando. Generalmente, es una respuesta positiva a la forma en que alguien nos ha ayudado, un sentimiento de agradecimiento. Así que si piensas en un gran favor o un buen regalo, es posible que sientas gratitud. Las expresiones de gratitud son las acciones y palabras que usamos para mostrar nuestro agradecimiento a otras personas. Por ejemplo, si un amigo te mantiene la puerta abierta, puedes expresar gratitud agradeciéndole o manteniendo la siguiente puerta abierta. O si un compañero de trabajo te ayuda con un proyecto, puedes expresar gratitud invitándolo a almorzar como agradecimiento por su ayuda o escribiéndole una nota de agradecimiento. El rasgo de gratitud refleja tu predisposición a sentirte agradecido o agradecido por el mundo que te rodea. Este rasgo puede variar de persona a persona. Hay cosas que puedes hacer para aumentar tu propia predisposición hacia la gratitud.
¿Cómo puede la gratitud afectarte? La gratitud puede afectar nuestra salud física y mental, nuestra felicidad, nuestros niveles de estrés y ansiedad, nuestros procesos de pensamiento, nuestra percepción del dolor, nuestras relaciones y las decisiones que tomamos todos los días. Además de los beneficios de practicar la gratitud, tener el rasgo de gratitud está asociado con menos depresión y ansiedad y una mayor satisfacción con la vida. Cuando tenemos una tendencia o hacemos un hábito de practicar la gratitud, esto cambia nuestra fisiología y cambia la forma en que reaccionamos a nuestro entorno en la vida cotidiana. La gratitud no solo puede mejorar nuestra salud mental y física, sino que también puede mejorar nuestras relaciones. Expresar gratitud en relaciones románticas puede aumentar la relación, la conexión y la satisfacción. También puede aumentar la comodidad de las personas al compartir preocupaciones con una pareja. Al igual que las relaciones románticas, expresar gratitud en las amistades puede fortalecerlas, a menudo creando una mutua apreciación en la que cada individuo se siente valorado.
Sabemos que sentirse agradecido y expresar gratitud puede ser bueno para nosotros. Pero a veces puede ser difícil sentirse agradecido. Por ejemplo, todos tenemos momentos en los que parece que todos los demás a nuestro alrededor son más exitosos y felices que nosotros. Y a veces las cosas simplemente no van a nuestro favor. ¿Estamos atrapados entonces? ¿Incapaces de obtener los beneficios de la gratitud? Afortunadamente, no. La ciencia de la psicología tiene mucho que decir sobre cómo podemos encontrar gratitud y beneficiarnos de ella, ya sea que partamos de un lugar de sentirnos bastante agradecidos o estemos luchando por sentir gratitud.
Estas son las principales conclusiones sobre qué es la gratitud y por qué es importante:
En los próximos videos, te mostraremos cómo sentir gratitud y cómo expresar gratitud de maneras que mejorarán tu vida.
Everyone knows that you should show gratitude, but did you know that science shows it is better for your health to be grateful?
Kate is a certified Executive Coach, Facilitator, and the Founder of Development Corps.
She has designed and facilitated workshops, team off-sites, and training sessions on a range of topics including executive presence, trust, accountability, effective teams, coaching skills, and dealing with different personalities.
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