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The Importance of Gratitude Recent studies indicate that gratitude is more important to a sense of well-being than other emotions and personality traits. Grateful people are, in general, happier, less likely to suffer from depression and they sleep better at night. They are more successful, too. This does not come as a surprise to highly successful people. Some of whom have become motivational speakers or authors, in order to “give back”. Being generous or giving is another habit that leads to success. There are, of course, limits to what you can give and what you can do on a daily basis. So, it is important to be realistic, otherwise you could become overwhelmed and stressed out. But, don’t let realism stand in your way. If you can dream it, it can be done. All new inventions were just dreams, at one time. And, there are always people standing around saying that it can’t be done. Don’t let that deter you. Being grateful has become a business concept, too. Studies have shown that customers leave bigger tips when their server writes “thank you” on their checks and that people are more likely to make additional purchases, when they get a “thank you” call from a store they just visited. Interestingly, if the mention of an upcoming sale was included in the thank you call, the customers spent less. So, gratitude motivates behavior and grateful people have a better sense of well-being. But, is it possible to become a more grateful person? Being grateful or thankful is learned behavior. It is not a personality trait that people are born with. That we know of, it has nothing to do with chemicals in the brain. So, if a person does not have a grateful attitude, they can learn.
In a couple of different studies, researchers showed that increasing gratitude increases positive emotions. They were able to increase gratefulness by having students write a letter to someone that they wished to thank; someone to whom they were grateful. It is important to recognize that feeling indebted to someone is quite different from feeling grateful. When we feel indebted, we tend to avoid the person that we “owe”. When we are grateful, we want to spend time with them, so we seek them out. There are many things that you could be thankful for; the country that you live in, the love of your spouse, the beauty of your children, the beauty of the sky at any given moment, etc. So, try to develop more gratitude in your life and watch what happens.
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