How gratitude contributes to happiness

In a world that moves at an overwhelming pace, it can be great to take a moment to reflect and be grateful for what we have. 

Gratitude can be anything from being thankful to a person, to the food on our plate, to simply being thankful for waking up in the morning. 

For a great length of human history, gratitude has been an important focus of philosophy and spirituality.

Whether it be the Buddha, who said that, "A noble person is mindful and thankful of the favours he receives from others" or Cicero, who said, "Gratitude is not only the greatest of the virtues, but the parent of all of the others", gratitude has been revered by the greatest minds of our species. 

Over the years, a body of scientific evidence has emerged linking gratitude to many aspects of well-being. For example, it has been linked to happiness, resilience, and good mental health.

How does gratitude make you happy? 

There are several theories about why gratitude leads to well-being. A study noted that grateful people used coping strategies by directly dealing with a problem, planning, and positively re-interpreting a problem while trying to find ways for positive growth. It also found that grateful people were less likely to disengage, deny the problem exists, or escape through strategies that may be counterproductive. The study suggested the theory that grateful people, therefore, cope better and are less stressed.

One theory suggests that gratitude is a positive emotion, and as a habit, it might tip the balance of our experiences in life into more positive territory overall. As a pleasant experience, more gratitude may then lead to greater life satisfaction.

Another theory proposed that gratitude is a positive emotion that broadens thoughts, and encourages behaviour that will build resources that are useful in tough times, like creativity, curiosity, social bonds and planning. For instance, gratitude could strengthen social bonds through gratitude to each other during the easy times, which will then become a source of resilience during the hard times. This theory suggests that gratitude is an evolutionary strength.

Whatever the theory, the scientific arguments for gratitude as a support of well-being are strong.

What does gratitude do to your brain?

Some studies have demonstrated changes to the brain with the practice of gratitude. In studies where the brain has been imaged through scans, gratitude has been associated with reward pathways. 

Other studies have shown a relationship in the volume of certain parts of the brain with gratitude traits, where more gratitude correlated with some brain components have more volume. 

Gratitude exercises can leave long lasting effects on the brain, where a gratitude letter writing exercise in a study left changes in the brain seen three months later.

The science is still evolving, but research so far have shown positive changes to the brain, both in the way it is built and the way it functions, with the practice of gratitude.

What other benefits are there to gratitude?

Gratitude has been celebrated to be one of the most successful positive psychology tools that could be used widely. Apart from happiness and well-being, gratitude has been shown to improve mental health, altruism, a sense of authentic living, better relationship outcomes, positive relationships, and social cohesion.

Although the research linking gratitude to health is young, there is some suggestion that gratitude may be specifically important for sleep.  More research found a relationship between gratitude and better self-reported physical health and likelihood to engage in healthy activities.

Ways to practise gratitude

Among others, there are three categories of tools that can be used for practising gratitude, such as:

• The gratitude list is a classic tool where several things for which we are grateful for, are written on a list regularly. Gratitude lists have, in fact, been a highly studied tool that has been shown to be effective.
• Another way to practise gratitude is to contemplate broadly about things that we are grateful for. It doesn't have to be specific, like a list, but a process where we can think or write freely about the things that we are grateful for.
• Lastly, we can express gratitude through behaviour. This might be making a gratitude visit to someone, where we deliver a gratitude letter to that person.

But, even simple everyday acts like showing appreciation to a loved one, buying a colleague a cup of coffee in thanks, being grateful for the food we eat, or appreciating the clothes we wear.

Whichever way we decide to practise gratitude, there is always something little to be thankful for – even waking up. From what we know right now, the more we do the simple act of gratitude, the more potential there is for us to find more happiness.

Reviewed by the healthylife Advisory Board August 2023

References

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3. Tabibnia, G, 2020, ‘An affective neuroscience model of boosting resilience in adults’, Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, vol. 115, pp. 321-350.
4. Hill, L, Allemand, M, Roberts, B, 2013, ‘Examining the pathway between gratitude and self-rated physical health across adulthood’, Personality and Individual Differences, vol. 54, no. 1, pp. 92–96.
5. Allen, S, 2018, ‘The Science of Gratitude’, white paper, John Templeton Foundation.
6. Zahn, R, Garrido, G, Moll, J, and Grafman, J, 2014, ‘Individual differences in posterior cortical volume correlate with proneness to pride and gratitude’, Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, vol. 9, pp. 1676–1683.
7. Kini, P, et al, 2016, ‘The effects of gratitude expression on neural activity’, Neuroimage, vol. 128, pp. 1-10.