10 Ways Gratitude Can Change Your Life

People who regularly practice gratitude by taking time to notice and reflect upon the things they’re thankful for experience more positive emotions, feel more alive, sleep better, express more compassion and kindness, and even have stronger immune systems. And gratitude doesn’t need to be reserved only for momentous occasions: So here are 10 ways gratitude can change your life.

1. Happier

Gratitude is different things to different people: amongst them could be counting your blessings, savouring what life has given you, thanking someone or wondering at the natural world. Whatever form it takes, one of the best known and most researched effects of practicing gratitude is it makes you happier.

2. More satisfied

Gratitude isn’t just about feeling better, it’s also about thinking better. In other words: it’s not just a fleeting sensation, it can also be a thought that sustains you. That’s why people who feel more gratitude also feel more satisfied with their lives.

3. Motivate others

When we say ‘thank you’ to others, it’s an expression of gratitude, but it can also act as a powerful motivator for them to help us again. It could be as simple as sending a thank you email when someone has helped you out. A gratitude study found that a thank you email doubled the number of people willing to help in the future:

4. Reduce materialism

We all need some stuff in our lives, but sometimes the desire for more things can get out of control. And our nascent desire for stuff is heavily encouraged by society in so many ways. Gratitude can combat materialism by helping us appreciate what we already have.

5. Increase self-control

It’s not true that the emotions tend to get in the way of decision-making; that we should be ‘cold’ and ‘calculating’ to make the right choices. Quite the reverse: the feeling of gratitude can actually help people make the right decisions. It probably works because gratitude makes us feel less selfish, which gives us more patience.

6. Enrich our children

Encouraging gratitude in children can have remarkable effects. One study found that kids who are more grateful feel life has more meaning, get more satisfaction from life, are happier and experience less negative emotions. More gratitude may be precisely what our society needs to raise a generation that is ready to make a difference in the world.

7. Improve your relationship

Being grateful to your partner for all the little kindnesses they do can make all the difference to a relationship. Research by Dr. Sara Algoe and colleagues, found that gratitude helps to maintain intimate relationships.

8. Build social ties

Just as very close intimate relationships benefit from gratitude; so do our wider ties to family and friends. Gratitude has been linked to many positive social outcomes: People who are more grateful report better relationships with their peers. Gratitude enhances people’s ability to form and nurture relationships, as well as boosting how satisfied they are with them.

9. Better health

Although there’s relatively little research on this, gratitude has been linked to better physical health, especially better sleep, and lower levels of stress. Given that both stress levels and sleep are related to general physical health, this is not a surprise.

10. Resilience

Given that the world can be a nasty place, filled with nasty surprises, it’s vital to have good coping skills. People with gratitude tend to have just that. When faced with challenges in life, they tend to eschew denial, self-blame and substance abuse in favour of active coping, seeking support from others, positive reinterpretation and growth.