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Simple gratitude interventions have previously been found to enhance happiness, satisfaction, self-control, health and resilience.
Simple gratitude interventions have previously been found to enhance happiness, satisfaction, self-control, health and resilience.
A simple gratitude exercise helps to boost people’s motivation.People who listed five things to be grateful for each day over a period of six days displayed significantly increased motivation.Despite only completing the gratitude exercise for less than a week, the boost to motivation lasted at least three months.Simple gratitude interventions have previously been found to enhance happiness, satisfaction, self-control, health and resilience.Dr Norberto Eiji Nawa, the study’s first author, said:“Our main hypothesis was that engaging in an online gratitude journal by writing down up to five things one felt grateful for each day could make students be more aware of their academic opportunities–their ‘blessings’–and help them re-evaluate their motives and goals, ultimately improving their motivation.”For the study, 84 Japanese college students were split into a control and intervention group.Over six days, the intervention group were prompted to list five things they were grateful for.This was done online to make it more accessible, explained Professor Noriko Yamagishi, study co-author:
“Online interventions have the advantage of being more accessible, scalable and affordable to large portions of the population.Gathering solid evidence to support their deployment will be essential to unleash their true potential in the future.”Students who did the gratitude exercise felt increased motivation for at least three months afterwards.The boost was mainly driven by a reduction in helplessness and incompetence.When the students felt that they could make a difference to their results by putting in some effort, it helped boost their motivation.
“…the effect of ‘thank you’ was quite substantial: while only 32% of participants receiving the neutral email helped with the second letter, when Eric expressed his gratitude, this went up to 66%.”The study was published in the journal BMC Psychology (Nawa & Yamagishi, 2021).
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Experiencing more gratitude is linked to greater happiness and fewer psychological problems.
Experiencing more gratitude is linked to greater happiness and fewer psychological problems.
People can train themselves to be more grateful in just 15 minutes per day, research finds.
Experiencing more gratitude is linked to greater happiness and fewer psychological problems.
People who worked on their gratitude over six weeks enjoyed a long-term boost to their well-being, researchers found.
Other studies have linked gratitude to more satisfaction, motivation, better social ties and improved relationships.
Typical activities to increase gratitude include keeping a gratitude journal, expressing gratitude to others and reflecting on the positive effects of adversity.
Professor Ernst Bohlmeijer, the study’s first author, said:
“Training gratitude is not a trick to be happy quickly.
It is developing a new attitude to life.
Life becomes less self-evident and that makes people more flexible.”
The study included 217 people, one-third of whom did the gratitude exercises for six weeks.
The exercises included focusing on feeling appreciative, expressing gratitude to others, keeping a gratitude journal and writing positively about their own lives.
People in the study did these exercises for 15 minutes per day.
The results showed that one-third of participants felt higher well-being and this was maintained over six months after the intervention.
In the comparison groups only around half as many people felt higher well-being.
While gratitude involves focusing on what is good in life, it does not mean ignoring life’s challenges, said Professor Bohlmeijer:
“It is important to say that the idea is not to ignore negative experiences.
Acknowledging difficulties and psychological distress, while also appreciating the good things in life, is possible.
In fact, that’s the essence of psychological resilience.”
The study was published in the Journal of Happiness Studies (Bohlmeijer et al., 2020).
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