Gratitude is a positive emotion of being thankful. We can be thankful for being alive, for having the ability to survive, for the food that we have, for the roof over our head, for our friends, family, and so on.
There have been researches done on gratitude by several institutes throughout the world. They have found that people who practice gratitude experienced benefits in the areas of health, relationships, emotions, and career.
After going through the studies and research on Gratitude, I have consolidated the top 10 benefits of gratitude:
Improves our overall health through self-awareness and confidence, most importantly by reducing stress.
Makes us happier by enhancing our positive emotions.
Helps us to feel better about ourselves by improving self-esteem.
Keeps negative emotions and their side-effects such as depression, anxiety at bay.
Helps us socially as gratitude makes us likable by others.
Strengthens our relationships especially with our family even during hard times.
Helps us to be more optimistic, kind, selfless, and generous which in turn has a positive impact on health and personality.
Helps us grow and excel in our education and career.
Increases patience and helps in good decision making.
Most importantly gratitude helps us to identify our purpose in life.
On observing the above benefits I have inferred that gratitude has an important role to play with motivation at different levels of need in Maslow's need theory.
Basic needs are primary needs i.e., food, clothing, and shelter which need to be satisfied with the normal functioning of the human population. It is sad to note that there are many in this world due to poverty this need is not satisfied. However, there are numerous heart-warming true incidents where people in extreme poverty being very grateful for what they have and also being more generous. This gratitude seems to make them happier with whatever little they have.
The next set of needs is what makes us grow as humans. Security need involves good health and safety which can be enhanced by gratitude.
Next is the social need which can be satisfied with gratitude. People with gratitude are good with relationships, have friends and are not affected by loneliness. Similarly, self-esteem need is also addressed with gratitude.
Finally, at the most highest and difficult level in the pyramid, self-actualization cannot be achieved without gratitude.
So we can see that gratitude helps us to be better humans
How can we incorporate gratitude into our lives? It can be done through practice. We can start the day with gratitude through meditation or prayer. While meditating or praying we can express our gratitude by saying thanks to all the things that we have in our life.
If you need help there are a lot of gratitude videos on youtube which you can listen to when you meditate or exercise.
Please try this for 21 days because it takes time for the positive effects of gratitude to become observable in our lives.
Stay thankful and be hopeful.
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