Practice Gratitude Year-Round

This time of year, Gratitude is front and center (with a capital G), what with Thanksgiving Day around the corner and November dubbed National Gratitude Month.

But gratitude researchers and practitioners make a strong case for practicing gratitude year-round.

From Robert A. Emmons, the world’s leading scientific expert on gratitude:

“Gratitude is fertilizer for the mind, spreading connections and improving its function in nearly every realm of experience.”

From Benedictine monk Brother David Steindl-Rast, known as the “grandfather of gratitude”:

“In daily life we must see that it is not happiness that makes us grateful, but gratefulness that makes us happy.”

From Angela Duckworth, professor and author of The New York Times bestseller “Grit: The Power of Passion and Perservance”:

“Gratitude is like ketchup — put it on anything and it tastes better.”

(For more from these three gratitude gurus check out their TED Talks.)

Benefits of practicing gratitude

First, what is gratitude?

According to PositivePsychology.com:

“Gratitude is an emotion similar to appreciation. The American Psychological Association more specifically defines this phenomenon as a sense of happiness and thankfulness in response to a fortunate happenstance or tangible gift.

Gratitude is both a state and a trait. Better explained, one can experience gratitude for someone or something at a certain moment in time, and someone experiences gratitude more long-term as a positive character trait.”

Research has found that practicing gratitude has many health benefits, starting with lowering stress hormones (by as much as 20 percent) that cause a slew of adverse reactions - anxiety, headaches, poor digestion, sleeplessness and heart disease.

This is especially important for people who are under a lot of stress, be it caregiving, or facing a chronic illness or financial insecurity. And for many of us the holidays bring a bundle of stress and sadness.

“Research (and common sense) suggests that one aspect of the Thanksgiving season can actually lift the spirits, and it's built right into the holiday — being grateful,” according to Harvard Health Publishing.

How to practice gratitude

One of the most popular practices is keeping a gratitude journal. (Kinda like the adage “count your blessings”). You can use a simple notebook to write three to five things daily that you are grateful for or buy a fancy gratitude journal with inspiring words and writing prompts. Or you can find a gratitude journal app for your smartphone.

Here are more journaling tips from professor and author Sonja Lyubomirsky.

“Choose a time of day when you have several minutes to step outside your life and to reflect.  It may be first thing in the morning, or during lunch, or while commuting, or before bedtime.  Ponder the three to five things for which you are currently grateful, from the mundane (your dryer is fixed, your flowers are finally in bloom, your husband remembered to stop by the store) to the magnificent (your child’s first steps, the beauty of the sky at night).  Don’t forget specific individuals who care for you, have made contributions to or sacrifices for you, or somehow touch your life.”

Like many practices, enlisting a partner can motivate you to stay with it, plus make it more fun and engaging.

Telling someone how grateful you are for their support, kindness and friendship gives both the sender and giver a burst of gratitude. Again, it can be a short text or email or a handwritten letter or creative greeting card.

Grateful Living offers lots of free resources, including a daily “word for the day” email that can help get your day off on a gratitude footing. You can also learn about Brother Steindl-Rast’s simple (but powerful) “Stop, Look, Go” practice.