Happiness Now! All About Gratitude and How You Can You Use Even When Times Are Bad

Here is Part I of a Gratitude article written by Shannen Lee. Part II will be published tomorrow!

If you are looking to increase your feelings of happiness and a stress-free way of living, then you will find answers in this article. Perhaps you may have heard that expressing gratitude gives you a more positive outlook and releases stress but you are not sure how one could be grateful when circumstances are bad. Or you may have dismissed it as a myth that does not work. In this article, we will discuss how gratitude affects happiness, the research behind it, why it works, and how you could go about incorporating an easy gratitude practice that will yield immediate dividends.

Gratitude is the quality of being thankful and grateful. It also carries the feeling of appreciation and gives value to an event, someone or something. Dr Robert Emmons from the University of California, Davis and Dr Michael McCullough from the University of Miami have been researching into gratitude and happiness for the last several years and their findings show a definite positive relationship between people who keep gratitude journals and happiness. They had a better feeling towards live and were more optimistic. They also found that these people exercised more, slept better and woke up more refreshed. In a study with young adults who did gratitude self-guided exercises, the study subjects reported higher levels of alertness, attentiveness, enthusiasm and energy.

Why does gratitude have such an uplifting impact? According to Dr McCullough, we have a natural tendency to take things for granted. But the moment we stop and think about all the ways we have been blessed with our minds will start to use that as the new baseline for perceiving how happy we are.

Part II will be published tomorrow. Come back for the second part!

Shannen Lee has been a freelance writer for the last 3 years. Come and visit her latest website that discusses decadent and luxurious chocolate diamond jewelry, a rising fashion trend. Here you can read about chocolate diamond rings and how more and more people are selecting chocolate diamond engagement rings to symbolize their special union.

Be Well.
Paul.
The Gratitude Guru