We all hear about the importance of practicing gratitude, especially this time of year. If you’re celebrating Thanksgiving, you’ll probably go around the table and say what you’re grateful for before eating your mashed potatoes. After Thanksgiving, you may have heard the advice that you should write gratitude lists, keep a gratitude journal, or write sincere letters of thanks to the important people in your life. All of these activities sound like a great idea in theory, but, as a busy parent, you’ve probably wondered if these practices are really worth the effort.
A recent study addressed this very question.
Study details
Researchers have examined the effects of different ways of expressing gratitude, including whether expressing gratitude is more helpful when it relates to other people (such as writing a thank-you note versus a gratitude list) and when it is expressed in a short versus long format (such as writing a thank-you note versus a gratitude list Gratitude (as a list versus a letter or essay). This study included 958 adults in Australia who were randomly assigned to one of six conditions (see also figure below):
- Gratitude Letters (social, longer format): Writing gratitude letters to tell someone why you are grateful to them
- Gratitude Essays (non-social, longer format): Write essays about things you’re grateful for (except people)
- Social Gratitude Lists (Social, shorter format): Write gratitude lists for people you are grateful to
- Non-Social Gratitude Lists (non-social, longer format): Writing lists of things you are grateful for (except people)
- General Gratitude List: Write a list of the things and people you are grateful for
- Control condition: Simply write about your daily activities
Participants were asked to do one of these exercises every day for one week. The researchers then looked at how each of these exercises increased gratitude, improved mood, made participants feel more indebted or connected to another person, and increased life satisfaction and feelings of upliftment (translation: feeling uplifted). Important note: Because the participants were randomly selected, we can know that the gratitude exercises actually caused these psychological benefits.
Key findings
The following are the most important points reached by the study:
- Doing some sort of gratitude exercise is better than nothing. Completing any of these gratitude exercises increased feelings of gratitude, indebtedness, connectedness, and upliftment (translation: feeling uplifted) when compared to simply writing down daily activities.
- Writing about gratitude in a longer format may make you feel better. The longer writing condition (letter or essay) resulted in greater gratitude, upliftment, indebtedness, positive mood, and life satisfaction than the shorter form of gratitude exercises (i.e., gratitude lists).
- Writing thank you letters may have the most benefits. Participants who wrote thank you letters showed more positive effects than any other condition. Participants who wrote thank-you notes reported feeling uplifted, in a positive mood, grateful, and greater life satisfaction than those who wrote gratitude lists of the people they were grateful for. They showed greater upliftment, gratitude, and better mood compared to those who wrote gratitude lists for things they were grateful for, and higher levels of uplift compared to those who wrote gratitude lists for both things and people and those who wrote a gratitude article about them. Things they are grateful for. However, writing thank you notes also increases feelings of indebtedness to a greater extent than any other situation.
- Gratitude lists alone may not be enough. In fact, researchers found no differences between writing gratitude lists and writing about daily activities. Previous research He has Evidence of the benefits of gratitude lists has been found although more research is needed to determine whether gratitude lists are worth the effort. It is possible that a week is not long enough to see the results of this intervention.
- Gratitude exercises involving other people make you feel more indebted to them (like you owe them). People who participated in social gratitude exercises showed greater indebtedness than those who participated in non-social exercises in this study.
- You have to be consistent to see the positive effects. The researchers asked the participants to do these exercises every day for a week and then did not ask them to do anything the following week. Researchers found very little effects of gratitude exercises after a week of not doing them, suggesting that you need to continue practicing gratitude regularly in order to experience the benefits.
Comprehensive translation
We all know that gratitude is important, but how exactly can we increase true feelings of gratitude and benefit from practicing gratitude? Having some sort of gratitude practice sounds great but we all have limited time and it would be good to know what gives us the most bang for our buck. This study found that writing thank you notes appears to be the most effective way to practice gratitude. A gratitude letter is more than just a letter thanking someone else for a gift, but an open-ended opportunity to explain why you are grateful to them as a person. You don’t even have to send the letter to the person (in most research studies, they don’t ask participants to send it) and you can even write it to a loved one who has died or to God or your higher power. If you don’t have time to write a letter, try sending a text message or verbally expressing your gratitude to someone. You’ll probably make yourself and the other person feel better!