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8 Wellbeing Benefits Of Practicing Gratitude

11/13/2015

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Originally published by the Mindfulness Project on May 4, 2015
Increased gratitude is a common result of practicing mindfulness. As we start paying more attention to our thoughts, we notice where we block ourselves from appreciating the good things in life. Say, for example, that you always used to get angry when stuck in traffic, but now when you bring your focus to where you are (rather than where you want to get to) you notice things such as the song on the radio or a beautiful scene beyond the car window. We can’t feel grateful for things we don’t notice, and so mindfulness and gratitude go hand-in-hand.
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The Science of Gratitude

Robert Emmons, Ph.D. is a Professor of Psychology at UC Davis in California, and has been studying the effects of gratitude on over 1,000 people. The participants in his study ranged in age from eight to eighty, and were split into two groups. One group was asked to keep a journal in which they were to write five ‘gifts’ that they were grateful for each day, while the other group had to write down five ‘hassles’. Some examples of the ‘gifts’ people noted were generosity of friends, and watching a sunset through the clouds. Examples of ‘hassles’ were things like difficulty in finding a parking space, and burning their dinner.

What Emmons found was that those who had kept a gratitude journal experienced significant psychological, physical and social benefits: a 25% improvement in overall health and wellbeing in comparison with the group focussing on what had gone wrong each day.

Here are just eight of the many ways in which mindfully practicing gratitude can improve our wellbeing, and the wellbeing of others around us.
Greater Energy Levels
When we experience sadness or depression, our energy levels slump way down. Sometimes doing the simplest of tasks can feel like running a marathon. However, people who kept a gratitude journal in Emmons study reported that their energy levels improved. Many also started exercising more. People with depression are often told that exercise will help, however this study suggests it may in fact work the other way around; that being mindful of what’s good about our life plays an important role in having the energy to exercise.

Better Sleep
On average, study participants found that they were not only sleeping 10% longer than they used to, but that the quality of their sleep was improved. They reported waking up feeling more refreshed and ready for the coming day.

Reduced Blood Pressure
With our current hectic lifestyles, high blood pressure has become a common problem. However, simply taking moments to focus our attention on our loved ones or friends, or on the beauty of nature, can lower blood pressure, thus taking the strain off our hearts, brains and many other parts of the body.

Feeling Less Lonely
Gratitude strengthens relationships, not just with people we know, but with other people in general. When we’re mindful of positive traits and behaviours in others, we feel more supported, and that leads to us feeling more able to support others in return. When we feel safer, we become less selfish, as we no longer feel such a need to look out for our own interests above others. This leads to us feeling less lonely and isolated, as we are more able to truly connect with others.

Fewer Physical Symptoms
People who wrote down five things they were grateful for each day became less affected by aches, pains and other physical symptoms. This ties in with other studies which have found that mindfulness can ease uncomfortable physical symptoms, even chronic pain.

Improved Attentiveness
As we mentioned earlier in this post, mindfulness and gratitude are very much linked. Over time, those who deliberately thought about what they were grateful for experienced greater attentiveness. They felt more alert and aware of life.

Taking Better Care of Health
Practicing daily gratitude resulted in many participants taking better care of their physical health. Mindful individuals tend to have better self-control and are less impulsive, in many areas of life, including eating habits. Add this to more exercise and better quality of sleep, and you’ve got an all-round much healthier life.
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Increased Joy
When we steer our attention to what’s good about the world, we naturally feel a greater sense of joy. It’s important to note, however, that gratitude isn’t about denying what’s wrong; solely acknowledging the positive and avoiding the negative can do us much psychological harm. But noticing good things, when and where they exist, takes us out of seeing the world as just being a bad place where bad things happen. In truth, life contains both good and bad, but mindful gratitude helps us appreciate those lovely moments in life, whilst at the same time enabling us to make more of those lovely moments for others.
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It's true: happier students get higher grades

10/15/2015

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Lauren Schiller, Harvard University and Christina Hinton, Harvard University
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​There is more than one reason why you want your students to be happy. woodleywonderworks, CC BY-NC

What leads to success in school?

Recent research suggests success is partly driven by character skills. “Grit,” for example, or perseverance and passion for long-term goals, seems to be a better predictor of success than IQ in school and beyond.

Researchers have also demonstrated that having a “growth mindset,” meaning that a person recognizes that abilities are not fixed, but developed through practice, is associated with academic success.

Researchers at Research Schools International are exploring other character skills that might contribute to success. In a recent study, we explored the relationship between happiness and student achievement.

Are happy students more successful in school? What makes students happy?

Happiness and academic success

First, what exactly is happiness?

Harvard psychologist Daniel Gilbert defines happiness as frequent positive feelings accompanied by an overall sense that one’s life has meaning.

Psychology research has shown a strong link between happiness and success in the workplace. For example, Gilbert and colleagues have shown that happier employees tend to perform better, earn more money and be more helpful to their coworkers.

Education researchers are only beginning to explore the relationship between happiness and school achievement.

Researchers at Research Schools International partnered with administrators, teachers, and students at St Andrew’s Episcopal School and The Center for Transformative Teaching & Learning to study happiness and academic achievement.

Results revealed a significant correlation between happiness and academic success. Moreover, we found that relationships are fundamental to students' happiness.

The impact of happy thoughts

Positive feelings support schoolwork. horizontal.integration, CC BY-NC-SA

We collected data on happiness and grades from 94% of the student body (435 students) at St Andrew’s, including elementary, middle and upper school students. We developed developmentally appropriate surveys to measure students’ happiness with feedback from teachers and students at the school.

We also worked with administrators and teachers at the school to collect data on students’ GPAs.

Our results revealed that, on average, students who reported being happier had higher grades. Specifically, we found a statistically significant correlation between happiness and students' GPA from elementary school through high school.

Students often reported that happiness, or positive feelings like enjoyment or fun, supported their schoolwork. One student shared, “In school I feel happy and accepted, which allows for a fun and free learning experience.” Yet another explained, “I always feel pushed to do my best when I have a project that I find to be really interesting and fun.”

One student summed it up, “I only do good work when I think happy thoughts.”

Relationships are fundamental to happiness

Our next question was, what supports students to be happy?

We found that a network of supportive relationships is at the heart of happiness. Results showed that the quality of students' relationships with teachers and peers predicted their happiness. Across all ages, students with positive relationships were more likely to be happy.

Although voiced in different ways, time and again students of all ages emphasized that their relationships are fundamental to their happiness. As one student shared, “In school I feel happy. I think I feel this way because I’m surrounded by my friends, and around teachers that are very nice and caring.”

Another student echoed this sentiment, “I feel happy because I feel like I am surrounded by a great group of friends and teachers.” Yet another expressed, “I feel happy while I am in school. I feel this way because I have my friends.” Another explained, “I am only happy in school when I feel that I have a group of good friends. Friends are what makes me very happy, energetic, and enjoy school.”

These results suggest that there is an important relationship between happiness and academic achievement.

While more research is needed to explore the relationships among happiness, social networks, and achievement in a school setting, the findings of this study are consistent with earlier ones in positive psychology.

As positive psychologists Daniel Gilbert and Matthew Killingsworth explain:

“If I wanted to predict your happiness, and I could know only one thing about you, I wouldn’t want to know your gender, religion, health, or income. I’d want to know about your social network – about your friends and family and the strength of the bonds with them."

We couldn’t agree more.

The Conversation

Lauren Schiller, PhD Student , Harvard University and Christina Hinton, Adjunct Lecturer on Education, Harvard University

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.

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5 Unexpected Ways Gratitude Improves Your Life

7/20/2015

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We’ve all heard that Gratitude makes you a happier person, but research is showing it does a great deal more than that!

1. Grateful People Feel Less Lonely

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The more gratitude you feel, the less loneliness you experience, according to an April 2015 study in Social Behavior and Personality. People who focus on gratitude tend to have a more positive outlook and perceive having more positive experiences overall. This reduces their sense of loneliness. Also, grateful people tend to receive more social support, so they are literally less alone.


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Dan Gilbert: The surprising science of happiness

7/10/2015

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Dan Gilbert, author of "Stumbling on Happiness," challenges the idea that we’ll be miserable if we don’t get what we want. Our "psychological immune system" lets us feel truly happy even when things don’t go as planned.
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Where do we find happiness?

6/10/2015

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By Nicole Graham, Vice-President of Virtues Circle
See her other blogs at Nicole Graham Writes
Happiness Smiley Faces
Happiness is something that every human being seeks, and the practice of virtues can help one attain long term happiness. Here is just a small sampling of ways to find happiness and the correlating virtue(s) for each point:

In Experiences (consideration, enthusiasm)

Many studies confirm that lasting happiness exists in experiences. Material success only brings fleeting happiness so experiences are preferential for someone trying to obtain real happiness. At study in the Journal of Consumer Research looked at 2 types of experiences—ordinary and extraordinary. Ordinary experiences constitute everyday life—a walk through the neighborhood, a dinner date, reading a book. Extraordinary experiences are those that happen less frequently—seeing one’s favorite sing live or visiting another country.


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What Do We Know about Signature Strengths?

4/30/2015

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This article authored by Ryan Niemiec, Psy.D. and was originally published here onPositivePsychologyNews.com on April 28, 2015.
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Ryan Niemiec, Psy.D., is a licensed psychologist, coach, and Education Director of the VIA Institute on Character. He's an international presenter on character strengths, mindfulness, and positive psychology. Ryan is author of Mindfulness and Character Strengths and co-author ofPositive Psychology at the Movies and Movies And Mental Illness.

Articles by Ryan are here.

When it comes to deciding whether strengths are signature strengths, if you have only one question to ask someone, make it:

“What strengths are most essential to who you are and define you as a person?

This appears to be the single most important criterion in determining whether character strengths are “signature,” or not. Other questions such as, “Is the strength energizing?” “Is it easy to use? and “Is it used across settings?” are important, but are subsumed under this more important question. If you want to get to the heart of the matter, ask about identity.


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Happiness & Its Causes

4/19/2015

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Martin Seligman 'Flourishing - a new understanding of wellbeing
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Deepening in Virtues Raises Life Satisfaction

4/19/2015

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Can you really be happier by practicing certain virtues? One study says you can.

Happiness has 3 main components: a genetically pre-determined set point (50%), environmental factors (10%), and intentional activities (%40). As Abraham Lincoln said, “folks are about as happy as they make up their minds to be” is true, at least 40% of the time.  What types of intentional activities can we do to increase our happiness? One possibility is to strengthen in certain key virtues.


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Boosting Your Creativity with Mindfulness

4/19/2015

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Creativity is just connecting things. When you ask creative people how they did something, they feel a little guilty because they didn’t really do it, they just saw something. It seemed obvious to them after a while. That’s because they were able to connect experiences they’ve had and synthesize new things.

~ Steve Jobs

I always thought that since I couldn’t paint, draw, write great literary works or compose masterpieces of music that I wasn’t creative. I’ve since discovered that there are many ways to be creative, including problem solving, cooking, organizing, planning and humor. But is there a way to boost creativity for those of us who feel we need it? A recent study says yes – by practicing mindfulness.


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The Benefits of Gratitude

4/19/2015

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Consciously focusing on things to be grateful for on a daily basis has been shown to improve overall well-being, increase happiness and can have both interpersonal and social benefits.

Practicing gratitude can be as simple as keeping a gratitude journal. Twice a week, write down 3 or more things for which you are grateful. Those who keep gratitude journals tend to be about 25% happier. There are also health benefits. People who regularly practice gratitude tend to exercise more, have lower blood pressure and eat healthier.


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