{"id":391,"date":"2019-01-18T20:27:16","date_gmt":"2019-01-19T02:27:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lindagorchels.com\/blogs\/?p=391"},"modified":"2019-05-01T21:54:53","modified_gmt":"2019-05-02T02:54:53","slug":"the-gift-of-gratitude","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lindagorchels.com\/blogs\/the-gift-of-gratitude\/","title":{"rendered":"The Gift of Gratitude"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In an online meditation series, Oprah Winfrey talked about\nher experience keeping a gratitude journal. Each day she would note several\nthings for which she was grateful in the prior 24 hours. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, I dabbled with my own diary.  And gradually stopped.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over the next few months I came across several articles espousing\nthe value of gratitude on a person\u2019s well-being.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I again restarted the diary for a short time. Until life got\nin the way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last fall I took a Coursera<\/a>\ncourse from Yale on the Science of\nWell-Being<\/a>. Guess what? One of the assignments was a gratitude journal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I guess the universe was trying to tell me something. It\njust took three nudges for me to get the message. It was time for me to rethink\nthe role of gratitude in my life. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is Gratitude?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

We all know what gratitude is. At least in a superficial way.\nIt\u2019s a feeling of thankfulness, a willingness to show appreciation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 I\u2019ve learned it\u2019s\nmore than that. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gratitude is a way of perceiving and interpreting life in a\npositive way. It starts out as a learned behavior that morphs into an attitude\nthat can lead to more sustainable happiness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a freelance\ntrainer and writer, I often procrastinated. I wasn\u2019t motivated to do the things\nI needed to do. My productivity and self-esteem began to drop. Then I started\non my gratitude journey. It changed my thinking. Rather than dreading the \u201cwork,\u201d\nI reframed it as an opportunity. It became easier (though not easy per se) to\nview the additional work as a gift rather than a burden. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gratitude and Well-Being<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Wikipedia suggests a profound relationship between gratitude\nand well-being. (For ease of reading I removed the footnotes to the related empirical research\ncontent<\/a>.) <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cGrateful people are happier, less depressed, less stressed, and more satisfied with their lives and social relationships. Specifically, in terms of depression, gratitude may serve as a buffer by enhancing the coding and retrievability of positive experiences. Grateful people also have higher levels of control of their environments, personal growth, purpose in life, and self-acceptance. Grateful people have more positive ways of coping with the difficulties they experience in life, being more likely to seek support from other people, reinterpret and grow from experiences, and spend more time planning how to deal with the problem. Grateful people also have less negative coping strategies, being less likely to try to avoid the problem, deny there is a problem, blame themselves, or cope through substance use. Grateful people sleep better, and this seems to be because they think less negative and more positive thoughts just before going to sleep<\/em>.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

While gratitude can have a dramatic impact on your personal\nlife, it can also impact your working life. Of course, it has to be real. Saying thank you is a start, but we need to\ngo beyond mere platitudes. Over time, gratitude can become part of a culture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gratitude makes you a better leader.<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

In a Forbes article\u2014Great\nLeaders Have An Attitude Of Gratitude\n— Do You?<\/a>\u2014Christine Comaford\nexplains that gratitude helps leaders pivot during stressful situations. A\nhabit of incorporating thankfulness into a daily routine readjusts their mental\npathways.  \u201cWhen leaders use this\nGratitude Practice, they give their brains and their bodies a chance to\nrecalibrate.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Other research suggests that an attitude of gratitude can improve employee job satisfaction. Boston Consulting Group\u2019s 2014 survey on Decoding Global Talent<\/a>, cited that \u201cthe most important single job element for all people is appreciation for their work.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gratitude makes you more productive<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

According to Marla Tabaka in Increasing\nProductivity with Gratitude<\/a>, the release of dopamine from giving and\nreceiving thanks raises energy and motivation. Research found that people who\npracticed gratitude made more progress toward their goals than people in\ncontrol groups.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gratitude reduces conflict<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Conflict resolution is one of the most difficult aspects of\nmanagement and business. Conflict can occur between co-workers, between managers\nand employees, or between a company and its external partners. It can also\noccur on a personal relationship level.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Does\nGratitude Play a Role in Managing Conflict?<\/a> According to Linda Roszak\nBurton, the answer is yes. \u201cNeurologically,\nwe simply cannot be grateful and angry at the same time \u2026 those two\nemotions are mutually exclusive and cannot co-exist in the brain at the same\ntime.\u201d Gratitude is the antidote to fear and anger. By accentuating the\npositive, gratitude helps mitigate conflict.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Start your gratitude practice<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Begin each day with a sense of gratitude. My former yoga teacher said she tried to get up each morning with the affirmation, \u201cToday is a great day to have a great day.\u201d  (And on days she wasn\u2019t quite as optimistic she said, \u201cToday is a good day to have a good day.\u201d She realized the limits of forcing positivity, but she always tried.) Establish a positive setpoint right away. Rather than grumbling about getting out of bed, change your internal dialog. It takes zero time from your schedule. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

During the day,\nkeep returning to gratitude. Pay attention to things you normally take for\ngranted. That could be a brilliant sunrise, a moment of calm, or someone\nletting you cut in line. Or it could be increased awareness of what you\nappreciate in others. Show that appreciation! Express your gratitude.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On a more ongoing basis, plant seeds in your mind. At the beginning you may need to set a timer for 10 seconds (and extend to 20, then 30 seconds as you become comfortable with the process). Close your eyes. Think of something or someone you are grateful for. Offer a silent thank-you. Relax and breathe deeply into a feeling of gratitude. Do this several times per day, or whenever you need to reboot your attitude. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As you fall asleep at night, do so after pushing out\nnegative thoughts with grateful thoughts. Build a default attitude of\ngratitude.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Does it work?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

I must admit I still haven\u2019t mastered the gratitude diary or journal. But I have ingrained more appreciation into my day-to-day life.  As I push to establish gratitude as a habit, the impact becomes more and more real. I don\u2019t have to \u201cremember\u201d to do it. I notice things to be grateful for\u2014things I may have previously taken for granted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Be thankful for what you have; you’ll end up having more. If you concentrate on what you don’t have, you will never, ever have enough.”<\/em>   <\/p>Oprah Winfrey<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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