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Jan 10, 2007

"Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow." --Melody Beattie

The Impact of Gratitude

In an experimental comparison, people who kept gratitude journals on a weekly basis exercised more regularly, reported fewer physical symptoms, and were more optimistic about the upcoming week compared to those who recorded hassles or neutral life events. Psychologists Robert Emmons at the University of California at Davis, and Michael McCullough, at the University of Miami, foremost researchers on gratitude, also found that participants who kept gratitude lists were more likely to have made progress toward important personal goals (academic, interpersonal and health-based). And there’s more: young adults who practiced a daily gratitude intervention (self-guided exercises) had higher levels of alertness, enthusiasm, determination, attentiveness and energy compared to the group that focused on hassles or thinking of how they were better off than others. Further research and reflections on gratitude follow.