The Benefits of Gratitude and Learning How to Be Grateful

One of the most famous lines in cinema history comes from the movie Forest Gump. While sitting at a bus stop and engaging in conversation with various people, the eponymous character says the iconic words, “Life is like a box of chocolates; you never know what you’re gonna get”. Life is indeed something of a mixed bag; you never know what each day or moment may bring.

When life roughs you up, one of the first things to remember is that you do have a choice in how you respond to it. You aren’t helpless and your responses to the situation aren’t predetermined. You can decide how to respond to a given situation, and you can choose what mindset to adopt as you face challenges. That doesn’t mean pretending a tough situation isn’t tough, but it might mean adopting a healthy mindset toward that situation.

Being grateful and maintaining a mindset of gratitude can help you tackle the various challenges life throws at you. There are many benefits of gratitude which this article will explore.

What Is Gratitude?

The word “gratitude” comes from the Latin word gratia. Depending on the context in which that word is used, it can mean grace, graciousness, or gratefulness. Gratitude often encompasses all these varied meanings because it is a thankful appreciation for what you’ve received that has enriched your life.

The things that have enriched your life could include tangible things like the home you own, or the resources at your disposal, but it can also refer to the intangible things like your health and the rich relationships that are part of your life. When you express gratitude, you acknowledge the goodness in your life, and that often leads you to recognize that the source of that goodness lies at least partially outside yourself.

Being grateful helps you to connect to something larger than yourself, and it helps you to relish the good experiences that are part of your life. From a Christian perspective, being grateful is about recognizing how the Lord is at work in your life, even in the hard things you experience. It’s what allows the believer to “Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus” (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18, NIV).

Someone once said that gratitude is the native tongue of the believer, which makes sense given these words from the apostle Paul: “But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for God’s holy people. Nor should there be obscenity, foolish talk or coarse joking, which are out of place, but rather thanksgiving” (Ephesians 5:3-4, NIV).

Paul also says elsewhere that believers ought not be foolish, and that they ought to know what God’s will is, and he expresses his next thought in this way:

Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another with psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit. Sing and make music from your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ – Ephesians 5:18-20, NIV

Giving thanks and expressing gratitude is a basic posture that believers are to adopt, and it is one of the main things they are to be doing in their hearts and with their mouths. Just as alcohol can influence a person in what they say and do, Paul is saying that believers ought to allow the Holy Spirit to influence them, and His influence will lead to joyous hearts and expressive thanksgiving.

Being grateful when you’re going through a difficult time is hard. However, even in those dark times, and perhaps especially in those difficult moments, that is when it’s important to practice gratitude. One can be thankful for God’s presence, or even look ahead to the good that God will accomplish through the present distress. Giving thanks in this way requires radical trust in God’s goodness and wisdom.

The Benefits of Gratitude

Gratitude and the posture of thankfulness are beneficial in many ways. Being thankful can help you to feel better about your life, and it can also improve your immunity as well as your sleep. Gratitude can also help with decreasing anxiety, depression, difficulties with chronic pain, and your risk of disease. It can also relieve stress, and it supports your heart’s health.

Gratitude and the response that it causes in your parasympathetic nervous system helps to bring down your heart rate, blood pressure, and breathing to help relax you and reduce your stress levels. Showing thanks for the things that are meaningful and valuable in your life can help you face challenges with a brighter outlook. It can improve your focus when tackling tasks, and it can also change how you view yourself, leading to a boost in self-esteem.

Lastly, gratitude also helps you to become a more patient person. Grateful people tend to be less impulsive and better self-controlled. This might be because whatever situation they find themselves in, they’re not rushing to get out of it, but they pause to ponder the positives of any situation.

How to Move Toward Gratitude in the Mundane

How do you become the sort of person who is grateful, can express gratitude, and can live with a mindset of gratitude? Gratitude can be expressed by thinking about past experiences and blessings, considering present circumstances, and not taking things for granted, or by looking forward to the future with a hopeful and optimistic outlook. It’s possible to cultivate this mindset and grow the ability to be grateful.

Some ways to cultivate a mindset of gratitude include the following:

• Be mindful  Gratitude often requires us to slow down and savor the little things and moments of life. These could be tastes, sensations, or experiences. Slow down enough to think about what you’re doing.
• Embrace life as a gift  When you look around yourself, it should be apparent that there’s so much that we have purely as a gift. You didn’t choose to be born at the time you were born, into the family you were born in, and with the capacities and talents that you have. Life is a gift, and being grateful is about learning how much we receive that isn’t down to our hard work, but sheer grace.
• Keep a journal It can be easy to overlook the things worth being grateful for. Set aside time to write down the things you’re grateful for each day.
• Express your thanks  Whether through a “thank you’ note, letter, or email, express thanks to the people in your life who make it the blessing it is. Even taking time to thank them mentally makes a difference. You can express your thanks through prayer, in song, as a poem, or through art.
• Reframe past events Past experiences, especially the painful ones, have nonetheless taught us some things. They may have contributed to your growth as a person, whether by making you a more cautious, assertive, or compassionate person. There are positive lessons that we learn in our toughest experiences and seasons in life, and by paying closer attention to these, you can cultivate gratitude in your life.

You can walk with a counselor in this process of looking back at your life and considering what you have learned and how you’ve grown through the things you’ve been through. Your counselor can also help you learn how to practice gratitude in everyday circumstances, and how to maintain a healthy outlook on your life and circumstances.

Practicing gratitude may not be something that comes easily to you, but like most things in life, it can be learned. We can train ourselves to slow down and pay closer attention to the things in our lives that matter and that make our lives as rich and varied as they are. By making certain practices part of our everyday existence, we can make gratitude our native tongue and improve our emotional, mental, physical, and spiritual well-being.

Would you like the help of a counselor to see the blessings in your life and walk in gratitude? Contact our office today to make an appointment with a faith-based counselor. We would love to help you.