The Benefits of Expressing Gratitude

"People who are grateful have higher levels of positive emotions like love, optimism, joy, enthusiasm,and happiness.

“The practice of gratitude as a discipline protects a person from the destructive impulses of envy, resentment, greed, and bitterness,” Emmons says ... Photo by Michael Whoolly

"that those who are grateful are able to cope better with stress, sleep better, have more energy, and even have more resilience toward illness and have greater physical health."

“Gratitude works because, as a way of perceiving and interpreting life, it recruits other positive emotions—like joy, contentment, and hope—that have direct physical benefits, most likely through the immune system or endocrine system,” Emmons says.

“We have also found that when people experience gratitude, they feel more loving, more forgiving, and closer to God.”

Emmons believes the power of a thank-you note is incredible,

and that there are three main benefits:

1. Expressing emotions magnifies the feeling, so expressing thanks makes our gratitude stronger.

2. Expressing thanks builds and strengthens relationships. He says gratitude is the relationship-building emotion, so not only do we benefit on an individual level, but we create better bonds with others.

3. It humbles us. The natural man has a self-serving bias and the tendency to take sole credit for everything positive.

Just something to think about this week of "Thanksgiving"