Gratitude: A Behavior Modification Intervention for Worry. Gratitude is one of the positive emotions shown from research and clinical trials to enhance the general well being of human beings. Gratitude is defined by Emmons (2004) as “a sense of thankfulness and joy in response to receiving a gift, whether the gift be a tangible benefit from a specific other or a moment of peaceful bliss evoked by natural beauty. Emmons and McCullough also see gratitude as an attitude, a habit, a personality trait and a way of handling difficult situations response (Emmons & Stern, 2013). Its practice has been seen to be efficacious in healing and improving the quality of life of many people. Whether in terms of enhancing mental health or preventing illness, gratitude is one of life’s vitalizing ingredients. Clinical trials indicate that the practice of gratitude can have dramatic and lasting positive effects on a person’s life. It can lower blood pressure, improve immune function, promote happiness and well being, and spur acts of helpfulness, generosity and cooperation (Emmons & Stern, 2013). Emmons and Stern (2013) from their experiments, assert that gratitude has one of the strongest links to mental health and life satisfaction in any personality trait, more so than even optimism hope or compassion. They maintain that people who experience gratitude can cope more effectively with everyday stress, show increased resilience in the face of trauma-induced stress, recover more quickly from illness, and enjoy more robust physical health. There are numerous research on the effectiveness of gratitude as a therapeutic intervention for many problems As mentioned earlier, it is seen to work in any personality depression anxiety (worry), trauma and soo... ... middle of paper ... ...cipant is closely associated with changes in his life, it is important to investigate whether his self-worry is as a result of the adjustments and changes that took place in his life because of school. The progress made through this intervention has to be watched to see if it is temporary or something that will perdure with continues practice of gratitude contemplation and recording. Nevertheless, the intervention helped the participant in decreasing his self-worry. It is the opinion of the researcher that even though, gratitude intervention is successful in his case and other trials carried out by renowned scholars like, Emmons & McCullough, (2003), Emmons & Stein, (2013), Seligman et al (2005) Watsin et al (2003), Matsuba, (2011), more studies should be done to determine the effectiveness of this intervention, the population and cases where it is most effective.
Gratitude is a gift that the earth urgently needs. Consistent gratitude is a form of recognition of the gift and the giver. Daily gratitude can help eliminate the need for more and practicing more of only what we need. Gratitude leads to a society of contentment rather than one that's always in need of more. We human individuals have conventions for appreciation; we apply them formally to each other. We say thank you. “We understand that receiving a gift
One example would be something as simple as watch t.v and eating dinner, this is a habit we have all done before. In this situation the t.v turns on and you see a video of starving children on your t.v screen, you take a moment of silent. After you pity the children then comes the prayer to God, thanking God that you aren’t in that situation. This is the part when your self-gratitude comes out, instead of trying to go out and help the child or even pray for the child’s well-being, where stuck praying for ourselves. We try to express gratitude by thanking God for the roof over our heads and the foods he’s provided for us today, after all that’s done we get a good feeling in our hearts, and go back to eating dinner and talking about our day while the child is still starving. This is what Barbara was trying to talk about in her article, about how everything’s becoming a “you and you” relationship We as a social aren’t really trying that hard to help other because when we see a bad situation instead of going after it and trying to make it better we tend to focus on the our lives and selfishly bring it back to us and how grateful we are that it wasn’t us, and that isn’t helping anyone get
In the article “Self-Compassion, Stress and Coping” I found that self-compassion can have many positive outcomes when dealing with a negative situation or event. The article looks at the ways in which people who have high levels of self-compassion versus people who have low levels of self-compassion cope with stress, in doing this the researchers show the positive effect of self-compassion. As Denise mentioned compassion and mindfulness as a coping strategy come from the teachings of Buddhism.
looking forward to, it will change my outlook on the day. According to studies “gratitude can
Mental wellness is more than the mere absence of mental illness. Mental wellness encompasses positive affect, life satisfaction, psychological and social well-being. (Mitchell, 2011) Seligman postulates that happiness is determined by a combination of set range(50%), intentional activities(40%) and circumstances(10%). (Mitchell, 2011) This show that Amanda can increase her happiness intentionally by as much as 40%. Activity like keeping a gratitude journal can promote happiness. The habit could again be encourage with motivational interviewing (Rollnick and Miller, 1995) and SMART goal
In the first section of his book (What You Have Received as Gift, Give as Gift) really make an impact on my views on living a fulfilled life. Everyone has a purpose and a gift on this life and everyone should know that they are somebody and everyone should know this to fulfill a good life. Everyone should work together and use our strengths to help others. God gave all of us a different and unique talent or gift and we should place that gift on others as God has done to us. When we showcase our gifts and talents, we should be grateful and show humility. We should not gloat our talents, but instead help others in order to gain a better understanding of others and the world around us. As Gula says “Gratitude is the virtue that gladly recognizes everything we have received as gifts to be shared, not possessions to be hoarded. Gratitude remembers, too, that God is the giver of these gifts” (Gula 30). My view on this is that gratitude and humility are one of the core values on living the good life because we can use these talents to gain understanding of our own self and others around us. Like God, we can use our gifts to also gain companionship, which God believes to be in reaching a good
When I recognize the state of gratitude in which my heart is enveloped, I immediately embrace the Grace of God! I would never know true gratitude if it were not for God’s grace.
On the campus of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the celebration of various cultures around the world is an everyday occurrence. Whether it be a performance at Memorial Hall or playing Javanese Gamelan, college campuses seem to encourage cultural exchange its faculty and students. However, where is the line between appreciation and appropriation? At a World Music Concert, a diverse set of students performed traditional Javanese gamelan with traditional clothes to match. Interestingly enough, none of these students were actually Javanese or even Indonesian for that matter.
Humans gravitate towards safe, loving, and happy experiences. But sometimes it’s difficult to be positive, especially when experiences feel overwhelming. In recent years, there has been a lot of research conducted on regulating emotions. With these strategies, we can learn how to control our feelings. There are two types of strategies: savoring and dampening. Savoring is the idea of noticing and relishing experiences, hardwiring your brain to focus on positivity. Dampening, on the other hang, is the act of suppressing or down-regulating positive emotions, out of fear, shyness, or modesty. There are many ways to promote positive emotions, but the focus of this paper will be on the differing implementation strategies. While there’s consensus amongst scholarship that savoring and dampening are effective ways in influencing life satisfaction, the scholars differ in their approaches leading to their conclusions.
Self-kindness and self-compassion also results in an increase in well-being (Neely, Schallert, Mohammed, Roberts, & Chen, 2009). A study by Hoffman, Grossman, & Hinton (2011) supports this by proving that loving-kindness and compassion meditation not only results in increased positive affect, but also results in a decrease in negative affect.
When people have gratitude it makes ths country a better place. The people of this country could be caring, or helpful, and our country suffers from the selfish people in it. Gratitude makes a person an American, because they show respect to each and every person they meet and will meet in the future. They have the caring ways to help their friends, and family out at anytime. Gratitude is a trait that should be in any American citizen, because it shows the people of this country that it could be a better place if people would start treating others with kindness. The truth is, as I was growing up, I didn’t see much kindness in the world. People were treating others lousy, worthless, and, horrid. If more people had gratitude ther would be less murders, more love, and so much more faith in the world. Today we see people die, and are used to it. We hear about attacks and absolutely do nothing for the people that need it. Obviously, we need to find more of this stuff called
Are you constantly struggling with life? If so, you might be focusing on the wrong things. Practicing daily gratitude will help you turn your life around. Want what you have and what you want will come to you!
Being thankful, to me, means appreciating everything in life. No matter how big or small something is to you, it is important to realize that some people can only dream of having what you have. Throughout the year, it is easy to take things for granted, even if you don’t realize it. Thanksgiving serves as a good reminder to us all that we need to take time and appreciate our lives. Many of us have so much to be thankful for, like our loved ones, a nice warm meal, or even just having clean clothes.
In two longitudinal studies (Wood, Maltby, Gillett et al., 2008), gratitude was assessed in first year undergraduate students starting university, at the start and ends of their first term, approximately 3 months apart. This period is known to be a life transition with varying implications for well-being, with some people finding the experience excellent, and others stressful and depressing ( Brissette, Scheier, & Carver, 2002). Additionally, although gratitude did not change in this short period of time, this should not be taken as evidence that gratitude cannot change. Rather, it may be that individual differences in gratitude represent stable phenomena, like schematic processing, or stable beliefs about the word, which lead trait gratitude towards tending to remain quite stable. At first sight there is strong empirical support for the set-point theory, happiness tending to be stable over time. Follow-up of individuals show little change in happiness from one year to another and if changes occur, these are typically short lived. Trend analysis of average happiness in nations shows also much stability. Yet at a closer look we see also change. Long-term follow-up of individuals reveals considerable mobility along the life-satisfaction ladder in modern society, over a lifetime only 30% of the original rank order in happiness will be left. Follow-up studies have also shown that at
...Lindsey. “The Rippling Effects of Random Acts of Kindness: Giving, Growing, and Gaining. ”Just another we blog. Sites.psu.edu., n.d. Web. 16 October. 2013.