Elsie Reinemer
Positive Psychology & Personal Resiliency
Final Paper
Final Paper: Gratitude
Introduction
“Gratitude defies easy classification. It has been conceptualized as an emotion, an attitude, a moral virtue, a habit, a personality trait, or a coping response. The word gratitude is derived from the Latin root gratia, meaning grace, graciousness, or gratefulness. All derivatives from this Latin root “have to do with kindness, gener- ousness, gifts, the beauty of giving and receiving, or getting something for nothing” (Pruyser, 1976, p. 69). Gratitude is an amazing thing that can be small and simple but show such tremendous results in the end. Scientists have been studying gratitude for many years and in recent research, those who
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Why exactly is expressing gratitude a problem for some? Therapist Dr. Terence Real and author of the book “I Don’t Want to Talk About It”, believes that there are three reasons people lack the ability to express gratitude towards others. These reasons include feelings such as negative emotional baggage, a sign of weakness, and having expectations. Research has shown that when we strive to find happiness in the things we lack, we may actually be holding ourselves back. The process of practicing, noticing, and appreciating what we already have is what brings true …show more content…
We are all tested everyday to overcome unique challenges and obstacles that are presented in our lives. By realizing what we are grateful for we can enjoy great blessings, successes, and experience great wonders and happiness in our lives. However, none of us are immune to the difficulties and challenges that will occasionally come our way, to make the journey difficult at times, and to test ourselves. The three runners depended on a camaraderie to help them through difficult times, just as we depend on one another, our families, our leaders, and our friends to help us through challenging
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
Terry knew that aches and pains are common in athlete’s lives. At the end of his first year of university there was a new pain in his knee. One morning Terry woke up to see that he could no longer stand up. A week later Terry found out that it was not just an ache he had a malignant tumor; his leg would have to be cut off six inches above the knee. Terry’s doctor told him that he had a chance of living but the odds were fifty to seventy percent. He also said that he should be glad it happened now fore just 2 years ago the chance of living was fifteen percent. The night before his operation a former coach brought Terry a magazine featuring a man who ran a marathon after a similar operation. Terry didn’t want to do something small if he was going to do something he was going to do it big. "I am competitive" Terry said, "I’m a dreamer. I like challenges. I don’t give up. When I decided to do it, I knew it was going to be all out. There was no in between Terry’s sixteen month follow up he saw all the young people suffering and getting weak by the disease. He never forgot what he saw and felt burdened to thoughts that died to run this marathon. He was one of the lucky one in three people to survive in the cancer clinics. Terry wrote asking for sponsorship " I could not leave knowing that these faces and feelings would still be here even though I would be set free of mine, s...
looking forward to, it will change my outlook on the day. According to studies “gratitude can
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
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...
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.
Thanksgiving is undoubtedly a holiday to celebrate family. It also celebrates many other things, as the name suggests. Thanksgiving is a holiday to give thanks for the things that a person has rather than to wish for more things. Accomplishments and shiny cars are not part of the essence of Thanksgiving, as these do not have the inherent humbleness expected of the holiday. This air of humility and frugality, harkening back to the days of the pilgrims and Native Americans, is probably what lead Ellen Goodman to describe the holiday as a suppressing of individualism. However, the rift between individuality and family that Goodman describes in Thanksgiving is not as deep as she makes it seem, and Thanksgiving Day is hardly the only day of the
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
Thanksgiving is a holiday that is celebrated on the fourth Thursday during the month of November in the United States. Thanksgiving honors a legal holiday for people to be thankful for what they have, such as family and friends. Thanksgiving is meant to be spent with your family and not out shopping trying to find deals on items. In fact, in the article “Two Dozen Retailers Won’t Open on Thanksgiving-And They’re Shaming the Ones That Will,” it states, “Read between the lines and you’ll see that any retailer forcing employees to work on Thanksgiving must be an ‘unfriendly’ company.” Thanksgiving is about giving...not taking. Big name stores such as Walmart, Macy’s, and Target are staying open on Thanksgiving to make some extra money. Thanksgiving
My journey of the process started with the PPI “Expressing Gratitude”. The task instructed to write down five things one is thankful for, each day, for a week. Wooh, Froh & Gerahty (2010) defined gratitude as a habit of noticing and being aw...
In conclusion, we learn in life we have to face these challenges in each accomplishment to give us a sense of unity through our family members. In life, we have to go through these challenges everyday and some days it will be easy and some days it will not but as long as we have our friends, family and friends to point us to the right direction we can achieve basically anything we want too. Life there will be things that will hurt us or we can't be able to due, but we will soon overcome all these challenges in life and it will open a new doors for us.
Appreciative Inquiry is a change management approach which concentrates itself on determining what is working well within an organization, scrutinizing why it is working well and then focusing on doing more of these things. “Appreciative Inquiry focuses us on the positive aspects of our lives and leverages them to correct the negative. It’s the opposite of ‘problem-solving” (White, 1996). Appreciative Inquiry has it birthplace within the Case Western Reserve University doctoral program in Organizational Behavior and began as a partnership between David Cooperrider and his advisor Suresh Srivastva in 1980. The foundation of Appreciative Inquiry was established during the process of Cooperrider completing his doctoral thesis. Initially, Cooperrider’s work was concentrated on constructing a conventional analysis or an organizational examination of what were the flaws within the personnel side of the organization. “The history of Appreciative Inquiry is the history of a major shift in the practice of organization development and transformation. In fact, it is also the history of an unplanned, even unintended, process with no particular intent at all to use it for changing organizations or other human systems”( Watkins et al, 2011. p.23).
Unlike many behavioral approaches to change, AI does not focus on changing people. Instead, it invites people to engage in building the kinds of organizations and communities that they want to work and live in. (Mohy & Watkins, p. 4)
...s thank you to others makes them incredibly happy. We also must express gratitude for ordinary things such as a beautiful blue sky during the daytime or sparkling stars at night. Get in the habit of finding at least 10 things to be grateful for each day to increase your happiness level.
Aesop once stated, “No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted.” In this time period, many people around the globe only focus on their life, and they do not focus on lifting others up. Kindness is one word that can change lives, even when the person that shows kindness doesn’t even know the impact they are making. One act of kindness does not appear to be very important, but every act makes an impact. The world is full of hatred, war, and terrorism, but anybody can start to make a change. Some reasons that any act of kindness has an impact include other people needing positivity, the start of a chain reaction, and the benefit of other people in the world.