In this often cruel but always wondrous world, do you ever take time out to reflect on what you’re grateful for? Do you regularly offer a “thank you” for a blessing, a good deed, a compliment, a helpful invention, or even a friend’s careful attentiveness?
This is an important matter to me in part because I was raised to be grateful. In the 1950s and 1960s, a hearty “Thanks” for even a mundane or fleeting benefit was widely regarded as good manners. It was a courtesy earned by the recipient and humbling to you. Why? Because for at least a moment, you recognized that something good happened to you that was not entirely of your own doing. Every “Thanks” seemed to bring on two smiles, one from the giver and one from the receiver of this one simple word.
I think that gratitude is losing ground in today’s world. I admit I have no hard data to support that, but I can sure sense it. Every day, I find myself resisting the temptation to say “thank you” just as a reminder to someone who should have said it but didn’t. While I am in constant awe of the immense contributions of wealth creators who make life so much longer and better every day, I notice lots of people (often socialists and other “progressives”) who not only can’t thank them, but they work themselves into a frenzy vilifying them.
In a brief video, neuroscientist Andrew Huberman argues that a regular practice of gratitude can significantly alter your neural circuitry, leading to improved mental and physical health. Studies show, says Huberman, that receiving gratitude is even more effective than giving it.
Another short video, The Science of Gratitude suggests that grateful people usually possess higher self-esteem and even sleep better. That makes a lot of sense to me. If you are not a grateful person, that probably means you’re self-absorbed, overly-critical, always angry, or just too insensate to observe what’s going on around you. You may be the obnoxious type that’s always trying to pigeonhole others into categories like “oppressor” and “victim.”
Karl Marx was just such a person. Can you imagine him ever greeting an Alexander Graham Bell or a Louis Pasteur or even a local grocer with anything like, “Thank you so much for taking a risk, applying your talents, creating a product and improving the lives of working men and women!”? Marx was so full of vitriol and class warfare mental sickness, a simple thank you was contrary to his evil, violent ideology—for which the world continues to pay an awful price to this day.
If this topic interests you, get yourself a copy of a 2008 paperback by Dr. Robert A. Emmons entitled Thanks! How Practicing Gratitude Can Make You Happier. At the time the book appeared, Emmons was a professor at the University of California and editor-in-chief of the Journal of Positive Psychology.
The book isn’t a feel-good collection of generalities and catchy phrases. It’s rooted in what the latest science can teach us. In language a lay reader can easily understand, Emmons reveals groundbreaking research into the previously under examined emotion we call “gratitude.” As defined by Emmons, gratitude is the acknowledgement of goodness in one’s life and the recognition that the source of this goodness lies at least partially outside oneself.
Years of study by Emmons and his associates show that “grateful people experience higher levels of positive emotions such as joy, enthusiasm, love, happiness, and optimism, and that the practice of gratitude as a discipline protects a person from the destructive impulses of envy, resentment, greed and bitterness.”
A grateful attitude enriches life. Emmons believes it elevates, energizes, inspires and transforms. The science of it proves that gratitude is an indispensable key to happiness (the more of it you can muster, the happier you’ll be) and happiness adds up to nine years to life expectancy.
Gratitude isn’t just a knee-jerk, unthinking “thank you.” It’s much more than a warm and fuzzy sentiment. It’s not automatic. Some people, in fact, feel and express it all too rarely. And as grateful a person as you may think you are, chances are you can develop an even more grateful attitude, a task that carries ample rewards that more than compensate for its moral and intellectual challenges.
Emmons cites plenty of evidence for his thesis but most readers will find his seventh and final chapter, a mere 24 pages, the most useful part of the book. There the author lays out ten steps (exercises, in fact) for cultivating this critically important emotion.
Everybody wants the world to be a better place. We often feel helpless, assuming that what happens is outside of our ability to make a difference. I don’t buy that defeatist attitude. Perhaps far more often than most of us realize, we can make a difference at no cost other than the fleeting breath it takes to utter the word “Thanks.” Amazing, isn’t it?!
Now, let’s just do it.
For additional information, see:
The Most Powerful Practice You Can Do (video) by neuroscientist Andrew Huberman
7 Scientifically Proven Benefits of Gratitude by Amy Morin in Psychology Today
Lawrence writes a weekly op-ed for El American. He is President Emeritus of the Foundation for Economic Education (FEE) in Atlanta, Georgia; and is the author of “Real heroes: inspiring true stories of courage, character, and conviction“ and the best-seller “Was Jesus a Socialist?“ //
Lawrence escribe un artículo de opinión semanal para El American. Es presidente emérito de la Foundation for Economic Education (FEE) en Atlanta, Georgia; y es el autor de “Héroes reales: inspirando historias reales de coraje, carácter y convicción” y el best-seller “¿Fue Jesús un socialista?”