Gobble Gobble: Wasted Gratitude
When thinking about gratitude, people are typically inclined to focus on the month of November and Thanksgiving. However, it turns out we would be better suited to be focusing on gratitude year-round as being grateful has a positive effect on our behavior. It has a way of shaping our lives and “making us more honest, increasing our self-control, enhancing our productivity at work, and our relationships at home.”
Gratitude and Behavior: How Does Being Grateful Positively Serve Us?
So, emotions exist in order to “nudge our decisions and behaviors toward certain ends.” It turns out that being grateful increases positive behaviors and scientific studies have been conducted to prove this.
Honesty: Participants of a study were instructed to report if a coin that they flipped was heads or tails - heads indicated the individual would get money. The people who had been made to feel grateful were reportedly more honest, and the leaders knew this because the coin was rigged to come up as tails every time.
Connecting with others: Gratitude aids in forming strong bonds with others. When we’re feeling grateful for the thoughtfulness of others, we are more inclined to take the steps needed in order to form a relationship with that person. Gratitude also encourages people to “pay it forward.” If someone does a favor for us, typically, we feel grateful for that and want to give other people that same warm and fuzzy feeling that we’ve experienced.
Generosity: Gratitude also promotes generosity. By 12% on average, people who are feeling grateful are more likely to share money when given the opportunity.
Self-Control: Speaking of money, people who are feeling grateful typically exhibit more self-control and make “less impulsive financial choices.” Grateful people are keener to be patient for future investment gains as opposed to making smaller and more immediate sums of money in hand. A person’s level of self-control also contributes to one’s diet as people who feel grateful more commonly resist eating unhealthy foods.
Productivity: Further psychological studies have shown that when bosses have expressed gratitude for their employee’s efforts with fund-raising, the efforts of those same employees increased by 33%. Not surprisingly, this rate of productivity within the workplace is linked to “greater feelings of work satisfaction and well-being.”
Reduction of materialism: Not only does being grateful increase a person’s overall life satisfaction but it also “lowers cravings for buying stuff.”
Gratitude and Thanksgiving
It’s ironic how little attention we pay to gratitude on the national holiday that is supposed to revolve around being grateful – Thanksgiving itself. How could something so significant be overlooked on the one day that it is supposed to be expressed? We seem to get wrapped up in decorations, cooking, planning, and preparations. On Thanksgiving, no one wants a reminder to put more money in the bank, save more, spend less, or feel limited in how much of Aunt Annie’s key lime pie they can have. Good to know about productivity, but no one is working on Thanksgiving, and banks are closed! Similarly, no one wants to feel as if they can’t indulge on Black Friday, where they can find some of the best sales of the year!
Tying it All Up into a Bow: Cultivating a Sense of Gratitude
So, you may be wondering what all of this means. As you and your loved ones gather around every fourth Thursday of November to celebrate Thanksgiving, remember this gratitude mindset that you have learned about today the positive ways it can serve you. Also, remember this gratitude mindset on the other three hundred and sixty-four days of the year, especially in difficult times when you may feel lonely, stressed, angry, and burnt out, or tempted to be dishonest or stingy. Cultivating this sense of gratitude can make a big difference within your life and the lives of others. According to Oprah, the more thankful we become, the more our bounty is inclined to increase. What we focus on expands, and by focusing on this goodness in life, in turn, we create more of it.
Reference:
DeSteno, D., (2019). Why Gratitude Is Wasted On Thanksgiving. New York Times: Retrieved from: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/11/23/opinion/sunday-thanksgiving-gratitude.html?action=click&module=opinion&pgtype=homepage