Day 42: One thing I learned today…
Counting your blessings and good things in life make us happy. The ability to notice, appreciate, and savor the elements of one’s life has been viewed as a crucial determinant of well-being.
So I encourage you to take a moment right now to count your blessings.
A study was conducted with 192 undergraduate participants enrolled in a health psychology class in a large, public university.
Three different randomly assigned groups were created:
1- Gratitude Condition - Write five things in your life that you are grateful or thankful for.
2- Hassles Condition - Write five hassles that occurred in your life.
3- Events Condition (Control Condition)- Write down five events that had an impact on you (40% were rated as pleasant, 30% as unpleasant, and 30% as neutral, with this balance, the researchers felt this was a neutral control condition)
Weekly (over 9 weeks) students were asked to fill out a form for each randomly assigned group as well as a well-being assessment and a gratitude assessment including thankful and appreciation feelings.
Participants in the Gratitude Condition felt better about their lives as a whole, and were more optimistic regarding their expectations for the upcoming week. They reported fewer physical complaints and reported spending significantly more time exercising.
Source: Emmons et al. (2003). Counting blessings versus burdens: An experimental investigation of gratitude and subjective well-being in daily life. Journal of personality and social psychology, 84(2), 377.
Hozzászólások