A daily gratitude practice isn’t just a wishy-washy endeavour. It has been extensively researched and scientifically proven.
Physical Health Benefits
- A gratitude journal reduces stress and improves the quality of sleep (Seligman, Steen, Park, & Peterson, 2005
- This study explored the relationship of gratitude on the physical and emotional health of breast cancer patients. Their data demonstrated a decrease in cancer re-growth as well as reduced distress and increased positive emotions.
- A 1995 study found that when participants felt appreciation, an emotion related to gratitude, their heart rate variability, an indicator of good heart health, improved (McCraty, Atkinson, & Tiller, 1995)
- A study of people with heart failure found that people with higher dispositional gratitude reported better sleep, less fatigue, and lower levels of cellular inflammation (Mills et al., 2015)
- This study found that people who wrote down what they are grateful for every day experience less physical afflictions.
- These studies found that participants who wrote in a gratitude journal for two weeks had “significantly greater sleep quality” and that gratitude “predicted better sleep quality and duration”. Sleeping better and longer. (Mills et al, 2015), (M.-Y. Ng & Wong, 2013), Wood, Joseph, Lloyd & Atkins, 2009)
- The Greater Good Science Center of UC Berkley (May 2018) reports “A handful of studies suggest that more grateful people may be healthier, and others suggest that scientifically designed practices to increase gratitude can also improve people’s health and encourage them to adopt healthier habits”
- Studies conducted by Krause and Hayward (2014) and by Hill, Allemand and Roberts (2013) found that more grateful people report better physical health.
- A longitudinal study of patients with one of two chronic illnesses—arthritis or inflammatory bowel disease— found that patients with high trait gratitude at the beginning of the study also had fewer symptoms of depression; that was still the case six months later (Sirois & Wood, 2016)
Emotional and Psychological Wellness
- A study by Seligman, Steen, Park and Peterson (2005) concluded gratitude journalling builds emotional awareness.
- A study of survivors of a campus shooting found that people with high trait gratitude four months following the shooting showed a stronger relationship between post-traumatic stress and post-traumatic growth, suggesting that very grateful people may be better able to convert stressful situations into opportunities for growth (Vieselmeyer, Holguin, & Mezulis, 2017) [5]. Studies of survivors of natural disasters, including earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, have also found associations been gratitude and post-traumatic growth (Lies, Mellor, & Hong, 2014) [7] (Subandi, Achmad, Kurniati, & Febri, 2014) [11] (Zhou & Wu, 2016) [4].
- A study of divorced or separated participants found that those who were assigned to keep a gratitude journal for 10 days showed a greater tendency toward forgiveness in general, and forgiveness toward their ex-spouses in particular, than other participants (Rye et al., 2012) [20]
- A study conducted by McCraty and colleagues (cited in McCraty & Childre, 2004), found a significant reduction in levels of the stress hormone cortisol. The same study also found participants were more resilient to emotional setbacks and negative experiences.
The studies go on and on and on. So much so that this list of citations and research is by no means complete and will continue to be added to.