On Gratitude

With Thanksgiving break approaching, but a yawning chasm full of work to be done beforehand, it might be useful to take a closer took at gratitude as a mental game mainstay.

In recent years, gratitude has become one of the darlings of positive psychologists. It has received a lot of attention. Some have suggested that we are in the  midst of a  World Gratitude Movement. Has it come to this? Has the world grown so ungrateful that we need a movement to help us remember to be thankful?

What's so great about being grateful anyway? Studies conducted by Dr. Robert Emmons at UC-Davis have suggested that "consciously cultivating an attitude of gratitude builds up a sort of psychological immune system that can cushion us when we fall" ("How Gratitude Can Help..."). This might be especially helpful as the semester wraps up just as cold and flu season kicks in. You body and your mind will be put to the test in coming weeks. Emmons findings point out that "grateful people are more resilient to stress, whether minor everyday hassles or major personal upheavals" ("How Gratitude Can Help..."), and we know from Mary Steinhardt's Krost talk that being resilient means we can bounce back from adversity. ("Facing Failure...").


In his TED talk, "The Happy Secret to Better Work," Shawn Achor reports that people who kept a gratitude journal reported higher levels of well-being. All they had to do was write down three things they were grateful for each day. Can a gratitude journal improve your experience as a student? Can it help you crush your next exam? While researchers conduct studies to find out, the only way for you to know is to try it for yourself.

Write a blog post in which you discuss the role of gratitude in your life. Do you experience feelings of gratitude on the daily? Why or why not? Based on your own experiences, do you think gratitude can help you have more success in college?

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Works Cited

       Achor, Shawn. "The Happy Secret to Better Work." TED: Ideas worth Spreading. TED, Feb. 2012. Web. 14 Nov. 2013. <http://www.ted.com/talks/shawn_achor_the_happy_secret_to_better_work.html>.

       Emmons, Robert. “How Gratitude Can Help You Through Hard Times.” Greater Good: the Science of a Meaningful Life. the Greater Good Science Center, UC-Berkeley, 12 Nov. 2013. Web. 14 Nov. 2013. <http://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/what_stops_gratitude>.

      Steinhardt, Mary. "Facing Failure with Resilience." Texas Lutheran University, Krost Symposium. Jackson Auditorium, Seguin. 3 Oct. 2013. Lecture.