When was the last time you felt satisfied with your life? When everything is going great and especially when it gets tough, it’s easy to forget to be grateful. But if the science behind routinely practicing gratitude is so convincing—it has been associated with greater well-being in a wealth of psychological research—why aren’t we grateful more often?
Here are four simple reminders that being grateful can bring you happiness.
1. Gratitude helps your brain process joy and other positive emotions.
Routinely practicing gratitude helps us experience increased positive emotions including interest, excitement, joy, and pride.
Gratitude increases dopamine and serotonin levels in the brain, which are key neurotransmitters that give us feelings of contentment. If we are grateful more often, the happiness-producing neural pathways strengthen, just as exercise strengthens the body.
“When it comes to life, the critical thing is whether you take things for granted or take them with gratitude.”
– Gilbert K. Chesterton
2. Gratitude promotes optimism.
Optimism, in turn, has been shown to be a life-lengthening trait in a recent Harvard University study. In terms of the impact on overall health, one study found that “Optimism may significantly influence mental and physical well-being by the promotion of a healthy lifestyle….” Indeed, overall well-being seems to be influenced by optimism, which can be strengthened by gratitude.
3. Expressing gratitude strengthens your relationships.
Healthy relationships make us happy. How? According to the longest-running study on human development by Harvard University, the No. 1 predictor of health and happiness in a person’s life is the quality of their relationships.
4. When you receive gratefulness, you’re more likely to pay it forward.
If gratitude promotes benevolence, wouldn’t that make for a better world? Consider this: Expressing gratitude to a loved one or friend can lead him or her to pay it forward. Receiving appreciation makes us feel loved—feelings that can inspire us to initiate more positive and helpful actions toward others.