Are you seeking more happiness, meaning and fulfilment in your career? The science of happiness – positive psychology – shows that there is a direct link between how much gratitude you have and how happy and fulfilled you feel.
Gratitude is a thankful, positive feeling that involves two simple steps:
- recognising what you have
- taking the time to be thankful for it.
Gratitude leads to happiness in so many ways: in your mind, in your body, and with your relationships. At the simplest level, gratitude encourages you to notice and connect with the good parts of your life, leaving less time and energy for your brain to focus on the negative and toxic elements, meaning more frequent positive, happy feelings. Stopping to notice the good also means you are savouring the positive which leads to longer lasting happy feelings.
Regularly showing gratitude to people in your network or those in your team builds truly positive relationships, leading to increased happiness. You can appreciate those around you by being more conscious of others’ positive actions and impact and noticing and verbalising appreciation. Whilst pleasure draws you inwards, gratitude focuses your mind on what to be thankful for outside of you. Recognising that what we are thankful for often lies outside of ourselves shines a light on our inter-dependence. This means fewer feelings of isolation and more happy feelings of community and support.
People often remember to be grateful when seismic events occur such as changing jobs, a large pay rise, setting up a new business or winning a new client. But what about the every-day goodness? Smaller happenings that whisper rather than shout their presence. Noticing these and being grateful for them is strongly connected to feeling happier.
Highly resilient people are also happier people, and gratitude is a component of resilience. Developing your ability to feel gratitude in challenging or upsetting times is incredibly tough but really powerful for growing happiness and fulfilment. Can you turn anger or resentment into calmness or peace? Gratitude despite adversity is a lamp of light that can warm you and those around you.
Studies show that people who spend time each week, writing what they are grateful for, are far more optimistic about the future meaning gratitude breeds optimism and happy anticipation. People who are more grateful have been shown to be healthier, less likely to be depressed, cope better with stress and have higher motivation to achieve goals. Gratitude even changes your brain activity, lighting up the pathway in the brain that is associated with rewards. This activates the brain to produce dopamine which is your happy feel-good hormone.
Try these five tips today to increase your gratitude and grow your happiness:
Look inside and outside yourself. Spend time at the end of each week reflecting on:
- What you are thankful for about yourself – your strengths; your interests; your achievements?
- What are you thankful for about others – your relationships at work and at home and what they mean to you?
Look to the past. Spend five minutes each week reflecting on ‘what has happened in the last seven days that I am grateful for’?
Look to the future. Spend five minutes each week reflecting on:
- ‘What is going to happen in the next seven days that I am already grateful for?’
- ‘What can I do for others/my team/my partner this week that they might be thankful for?’
Name it. When you feel happy, try and name the emotion in your head eg:
- ‘I feel joy’
- ‘I feel content’
- ‘I’m delighted’.
Take a moment to be thankful for that feeling. The mindful act of naming the happy feeling helps you recognise and be grateful for happy feelings.
Spread gratitude. Give at least one piece of positive feedback a week to others and tell the person why the action mattered to you eg ‘(the impact of the action), I noticed X and this meant Y to me’.
Feeling and showing gratitude is the secret ingredient for immediate and lasting happiness.
- What and who are you thankful for?
- How will you show your gratitude today?
