How gratitude ignites optimism

Before getting started, I would love to give a huge thanks and shout out to Ali Abdaal, Alek, and Ruri Ohama, as these three Youtubers really inspired me to pursue this newsletter endeavor. Check out their material if you want to learn more about making online businesses.

So, how would you define gratitude?

Traditionally, it is a positive feeling of thankfulness and joy after receiving something that you appreciate and feel is genuinely valuable.

(Remember that word – genuine – we’ll come back to that later.)

I also quite like how the article: 'The Three Good Things', by Siew Tim Lai & Ronan E. O'Carroll, define gratitude in an easy-to-understand fashion. According to this article, there are two types:

1.  State Gratitude: where one feels gratefulness, awe and appreciation.

2.  Trait Gratitude: the choice to experience this state in life.

 After digging between different scientific articles, case studies, gratitude stories, and my personal experience; trends arose of how gratitude helps people feel happier/more optimistic about life. These have led to some interesting results I want to share that I am confident are one of the keys to having an optimistic lifestyle.

🔍 Gratitude has 3 different contexts 🔍

From collecting and analysing the information, there are at least three different ways (and likely more) where gratitude can be used to improve one’s quality of life:

1. Immediate – This is where you receive something you genuinely (honestly believe) is valuable at the exact time you receive it. For example: Someone gives you a complement about how you look today, or you receive a gift, someone has bought you a coffee, etc.
   

2. Observational – This is the conscious choice to stop and be thankful for something in your life in the moment. E.g. You sit in the park and choose to be thankful for the warmth of the sun on your face, or a great conversation you are having with a friend.
   

3. Resilient – You reflect on a difficult situation/event, and reframe it to be something you can be thankful for. It is almost always something you aren’t grateful for in the moment. E.g. You had a very stressful day at work and it really sucked, but you are grateful for learning how to better manage stressful situations as a result. In the moment, it is not comfortable, or even joyful to receive, but, on reflection, you recognize the worth that the situation gave you. You learnt and grew stronger, and as a result, you can choose to be thankful*.

*This does not mean to ignore a bad situation, it can still be acknowledged as bad, but it can also be learned from. This form of gratitude acknowledges the bad, but reframes it to a more optimistic outlook.

🪛 What does gratitude do for you? 🪛

As a tool, gratitude can reframe how we see situations, turning negatives into positives. It even helps us to acknowledge the good things we have, or possibly take for granted. For example; seeing negative situations as training to help you in your long-term goals, or something that is helping you become the ‘best form of you’. It can also be used to humble yourself, as you are acknowledging the efforts of someone else and showing you appreciate it, instead of feeling entitled, or expecting it to happen. These shifts in attitude I am confident lead to grater feelings of optimism, motivation, persistence, hope, and being able to grow in patience. Some scientific articles even claim that people also felt more willing to be social, exercise more, and that the depth of relationships with others increased because of gratitude.

In Tye Dutcher's TEDx talk, he describes how gratitude is like a perspective, something you can choose to be, and something that grows personal hope, resilience, and perseverance. I would expand on this with saying that gratitude is a form of growth mindset – a skill one can choose to learn, then grow and improve on continually (we will discuss growth and fixed mindsets in a later edition).

In addition, gratitude has a win-win effect. When you are genuinely grateful to someone else for doing something, they feel capable, valued, and this can result in deeper, and stronger friendships. You will likely find that by being around grateful people, this will tend to help you and others grow in gratefulness as well. This includes even being grateful for traits, skills, or things about yourself that you know, and others may never see. It can also help others have a shift in attitude to become more optimistic, whether it be in work, study, or life situations. Gratitude can be applied anywhere.

🔨 How can we use gratitude? 🔨

So, with these definitions and benefits of gratitude in mind, this leads to the next step —> the framework and application. Now we actively begin to use gratitude as a tool to continually improve our lifestyle. Here is where we come back to that word GENUINE. Being genuine, i.e. honest, is the first key to gratitude. This isn’t a ‘fake it till you make it’ scenario. Think of a time when you were genuinely thankful for something recently… If you can’t think of one, that’s ok, in fact, that means you’re in the best position to practice Observational Gratitude:

🛑 STOP 🛑 Take a few deep breaths. Look around you. Think about what you can be really thankful for in this moment. Have you got a nice coffee in hand? A roof over your head? Somewhere nice to read? Perhaps you’re at home, a café, or a library, wherever you are, I am sure you can find something to be genuinely grateful for right in this moment. Take a moment to just breathe and really appreciate it.

🙏 What else does gratitude lead to? 🙏

Ultimately, if you are willing to give this a real shot and turn this into a lifestyle habit, scientific articles such as Emmons and McCullough, (2003), Wood et al., (2010), and Froh et al., (2008) suggest that gratitude can lead to a decrease in anxiety and stress (alongside better stress management skills), an increased sleep quality, and an improved work and life satisfaction, among other health benefits as written before. The recurring pattern I noticed in the scientific studies is that while people volunteered to participate and reported positive results; the aftermath was short-lived. In some of the studies it was quite unclear on the genuine aspect of the results; since the people were required to report instead of how we are applying it here: An internal motivation on your part to see your health and wellbeing improve in your lifestyle in the long-term. That’s why being genuine is so important.

Another repeating pattern is that gratitude leads to an increase in self-discipline, and motivation. My thoughts are that the positive mindsets resulting from gratitude act as something like a catalyst to make things like being more motivated to do exercise or go after goals, be easier, or more fun.

🎤 My gratitude anecdote: 🎤

These days, my regular habit is to be thankful for something right before bed; to find something to be grateful for as one of the first things I do when I wake up in the morning, and to find small things to be thankful for throughout the day. My recommendation is that once you are in the habit of being grateful, continue to look for things to be grateful for, and choose to be grateful! It is something you can choose to be!

In my life, I continue to practice gratitude and noticed that it has turned me into a more hopeful, persistent, happy, driven, and optimistic person. Gratitude has helped me to stay enthusiastic to pursue goals and reframe things in a different perspective, instead of seeing things as just negative, and all of that was before looking into any of the background research to write in this newsletter.

🫵 Want to try it out? 🫵

We are going to adapt an exercise from the Three Good Things (TGT) scientific article to:

Over the next week, on every other day, write down three things you are genuinely grateful for and reflect on them. Try to have at least one of each type of gratitude (Immediate, Observational, and Resilient) where possible, and have them be different on each day.

Some people write exercises like this in journals, or use the notes app in your phone if that’s easier! At the end of the week, look back and reflect on what you wrote. Were there any that you appreciated more than the others? Savor those moments a bit more. For some, it can help to set an alarm to remind yourself when you would like to write these three things you are thankful for.

Fun fact —> The Three Good Things (TGT) exercise was taken for 6-8 weeks by study participants. I would recommend something similar, or to at the very least do this until you find yourself being in a habitual mindset to be grateful.

💪 Bonus exercise: 💪

What is something in your past that was painful but has made you into a stronger, more resilient person today. Can you find a way to be grateful for it? Can this be applied to situations you face throughout the week?

✍️ Quote to ponder: ✍️

Gratitude triumphs over tragedy… Be grateful for failure, because it is one step closer to success – Tye Dutcher

📖 Want something else to read? 📖

Blogs where I expand on the Newsletter and show you more about how I use these tools: 👉 COMING SOON 
More newsletters here 👉 COMING SOON 
Positive short stories 👉 COMING SOON 

🎨Lastly, this edition’s Artwork Alcove design: 🎨

At the time of writing, these are just artworks, but soon, these are going to be made into t-shirts and posters, so watch this space for when they are ready for purchase!)

That’s all for this edition! If you have any ideas, suggestions, or comments please leave them here, or you can add them to the post on my Instagram (where I am more active), Facebook, or Twitter @the_norskiwi_nz

Much love to you all, and see you in the next one!
🍵Cheers!☕

Norskiwi