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Key points
- Research on gratitude is contradictory, with good reason.
- Can you make gratitude work for you? Yes, and it only takes a minute.
- As with any positive change, consistency is key.
It’s all over. On the web, in the news, splashed across your favorite magazine, turning up on your feed as the latest app. Gratitude, shmatitude. What are we supposed to believe?
In The Book of Joy, by the Dalai Lama, Desmond Tutu, and Douglas Abrams, one lovely practice in the back is a gratitude journal (the classic: at the end of each day, write down three things you’re grateful for). I hadn’t journaled for a while but have kept a gratitude journal ever since. Journaling in general, however—not just about gratitude—has mental health benefits. And a gratitude journal just happened to work for me. More and more, I savor gratitude in the moment now: hugging a friend, reading a kind email, and feeling agile or healthy in yoga. But what about you?
Beyond the hype, what do we know about gratitude?
Studies, or experiments of gratitude, are just that: experiments. They test what gratitude does. To do so, they use “interventions.” What’s an intervention? Not the show you watch on TV! With gratitude studies, participants are asked to conduct a gratitude practice for a certain amount of time (usually weeks), and that's the intervention. Well-being, happiness, stress, heart rate, blood pressure, or what have you are measured before and after.
And, yes, some gratitude practices have been found to improve emotional well-being (happiness, contentment), psychological well-being (feelings of independence, confidence, meaning in life), and social well-being (relationships and belonging). For physical health, though, results are contradictory. Some studies show benefits for heart health, inflammation, and sleep, but others show gratitude is no better than general recall exercises or distraction.
Studies of gratitude and depression, anxiety, and stress are also mixed, though one review found improvements in mood and anxiety, as well as general mental health, albeit modest. Gratitude seems to help—or at least help prevent decline—in emotional well-being. Gratitude also seems to improve social well-being, which makes sense: When you appreciate others, it can create a virtuous cycle of good feelings. On the other hand, it can be dangerous to practice gratitude in unhealthy relationships with power imbalances or similar negative factors.
Why are gratitude studies so confusing?
Studies vary for many reasons. Some have too few participants to show effects. Some study teens while others target adults or older adults. Studies test different outcomes: mood, life satisfaction, blood pressure—very different variables. Scientists don’t always measure confounders—other variables that affect results like, in the case of gratitude, physical health, or its social determinants: race, gender, socioeconomic status, and so on. Practicing gratitude if your (literal or figurative) house is burning down, or just did, will likely not show great benefits! Finally, many studies use different gratitude interventions, so results are sure to vary.
What are specific gratitude interventions?
Interventions specify how researchers ask participants to practice gratitude and for how long. Studies lasting longer tend to show more benefits. That’s great, but on the downside, seeing if or how participants continue to practice after the study is rarely checked. Plus, gratitude interventions are all over the map: from gratitude journaling to gratitude letters or expressing gratitude verbally, education on gratitude, gratitude photos and quotes (memes!), or even simply thinking about what one is grateful for.
How do you make gratitude last? Consistency is key.
Since longer gratitude interventions tend to have greater results, we know gratitude is not one-and-done. Just like any change or habit, it won't stick if you don’t stick with it. Quitting cigarettes for a week, or even a month, won’t generally impact physical health. Practicing gratitude for the duration of a study won’t impact mental (or physical) well-being much either. But the more you practice over time, even for a moment or two a day, it pays off.
How do I low-stress start? And is it worth it?
Taken all together, research is accumulating that there are benefits of gratitude on mental health and mood and, according to some studies, improvements in depression, anxiety, and stress or physical health. But gratitude is far from a cure-all. It’s a gentle help, an adjunct nicely added to other things that keep us feeling well: adequate sleep, decent nutrition, medication we may need, exercise, and so on.
By all means, don’t stress about gratitude!
You can choose what’s right for you. Set a timer to pause a minute and think of three things you are grateful for each day. They can be as simple as watching fall leaves twirl through streams of autumn sunshine, a brilliant summer sunflower, or scents of fresh-baked chocolate chip cookies. Gratitude encompasses bigger things, of course—a deep, conflict-resolving discussion with a spouse or friend, a negative mammogram, a pay raise that helps you relax about responsibilities—but it doesn’t have to be big. It just takes one baby step. One baby step each day. Gratitude, it's an attitude. But a good one.
