Gratitude Helps Us In So Many Ways

It’s the time of year when we focus on being thankful and remind ourselves to again express our gratitude for life, family, friends, and the many blessings, big and small, that God sends us each day. I’ve often heard that we should begin prayer with an expression of gratitude, and we are taught to express our thankfulness to one another in many ways, starting with a simple “thank you” when we are young. I believe that keeping gratitude at the forefront of our prayer and our lives can help us become better people and draw closer to the Lord.

I took a positive psychology class in college, and the discipline promoted several ways to increase happiness. I don’t want to delve into the topic too deeply, as there can be different definitions between happiness, joy, and lasting, true happiness and holiness found only in God, but I would like to point out that one way that has been proven to increase people’s happiness (based on their own ratings) is by having gratitude.

While taking this class, I was instructed to record three things I was grateful for at the end of each day. A few researchers in the positive psychology field attest that this habit leads to increased happiness as opposed to those who recorded simply events or negative experiences. I believe this practice can help us become aware of small things that we may take for granted and help us realize many blessings in our lives.

God is ever present in our lives, and reflecting on what we are grateful for each day may help us more clearly see His hand in each moment. Other ways to cultivate an attitude of gratitude are to send a card or letter to someone simply thanking them for being a friend or for affecting you in a certain way, to go around the dinner table and each share a moment he or she is thankful for, and to always include gratitude in our prayer.

I’m going to try to continue my focus on being thankful throughout the year and to encompass my life in having gratitude for my past, present, and future. As St. Gianna Molla says, “The secret of happiness is to live moment by moment and to thank God for all that He, in His goodness, sends to us day after day.”