The Gesture of Gratitude
A Gesture Of Gratitude
What is The Gesture of Gratitude? And the definition of it and
why it affects our habits and lives and how do we repay the all world with it
and other meanings of gratitude?
What is The Gesture of Gratitude?
Gratitude is defined as the expression of feeling good;
gratitude is expressed through words, expressions of thanks and acts that conveyor display feelings of gratitude. It can also be explained in layman’s
language as being grateful for what you have in life. A simple example is to
say “I am grateful for this, for my new job”. Not only is that not just saying
something to yourself but is actually expressing gratitude to the universe for
providing you with that opportunity to get your dream job.
“Grateful” is the most common word used to describe the gratitude
and can mean anything from being grateful to receiving gratitude. In both these
instances, gratitude can mean appreciating something or someone. Whatever your
meaning may be, it is important to remember that gratitude is about
appreciating things.
How does The Gesture of Gratitude Affect Our Habits?
Gratitude influences the habit of gratitude by creating
awareness around us. Through gratitude, we receive permission to experience
gratitude and to express it freely. By exercising gratitude in our lives, we
find ourselves using more gratitude. We feel grateful, and we appreciate all
that we have and all that we are grateful for.
In the United Kingdom alone they were able to reduce stress levels
by 11% since 2004 through a practice of gratitude! This effect was realized by
simply walking around each day on our doorstep where an image had appeared to
mark gratitude points. When this was done, walkers saw people start to give
each other appreciation notes, such as hugs or handshakes. In addition to
walking, participants also received information about their daily health and
exercise routines.
Gratitude is a powerful gesture because of its ability to bring
to the forefront our mindset of gratitude. If we want to start experiencing
gratitude more often, we can start by changing the way we think about
gratitude. For example, there is evidence that gratitude training improves
mindfulness, optimism, self-control, and quality of life (McKenzie &
Stewart, 2002). Although there is no specific research into gratitude
techniques, we know that gratitude training improves mindfulness, optimism,
physical strength, improved sleep quality and decreased anxiety levels. These
outcomes are the direct results of improving gratitude within our personalities
and lives.
Gratitude is another form of the gesture of gratitude, which
includes activities to increase gratitude. Research shows that gratitude
meditation increases gratitude behaviours (Emmons et al., 2009). Studies by
Emmons et al. (2009) show results of gratitude meditators showed they
experienced lower levels of stress, depression and unhappiness than the control
groups. The authors concluded that gratitude practice is a powerful technique
for promoting health and wellbeing. One way is by reducing depression and
helping us develop gratitude skills.
How does The Gesture Of Gratitude Impact Everyone?
When we express gratitude to others we are giving them the gift
of experiencing gratitude in return. People appreciate grateful people.
Additionally, when we practice gratitude towards others, they reciprocate
gratitude to us. They express gratitude toward those who practice gratitude
to them. Such as in soccer, when a player makes certain passes they see their
opponents make, they offer gratitude back to the opponents. All of this
benefits everyone. To see how gratitude helps in increasing personal happiness,
here is an interesting article by Michael Hollis in Scientific American. He
says this
“I don’t think happiness is limited to physical aspects of
wellbeing. I believe that all of us contribute to the mind, emotion, body, and
soul, and so far as I can tell, gratitude is one of the biggest contributors to
well-being.” –Michael Hollis
Gratitude has a tremendous impact on our personality and overall
life. Many studies carried out on human psychology showed that if we were
positive most of the time we would always be grateful and that gratefulness is
related to healthy psychological and emotional aspects (Emmons et al., 2009). Also,
gratitude affects our cognitive abilities and attention span.
Gratitude is a great tool for individuals of all types to use in
enhancing their own mindfulness and gratitude. As a matter of fact, gratitude
can help us become better at learning new skills like patience, compassion,
resilience, gratitude and forgiveness. Moreover, gratitude helps us learn
empathy, compassion and forgiveness. The concept of gratitude is now becoming
increasingly popular in society, as a result of its power and ability to improve
our mood and our general wellbeing. More importantly, gratitude is gaining
traction in business. Businesses are beginning to take advantage of the
benefits it offers and invest heavily in programs to teach and inspire
gratitude.
How does The Gesture Of Gratitude Help You Improve Your Life and
Relationships?
Since gratitude brings so much energy to our lives if our minds
and hearts can change their attitudes then by learning gratitude we can improve
relationships in our daily interactions.
For an individual to enjoy a relationship with another, gratitude
will need to be part of his/her lifestyle. However, there is no right or wrong
answer on how gratitude should go with our relationships. Every relationship is
unique, however, some advice is that one should never stop gratitude after
having a difficult relationship, but rather continue practising gratitude
consistently. Learning gratitude creates a sense of acceptance in our partners
and allows them to forgive us. While forgiving forgiveness is an important
aspect of a loving relationship, it can’t create one without knowing gratitude
beforehand. There are times throughout our lives we can come up with reasons
why we should forgive someone, but the key to establishing forgiveness is
understanding before forgiving another. Some people stop forgiveness after they
have been forgiven and resent the person they have already forgiven. Others
stop forgiving after they have spent weeks making mistakes because they were
punished for it. Either way, continuous practice of gratitude can give our
partners the best possible outcome and build our relationships in ways we never
have seen before.
So by spending time practising gratitude in your relationships,
you can begin to get the most from it and achieve everything you could ever
think you could or wish to.
The Gesture Of Gratitude Is Related To Meditation Practice
Through mindfulness training and gratitude practices, both men
and women reported improvements in their physical health. Women who did
mindfulness training saw improvements in heart rhythm and blood pressure. Men
who practised gratitude showed improvements in their sleep and reduced fatigue.
Another study found there is a link between mindfulness practices and improved
attention span and a new sense of gratitude.
Mental Practices That Can Cause Appreciation
There are various mental processes that cause gratitude if
practised properly. First off, gratitude requires effort. Therefore, it takes
conscious effort and attention, sometimes even patience. Next, gratitude
requires self-awareness. Being aware of ourselves and all that we do is a very
basic understanding of gratitude as described above. Finally, gratitude
requires honesty in our communication. Honesty is something we can improve over
time through regular practice.
Exercise Tips For Developing Gratitude Skills Within Us
Here are some tips we think might help us master gratitude
skills:
-Keep track of our gratitude progress -Keeping a journal about
how much gratitude we have given back to the Universe will help us keep track
of our progress. Keeping a gratitude journal, as mentioned above, also helps us
stay mindful of how we feel and what we may need to do in order to maintain
gratitude. Keeping our gratitude journals will help us avoid the tendency for negativity
in our gratitude journal, something else we can train ourselves to prevent
(Hollis, 2012).
-Practice gratitude in everyday interactions -As mentioned
previously, gratitude can affect our relationships with others. Whether we are
interacting with friends, family members or strangers, we can practice
gratitude consistently throughout our everyday interactions. Taking gratitude,
like exercising gratitude in our relationships, helps us improve our
relationships even more. As discussed earlier in the article, this can be
accomplished through taking gratitude when facing difficult situations and
continuing gratitude when things go well. Here are some suggestions for
engaging with gratitude in everyday interactions:
-Practicing gratitude in conversations -First and foremost, I
would suggest learning gratitude by learning gratitude in conversation. Rather
than waiting for things to change, we may ask for advice on how to talk with
others about gratitude and encourage wisdom when practising gratitude (Wang et
al., 2005).
-Practices gratitude in gratitude writing -To continue
developing gratitude skills, we should write gratitude as a method for
developing gratitude skills. Doing gratitude writing will enable us to
understand gratitude more clearly and gain valuable insight into gratitude
concepts. Writing gratitude cards and letters to loved ones, especially
children, helps in building our gratitude skills by putting together gratitude
concepts and experiences into a single piece. Furthermore, writing gratitude letters
gives us the chance to revisit memories of gratitude, a process called
flashback therapy. Sometimes we forget things in life or end up forgetting
things by doing things in reverse. Remind yourself to look back at lessons from
past and future experiences. Start the next time you write gratitude letters to
loved ones and remind the reader how the lesson relates to gratefulness,
gratitude and your future.
Conclusion
There are numerous aspects that influence our lifestyles, but
the gesture of gratitude is definitely one of them. We can’t expect gratitude
to remain constant throughout all of humanity. Humans tend to constantly focus
on gratitude, whether consciously or subconsciously, whether positive or
negative. Regardless of our upbringing or circumstances, gratitude remains an
extremely powerful force to nurture. The list of reasons why we should embrace
gratitude and gratefulness in our lives may never exhaust itself.
References
gratitude of positivity
gratitude of humanity
gratitude of generosity
gratitude of relationships
gratitude of friendship
the gratitude for hard work
gratitude of appreciation
and much other gratitude of a genuine life of human beings and hope you like the article and it engages you through it thank you so much for being till the end with the article.




