...Cultivating an “attitude of gratitude” has been linked to better health, sounder sleep, less anxiety and depression, higher long-term satisfaction with life and kinder behavior toward others, including romantic partners. A new study shows that feeling grateful makes people less likely to turn aggressive when provoked, which helps explain why so many brothers-in-law survive Thanksgiving without serious injury. ...Religious individuals don’t necessarily act with more gratitude in a specific situation, but thinking about religion can cause people to feel and act more gratefully, as demonstrated in experiments by Jo-Ann Tsang and colleagues at Baylor University. Other research shows that praying can increase gratitude.
Rav Shalom Arush's book the Garden of Gratitude (a very worthwhile read, by the way!) recommends spending considerable time each day, as much as half an hour or more, expressing gratitude to Hashem for everything (even seemingly bad things) and praying for the ability to feel and express true gratitude for everything. I'd like to see a double-blind study evaluate the efficacy of that kind of hitbodedut -- I'm certain they'd find interesting results.
ReplyDeleteExcellent article, just finished reading it in the TIMES. "Hakaros Hatov" and all the benefits that come with it. Beautiful action of showing and feeling gratitude.
ReplyDeleteBTW Thanks to you for a wonderful site to visit for intellectual pursuits and insights.