Sure-Fire Way to Enhance Your Life

Psychologist Ken Sheldon from the University of Missouri-Columbia found something interesting about enhancing our experience of life. Ken asked students to keep a journal on a weekly basis reporting five things they were grateful for. Compared with students who reported five hassles or neutral events on a weekly basis, students who wrote gratitude items reported that they exercised more, that they felt more optimistic about their upcoming week, reported fewer physical symptoms, and indicated they felt better about their lives as a whole. You may have heard of the research that suggested that watching funny TV/movies while sick could help you heal more quickly. Now it appears that you can simply “count your blessings” if you want to be healthier and happier.

Examining why this might be so, research is finding that counting your blessings impacts how you experience your present life. A gratitude focus prevents you from taking the good things in life for granted, what psychologists called hedonic adaptation. Gratitude fosters moral behavior and enhances social bonds. When faced with a problematic life experience, those with a tendency to count their blessings are more likely to positively reinterpret the event. And, not surprisingly, practicing gratitude tends to inhibit negative emotions such as envy, bitterness, anger, and greed.

Centuries before positive psychologists looked into the phenomenon, Christians have been guided towards an attitude of gratitude. “For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with gratitude.” 1 Timothy 4:4. Earlier, Jesus taught that nothing that entered our bodies made us impure, a basic stance towards the goodness of all creation. But, an attitude of gratitude is not just a New Testament edict. The first things we learn about God are that he speaks, he acts, and he expresses gratitude, “Then God said, ‘Let there be light’; and there was light. God saw that the light was good.” Genesis 1:3-4. To live with a grateful heart and mindset brings you closer to God’s heart and manner of thinking.

The end of the academic year is a particularly good time to reflect on areas of gratitude over the course of the past nine months. For those graduating in two weeks, this is a particularly good time to reflect on areas of gratitude for your past 4-5 collegiate years. What are you most grateful for this year? What are you most grateful for over your college career? Counting your blessings this way will bring you closer to God and bring you more awareness of your truest, deepest self. Done regularly, it will also deepen your joy in life.