What is gratitude? Gratitude is the quality of being thankful, readiness to show appreciation for and to return kindness.
Research over recent years has mostly been conducted on well-functioning people and tends to show that those who exhibit gratitude tend to be happier and less depressed. In a recent study, published in Psychotherapy Research (see full citation below), a randomized control trial was conducted to test a gratitude adjunctive intervention for psychotherapy clients.
Participants included 293 adults seeking university-based psychotherapy services. Participants were randomly assigned to one of three groups:
- Control (Psychotherapy only)
- A psychotherapy plus expressive writing
- A psychotherapy plus gratitude writing
Participants in the gratitude group wrote letters expressing gratitude towards others, whereas those in the expressive writing group wrote about their deepest thoughts and feelings about stressful experiences. About 4 weeks as well as 12 weeks after the conclusion of the writing intervention, participants in the gratitude group reported significantly better mental health than those in the expressive or control conditions. Those in the expressive and control groups also did not differ significantly. Moreover, lower proportions of negative emotion words in participants writing mediated the positive effect or condition (gratitude vs expressive writing) on mental health.
Citation: Y. Joel Wong, Jesse Owen, Nicole T. Gabana, Joshua W. Brown, Sydney McInnis, Paul Toth & Lynn Gilman. Does Gratitude Writing Improve the Mental Health of Psychotherapy Clients? Evidence from a Randomized Controlled Trial. Psychotherapy Research Volume 28 2018, Issue 2; pages192-202
So, why should you keep a gratitude journal? The authors of this study came up with four reasons.
- Gratitude unshackles us from toxic emotions – when researchers compared the gratitude vs expressive writing group, they found that those in the gratitude writing group used a higher percentage of positive emotion words and a lower proportion of negative emotion words, than those in the expressive writing group. Significance was found only when people used fewer negative emotion words in their letters that they were significantly more likely to report better mental health. It is the belief that by shifting one’s attention away from toxic emotions, such as resentment and envy toward how many people have blessed your life, it might become considerably harder for you to think about your negative experiences.
- Gratitude helps even if you don’t share it – Participants in the gratitude writing group were told they didn’t need to send their letters. Only 23% in the group sent their letters. Those who didn’t send their letters benefited which suggests benefits of writing gratitude letters are not entirely dependent on actually communicating that gratitude to another person.
- Gratitude’s benefits take time – Individuals in the gratitude group reported better mental health than the others 4 weeks after the writing activities and this difference in mental health became even larger 12 weeks after the writing activities.
- Gratitude has lasting effects on the brain – three months after the psychotherapy sessions, researchers wanted to investigate if the brains of participants from the gratitude group were processing information differently. MRI scanners were used. Researchers found that across the board for participants, when people felt more grateful their brain activity was distinct. They showed greater neural sensitivity in the medial pre-frontal cortex, a brain area associated with learning and decision making. Simply expressing gratitude may have lasting effects on the brain to be more sensitive to the experience of gratitude down the line, and this could contribute to improved mental health over time.