As parents, we focus on teaching our kids how to say “thank you” to instill good manners. But teaching our kids gratitude has much more far-reaching repercussions than good manners, science shows.
For any parent who has more than one child, you may have noticed that gratitude is in part a personality trait. Some people are just more inclined to be grateful by nature. But the good news is habit can change us.
The simplest way to enhance gratitude is by keeping a gratitude journal. Five minutes a day can change your child’s life. Here are 10 reasons why it’s so important to instill the habit of gratitude in our children.
Gratitude makes us healthier. Research has showed us time and time again that those who engage in practicing gratitude feel less pain, go to the doctor less often, have lower blood pressure and are less likely to develop be depressed. People who practice gratitude are also more likely to exercise.
Gratitude helps us sleep better. Gratitude has been shown to increase sleep quality, the amount of time it takes to fall asleep, and increases sleep duration. That’s because envy and pessimism beget anxiety, which keeps us awake. Gratitude cuts at the very core of anxiety and helps us sleep more peacefully. One study showed that patients with chronic pain conditions who were assigned a daily gratitude journal slept half an hour more than their control group.
Gratitude stems envy. You know those incessant complaints? “Why does she get more?” “It’s not fair.” “He’s just better at it than I am.” Well, gratitude can help nip envy in the bud by focusing on what we do have and how others have helped us achieve and attain things.
Gratitude makes us less self-centered. The very practice of gratitude requires us to focus on ourselves less and on the benevolent acts of others more. Put another way, gratitude teaches us to be humble. And by becoming less self-centered and more humble, we become more confident beings. Which brings us to our next point.
Gratitude makes us more confident. One of the true marks of confident person is humility. While the opposite of a confident person, or one of the true telltale signs of an insecure person is arrogance. Humility is not thinking less of ourselves, but thinking of ourselves less. And the very nature of a truly confident person is someone who is able to see the good in their lives and be happy for others.
Gratitude helps you make and keep more friends. Gratitude helps us perceive kindness. And since it’s natural to want to reciprocate kindness when we receive it, we’re naturally kinder beings if we refine the skill to recognize kindness. A study published in 2014 by Emotion showed that thanking a new acquaintance made the more likely to pursue on ongoing relationship.
Gratitude improves optimism. If we perceive our current life to have more good, we will also believe our future life will have more good. It’s that simple. So much of what determines our next steps in life is our current perspective. Seeing the good over the bad can mean the difference between seeing opportunities and missing them.
Gratitude increases your energy level. Studies show a strong correlation between gratitude and vitality. Those who feel more grateful seemed to report more physical and mental vigor. But we don’t need science or research to understand simple math: the less energy we expend feeling sorry for ourselves or envying others, the more energy we’ll have to focus on positive movement.
Gratitude makes you more resilient. When life hits you hard - and life will hit everyone hard at some point - you’ll be faced with a decision: Do you see your life half full or half empty. Is life better than you deserve or worse than you deserve? If you can still see the beauty in life amidst adversity, you’ll be able to dust yourself off and seek the positive that you trust is in store.
Gratitude makes us happier. If we can sum up all of the benefits of gratitude into a single point, it’s that gratitude makes us happier. It’s been said that five minutes of journaling a day has the same impact of increasing happiness as doubling your income. Imagine what five minutes a day of gratitude journaling can do for a child. It can change the course of his life.