[todaysdate]
By Kimberly Burnham
In a study which looked at whether religious involvement helps individuals with chronic medical illness cope better with physical disability and other life changes, H.G. Koenig and L.S. Berk said in The Journal of Psychosomatic Research, “Although unrelated to depressive symptoms in the setting of major depression and chronic medical illness, higher religious involvement is associated with positive emotions, a finding which may influence the course of depression over time. Strong relationships were found between religious indicators and greater purpose, optimism, generosity, and gratefulness.”
How do you deal with depression and illness, whether it is your own or that of a person you care about?
Another study, which looked at chronic occupational stress among health care practitioners found, “taking stock of thankful events is an effective approach to reduce stress and depressive symptoms among health care practitioners.”
In the 2014 study in Journal of Consulting & Clinical Psychology, 102 practitioners were randomly assigned into three conditions: gratitude, hassle, and nil-treatment. Participants in the gratitude and hassle group wrote work-related gratitude and hassle diaries respectively twice a week for four consecutive weeks. A no-diary group served as control.
Do you have a gratitude journal or some way of recording or expressing your gratitude?
Take a moment to consider when you started to learn about gratitude. Who were your role models? What was your early childhood experience relative to gratitude?
A 2013 study in the British Journal of Developmental Psychology researchers looked at a diverse group of 263 three to five year old children and tested for emotion and mental state knowledge at ages three and four. Their understanding of gratitude was measured at age five. J.A. Nelson and L.B. de Lucca Freitas found, “children varied widely in their understanding of gratitude, but most understood some aspects of gratitude-eliciting situations. Children with a better early understanding of emotions and mental states understand more about gratitude.
My first consciousness about gratitude and how lucky I am started when I was six years old living with my family in Bogotá, Colombia. From the upper floor of my walled house I could see the barrio and understood that the children there did not have the food, shelter and perhaps most of all the access to education that I had. At the beginning of each school year I would go with my father to visit families in the neighborhood dropping off school uniforms and books that my parents had bought for them so they could go to school. I understood that without the proper clothing and books, children my own age could not go to school. Those early experiences instilled in me an appreciation for the country and family I was born into. I understood how lucky I am that my parents are an international businessman and an artist.
