Why gratitude is important may seem obvious. Looking back, my elders tried to teach me that lesson but over the years it drifted away from me. It was a tool I didn’t quite know how to use. I’m grateful it’s becoming more clear… and more present for me now.

I remember, as a child, we were encouraged to say at least one thing we were grateful for at the family Thanksgiving table.

It was a precious time when we were all silent, paying attention to whoever was speaking, and feeing great when the speaker mentioned the family who was around the circle. 

After we went through every member of the family, we would bow our heads and my grandfather or my uncle would thank the Divine on our behalf for providing us with each other and for providing us with the feast ahead.

Yes, later, I pouted at the thought of having to eat vegetables, but I really loved being with my cousins, aunts, uncles, grandparents, parents and my brother, all together. That was Thanksgiving and plenty of reason to be grateful.

As I have grown, I encouraged my family to participate in a similar ritual over the years, and I found the ritual always ended with smiles and joy… followed by eating, laughing and more smiles, continued evidence why gratitude is important.

Witnessing Why Gratitude is Important

As I grew up, I learned that was why gratitude is important — when expressed, it always led to more joy, more happiness, and more smiles.  It made us feel good inside and it made those around us feel appreciated and more happy.

I’ve witnessed situations of pain where a hug and someone believing in the hurting person helped them feel so much better.  I saw gratitude, as appreciation and love, coming from the nurturing person. Then I saw the hurting person shift from pain toward happiness. 

That’s evidence why gratitude is important. It can reduce suffering.

Harvard Health agrees.  In their Harvard Medical School health newsletter in the August 14, 2021 edition, an article on Giving Thanks can Make You Happier,

“Gratitude helps people feel more positive emotions, relish good experiences, improve their health, deal with adversity, and build strong relationships.”

One of the methods Harvard Health recommend is writing thank-you letters or emails explaining how you appreciate a person. You can also share the impact they have had in your life.  Harvard Health recommends doing this monthly, and make sure you include yourself in that list of recipients.

Wisdom on Gratitude from the Ages

I remember my grandmother sitting with me after my birthdays and after Christmas, helping me write thank you cards for every gift I received.

I reckon they knew something back then.  It used to be just good manners, but it is a lovely way to show gratitude, and one of the methods Harvard Health recommends as a way to increase your happiness and to nurture relationships, two main reasons why gratitude is important.

Lately, I’ve gotten out of that habit (well, always room for improvement), but I am better about sending texts to say thank you.

I did run an experiment on this notion when I was a manager.  I wanted to find a way to encourage myself to focus on finding my employees doing something right. When I saw one of the team members pushing

themselves toward excellence or helping another employee, I’d write them a Thank You note. 

The impact of that gesture made a more powerful difference in how my relationship was with my team, and helped me focus on observing their talents more closely. I began to truly appreciate them.  I saw their attitudes and morale improve too.

Authorities Share that Gratitude Tips the Scales

Another reason why gratitude is important is it can help you tip your mental scales from negative to positive and help you generate more happiness. It helps you refocus on the abundance in your life instead of lack. 

In the Master Key Experience, week after week, we read The Master Key System, by Charles Haanel, and Og Mandino’s The Greatest Salesman in the World.

These and other texts we review in the class remind us again and again to be in harmony with universal principles and to carry gratitude in our minds as well as our hearts, to think positively..

Gretchen Rubin’s Happiness Project, is a strong proponent of gratitude.  She encourages readers to look for 3 reasons to be grateful every day, and to write them down, in a journal.

In the Master Key Experience, Mark Januszewski, co-creator of the class, suggests we write gratitude on index cards. That way we can flip through them and keep our minds on the positive moments in our lives, balancing out the negativity.

Another exercise Harvard Health recommends is a free-flow writing session you schedule weekly. Sit down and write about your blessings. 

Choose a target, like maybe 5 blessings of the past week for which you are grateful.  Harvard Health suggests you be detailed. You can also mention, or just think through and re-experience, the feelings you had during those moments you consider blessings.

Gretchen Rubin’s work and Harvard Health’s thoughts on gratitude are backed with research in the field of psychology on what happens for people who practice gratitude and those who don’t.

They found that the main reason why gratitude is important is that people who practice it are happier and have better relationships. 

Harvard Health found that those who are religious can use prayer as a tool to cultivate gratitude and happiness.

For a broader group, mindful meditation worked to build gratitude. The successful people who meditated focused on gratitude for even small things like the warmth of the sun, or a previous pleasant memory.

All these methods can guide you to understand why gratitude is important.  You feel it!

Within my own spiritual path, I found another reason why gratitude is important.  Harold Klemp mentions in his e-book The Power of Gratitude, “People who can show gratitude know and recognize God’s love when it comes to them.”

So there’s a deeper reason why gratitude is important. It can help me to see how the Divine or the Universe supports me through my life and sends me joy and a love that’s almost incomprehensible.  And when I am steeped in gratitude, that’s exactly what I feel – pure love.

Gee, why don’t I do it more often? It’s so good for me, just like eating vegetables.

In the class, Mark and his wife, Davene, point out several times that it is important to be grateful for those things that may seem like a negative.

And sure enough, as I practiced being grateful for moments in my life that I thought were horrible, or just negative, I learned to see how it was an intentional turning point the Divine established in my life so I could grow, become stronger, be tucked back on the path to fulfilling my purpose.

Mark calls it pronoia, vs paranoia. It’s the belief that the Universe, the Divine, God, however you see the Creative Force, is working on our behalf, not against it.

Learn Why Gratitude is Important – With Help

I am grateful for the Master Key Experience, a course that helped me to find more happiness and build my life into one that’s filled with reasons for gratitude.

I’m grateful for the hands-on support I got going through the class. I’m grateful for the friends I’ve made there and grateful for the continuing support and challenges the class offers. And I’m grateful for the opportunities to grow and serve that it provides me.

I could go on and on, but I will also be grateful for you to join us in the next session of Master Key Experience, so you too can find your methods for growth in happiness as 94% of the class graduates have gained. 

Join us so you can experience why gratitude is important.  It’s not just a class, it’s a way of living.  There truly is #NothingLikeIt.

P.S I’m grateful that you took a minute or two to read my blog post.  I hope you’ll share it.  May the blessings be!