Gratitude can bring measurable benefits and contributes to happiness. So, it is important to be grateful in life. 

Gratitude can be defined as a positive interpersonal emotion (McCullough, Kilpatrick, Emmons & Larson, 2001), experienced in situations where the individual perceives himself to be the recipient of a benefit intentionally provided by another (a help or a gift). .

Research has shown that gratitude increases happiness, but it also has physical benefits. Thus, gratitude would improve the immune system. Feeling the energy of gratitude for 15-20 minutes a day for 4 days has been shown to send a signal to genes in immune cells to start producing a protein called “immunoglobulin A”. Gratitude also helps lower the stress hormone cortisol. It can also increase well-being and mental health because it allows the release of neurotransmitters. 

Gratitude is believed to help reduce inflammatory factors involved in chronic disease. It would also improve heart health. 

Overall, cultivating an attitude of gratitude is correlated with a better hormonal balance, a better immune function, a better capacity for relaxation. 

Some people have a gratitude-oriented personality trait: they regularly experience gratitude towards a large number of people, for a large number of items and with greater intensity. 

Others can train for gratitude!

Expressing gratitude is accepting to be helped and being happy to receive this support. For this, it is necessary to note the benefit received, whether tangible or intangible and its cost (the effort required) and then to recognize that the source of this benefit is outside oneself, whether it is another person or life. 

You can build and affirm your sense of gratitude by adopting habits, such as keeping a gratitude journal in which we write down all the people and things for which we are grateful. after getting up or just before falling asleep, write 3 positive things about your day yesterday (if you exercise in the morning) or today (if you write in the evening). It can be small things: a child’s smile, a moment of calm during the day …

You can also keep a list of things for which we are particularly grateful or have a jar of gratitude in which you slip papers on which you wrote down the things that made you happy. 

For Robert Emmons, a psychology researcher at the University of California, those who regularly make a list of reasons to rejoice “feel better about themselves, are more active and offer better resistance to stress”.