Here are a few more Gratitude Science findings to back up your involvement in the 30 Days of Gratitude Project. There's a lot more but here are some highlights:

4. In a sample of adults with neuromuscular disease, a 21-day gratitude intervention resulted in greater amounts of high energy positive moods, a greater sense of feeling connected to others, more optimistic ratings of one’s life, and better sleep duration and sleep quality, relative to a control group.

5. Persons with neuromuscular disease who participated in one gratitude experiment were found to experience more positive emotios, were more satisfied with their lives, felt better about their lives as a whole and continued to feel more connected to others. The most amazing part of this finding is that these benefits were reported 6 months after the experiment ended! (Emmons, Thanks! How the New Science of Gratitude Can Make You Happier, 2007)

6. Well-Being:  Grateful people report higher levels of positive emotions, life satisfaction, vitality, optimism and lower levels of depression and stress.  The disposition toward gratitude appears to enhance pleasant feeling states more than it diminishes unpleasant emotions.  Grateful people do not deny or ignore the negative aspects of life.

7. Prosociality: People with a strong disposition toward gratitude have the capacity to be empathic and to take the perspective of others.  They are rated as more generous and more helpful by people in their social networks (McCullough, Emmons, & Tsang, 2002).

Robert A. Emmons, University of California, Davis - This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it , 530.752.8844

Michael E. McCullough, University of Miami - This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it , 305.284.8057