Greater Good Gratitude Quiz Results: Your gratitude score is 72 out of 105.
Your responses suggest you are a grateful person. You sometimes foster gratitude by comparing your situation in life to that of people who have less than you and by remaining mindful of how much harder your life could be. It helps that you also make an effort to focus on what you have rather than what you don’t. Still, it seems that you could benefit from trying to do all of this more often. Studies suggest that nurturing your tendency to practice gratitude could bring you more positive emotions, better health, stronger relationships, and greater life satisfaction.
If you want to develop your gratitude practice, try these exercises:
- Reflect on the positive. Keeping a Gratitude Journal or journaling about Three Good Things that happen every day can highlight the positives in your life and help you stop taking things for granted.
- Write a Gratitude Letter. Writing—and then delivering—a heartfelt letter of gratitude to someone you’ve never properly thanked can not only boost your sense of gratefulness but also strengthen your bond with them.
- Imagine a different life. It’s easy to grow accustomed to the good things in life, but imagining their absence can shake you out of this habit. In Mental Subtraction of Positive Events or Mental Subtraction of Relationships, you call to mind a certain positive experience—the birth of a child, a career achievement, meeting your future spouse—and imagine how things might have turned out differently.
- Deprive yourself. In a similar vein, abstaining from a pleasure for some time can make it all the much sweeter later. To take advantage of this effect, try the Give It Up practice.
- Take a Savoring Walk. On a 20-minute walk, observe the sights, sounds, and smells you encounter—freshly cut grass, an epic skyscraper, a stranger’s smile. Each time you notice something positive, take the time to absorb it and think about why you enjoy it. On your subsequent Savoring Walks, strike out in different directions to seek new things to admire.
You can also read our article analyzing the results from the rest of the Greater Good community. And check out our new book, The Gratitude Project: How the Science of Thankfulness Can Rewire Our Brains for Resilience, Optimism, and the Greater Good, to discover how gratitude can lead to a better life and a better world.
1 comment:
I hadn't heard of a Gratitude Letter, but have one brewing on the back of my mind regardless, to the aunt who took me and my sister in for a year, and the stability she provided when our own mother was being very transitional. I was always fond of her, and our time w/her, but it wasn't until I had children of my own that I came to fully appreciate the complex family dynamics that might have been at play, and how hard it might have been.
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