The Importance Of Gratitude For Well-Being

The Psychology of Well-Being

Discuss about the Effectiveness Of Gratitude Interventions In Increasing Subjective Well-Being.

The well-being of a person involves their physical, economic and financial status of their mind. The psychologists purports that the mind is the central faculty, in which all the functional behaviours and characteristics are processed. When the mind is clear and away from any form of disturbance, it means that everything is moving in the right manner (Sonpar, 2016) Individually, no one can achieve the state of being settled mentally on a personal level but can achieve this by involving other parties and sharing of thoughts amongst different people.

Gratitude is a state of appreciation and recognition of another person work done, it gives a lot of motivation especially to the person acknowledged. Happiness is what follows after the recognition of a good work done, which eventually helps to relief burdens, realizes goals and dreams, get motivated to complete a particular task, change living standards and brings about self-actualization. Gratefulness should be central theme of each and every person and all should try to have this quality in their hearts (Watkins and Colleagues, 2015). The following discussed items are some of the things that are brought by gratefulness.

The difficultness of life majorly depends on the personal line of thought. The perception comes from the minds. Occasionally, many individuals do not share their difficult situations outside but prefer sticking with their own problems.  They end up being stressed and living a life without purpose (Southwick & Charney, 2018).Some people end up committing suicide thinking that they are escaping from the world of sorrow. Assumption is the best home for people like this undergoing a lot of difficulties. In order to grab them out of this field of thought, they must learn how to be appreciative and thankful for whatever the world brings unto them. It is done at all levels of life, whatever life brings unto you, the cure for it is Thanksgiving and situation in hand will never be overwhelming (Emmons and McCullough, 2003). According to Southwick & Charney, mastering life greatest challenges there must be positivity about life, they point out optimism as one of the resilience factors that help to deal with trauma cases and helps victims to reduce of the pain of individuals. Living a positive life helps to discard the negativity within the world, when people concentrate in the negativity about life they end experiencing negative lives all through. On the other hand, thinking positively helps to bring with it good things all through.

Gratitude and its Effects

Motivation and driving force to do a particular task is promoted by acknowledgment. (Botvinick & Braver, 2015) A real example is a research on students’ performance. When there are gifts to be given for good performance, the students will work extra hard so that they can be rewarded for their hard work. On the other hand, students who are not rewarded will have little driving force to work hard. The reason being that they do not see the advantages of working extra hard for it is all but the same as not working. By bringing gratitude, which is to be done through acknowledgment, it sets the driving force within individuals and helps them to work on their abilities at optimal levels. This improves the well-being of people who acquire the skills and knowledge after being motivated to work hard and to practise self-discipline.

Realization of dreams and goals is a cognitive process which can be done through the coaching process. Through training and direction from the instructors in the best way, individuals are able to realize their plans in life. The goals they set up in their lives are realized by hard work and perseverance, individuals stick to their set objectives and through motivation which they get from the people around them, and they are able to achieve them. By instructors learning how to appreciate their students, it enhances more learning without being subjected to a lot of pressure. Motivation is the driving force to all individuals to realize their dreams, the appreciation from people is what gives them the power to move on (Mosteo, Batista, Mckeever &Serlavós, 2016)

When the culture of upholding other people goals and dreams is promoted, it is more likely that people will succeed in their endeavours. The simple words “Good”, “Excellent” when said to individuals it helps to boost their efforts towards achieving their personal goals. Simple things in life mean a lot and should be considered in the same way as big things. Negative words bring demoralization and which plays a big role in the killing of dreams. Fears are aroused and which are active in diminishing positive thoughts about life. (Carnegie, 2016)

Self-actualization is the achievement of personal highest ability and potential. According to Maslow, this level is reached by passing through other levels including being a position to secure basic needs, safety needs, social needs, esteem needs before eventually achieving self-actualization. By appreciating individual effort is what brings to this realization. Procedurally, each level is met by tougher challenges. (Kenrick, 2017)The combined effort of helping one another is what brings this realization. The mastery of all discipline requires good tutors who are supportive and keeps on motivating an individual until all is achieved. Self-actualization individuals have particular characteristics fearless to situations, emotionally intelligent where they cannot utter words to hurt other individuals, they are motivated to continual growth, they appreciate uniqueness and originality, they understand the human nature, they are not stereotypes and they are able to maintain long-lasting relationships with people whom they love, people in this level seem to have reached the level of perfection needed for every human being. (Shea, 2018) All these characteristics are gotten over time by learning and deciding. But most importantly they are gotten through gratitude interventions.

Motivation and Driving Force

Living standards are changed through appreciation. Individuals live at a level of life which they may have acquired themselves or gotten help from other individuals. People living at low standards can have their life changed by having a helping a helping hand (Newman.B

& Newman.P, 2017).They can get this with a help from donations from organizations or individuals to help them come from their suffering. Also through appreciation, they can be offered good and more secure jobs from other individuals which improve eventually their living standards. In individuals have an opportunity to earn amount of capital which they were not earning before. Countries can get help from their counterparts who are more advanced in every form of technology. The leaders of the individual countries must maintain good rapport by constantly appreciating each other. By doing this, it will be followed by better living standards for the countrymen by the things that are brought in. (Tomyn, Weinberg & Cummins, 2015)

These relations are established through good rapport established by a constant appreciation of the other party which leads to a good relationship and the result of this it promotes the good beings of all individuals involved.

Social bonds and friendship are a result of good interaction characterized by soft-spoken words and good deeds shown towards each other. For one to acquire a friend, they are friendly themselves. Friends are meant to be always there for each other especially in times of need. The skill of maintaining this relationship is by constantly appreciating other abilities and constantly showing them that they are the best. Pointing of faults in friends should be spoken out in love which helps them change their behaviour without having to worry that they are being victimized.

Social ties are equally important as friendship is. Good interaction and respect are what forms the good social bonds. A lot of sacrifices accompany relationship, friendship cannot occur or prosper without sacrifices being there. The costs for time, finances, love and all other good things in friendship and social bonds should not just go without being appreciated. Appreciation recognizes the effort done by individuals which give them strength even to do the same thing next time. (Diener, Heintzelman, Kushlev, Wirtz, Lutes & Oishi, 2017)

In summary, the general well-being of an individual is grounded on all-time appreciation given. Nothing good should pass without a thanksgiving in it, all things should be given and done with thanksgiving. The advancement of all sectors of life to reach self-actualization require acknowledgment from all parties involved and gratitude being the central theme. Simple well-spoken words may be seen as simple things but they generally mean a lot in relationships between individuals and parties involved. The state of mind to be in a restful position is due satisfaction brought about by gratitude interventions.

All people should try their best to be experienced in thanksgiving. In the world that we live today most people are not thankful, they tend to be thankful when given cash or financial help. The current state of the world, lack of gratefulness, has turned this world into darkness and lack of control. People should be trained on life skills, how to have a courteous behaviour, speaking soft words which are not judgmental and also having a kind heart. In the schools, units should be introduced that discuss human behaviour, how to have good character which is accommodative to all people who comes around. The mastery of the art of gratefulness is a golden thing.

References

Botvinick & Braver (2015). Motivation and cognitive control: from behaviour to neural mechanism. Annual review of psychology, 66.  

Carnegie, D. (2016). How to Win Friends and Influence People (Self-Improvement Series). e-art now.

Diener, Heintzelman, Kushlev, Tay, Wirtz, Lutes & Oishi (2017). Findings all psychologists should know from the new science on subjective well-being. Canadian Psychology/psychologie canadienne, 58(2), 87.

Emmons, R. A., & McCullough, M. E. (2003). Counting blessings versus burdens: an experimental investigation of gratitude and subjective well-being in daily life. Journal of personality and social psychology, 84(2), 377. doi: 10.1037/0022-3514.84.2.377 

Kenrick, D. T. (2017). Self-Actualization, Human Nature, and Global Social Problems. Society, 54(6), 520-523.             

Mosteo, Batista, Mckeever & Serlavós (2016). Understanding cognitive-emotional processing through a coaching process: The influence of coaching on vision, goal-directed energy, and resilience. The Journal of Applied Behavioural Science, 52(1), 64-96.              

Newman, B. M., & Newman, P. R. (2017). Development through life: A psychosocial approach. Cengage Learning.

Shea, J. J. (2018). Adulthood, Morality, and the Fully Human: A Mosaic of Peace. Lexington Books.

Sonpar, S. (2016). Identity, activism, and political violence: A psychosocial perspective on Kashmiri militants. In Perspectives on violence and othering in India (pp. 147-173). Springer, New Delhi.

Southwick & Charney, D. (2018). Resilience: The science of mastering life's greatest challenges. Cambridge University Press.  

Tomyn, Weinberg & Cummins, R. A. (2015). Intervention efficacy among ‘at risk’adolescents: a test of subjective wellbeing homeostasis theory. Social Indicators Research, 120(3), 883-895.  

Watkins, P. C., Uhder, J., & Pichinevskiy, S. (2015). Grateful recounting enhances subjective well-being: The importance of grateful processing. The Journal of Positive Psychology, 10(2), 91-98. doi: 10.1080/*******0.2014.927909