8 Ways You Can Celebrate World Gratitude Day
“Gratitude is a quality similar to electricity: It must be produced and discharged and used up in order to exist at all.”
—William Faulkner
World Gratitude Day was proposed in 1965 by spiritual leader and meditation expert Sri Chinmoy on Thanksgiving. While having Thanksgiving dinner in the meditation room at the United Nations building in New York, he suggested that the world share a day of giving thanks. In 1977, to honor the legacy of Sri Chinmoy, the group that ran the meditation room requested a resolution to recognize World Gratitude Day on the 21st of September and it has been observed worldwide every year since.
Benefits of Gratitude. Gratitude has a variety of benefits for those that experience and express it such as increased well-being, lower levels of stress, better physical and mental health, and even improved interpersonal relationships. Recent research shows that there are also benefits for witnesses of gratitude. When we see others express gratitude, it bonds us with the expresser and receiver because we see them as moral, high-quality relationship partners. We also know that gratitude is good for our workplace—it promotes prosocial behaviors at work like helping, reduces antisocial work behaviors like incivility and gossip, and even makes employees more productive, engaged, and creative. Put simply, gratitude makes us happier, healthier, and more social.
How to Celebrate World Gratitude Day. World gratitude day is a great time to slow down and reflect on one’s blessings. It has been said that “Gratitude is Wasted on Thanksgiving” because we might actually benefit from gratitude more in our everyday lives when we are stressed with work and personal demands than on days we have off work and get to spend with family. So, on this normal Thursday, stop and smell the roses. Try and see your world through a more grateful lens. You can incorporate gratitude as an individual practice or in your workplace.
A Personal Gratitude Practice. There are many ways to incorporate gratitude as a practice and to practice gratitude. In fact, gratitude has been likened to a muscle that gets stronger with exercise. As we practice gratitude, we become better able to see our world through a grateful lens—finding more reasons to be grateful, feeling the emotion of gratitude more intensely, and expressing gratitude more frequently. Research supports the effectiveness of personal gratitude practices. Consider trying the following:
List Three Good Things: Make a list of three good things that happened to you today. Focus on the important but also the mundane.
Start a Gratitude Journal: Start a practice of journaling daily about the things you are grateful for, both large and small. Write not only about what you are grateful for, but why you are grateful.
Write a Gratitude Letter: Think of someone who has done something for you for which you are extremely grateful but to whom you never expressed your deep gratitude. Choose someone who is still alive and could talk with you (in person, on the phone, or via text or email) in the next week. Write them a letter describing what they did, why you are grateful to them, and how this person has affected your life. Describe how often you remember their efforts. Although it may seem awkward, read or deliver this letter to this person within the week.
Give a Compliment or Say Thanks: A simple practice of gratitude is to actually express your gratitude. Give a stranger a compliment or express your sincere gratitude to someone you might usually not say thanks to.
Incorporating Gratitude at Work. The workplace is a unique environment for gratitude because it is a domain where transactional exchanges dominate. In contrast to our personal relationships, we help our coworkers or customers because it is our job. Indeed, the work context can influence the way we interpret the kindnesses and help of others—we tend to attribute kindnesses at work to the job itself more than the altruism of others. Because of this, we tend to feel less gratitude at work than we do in other domains of our life. We also hesitate to express our gratitude for fear of it being awkward or uncomfortable. But, employees report wanting more gratitude at work and think of it as an almost universally positive experience. Given that we might feel and express gratitude less at work than in other domains, encouraging feelings and expressions of gratitude at work is especially important and useful. In honor of World Gratitude Day, consider trying these with your work team:
Start a Gratitude Slack Channel: If your work team uses Slack, Teams, Skype, or other instant messaging platforms, consider making a dedicated channel to express gratitude, thanks, kudos, and work well done. Having a dedicated space for gratitude encourages the practice and reinforces this behavior as a norm.
Begin a Meeting with a Gratitude Check-In: A simple way to incorporate gratitude at work is to open a meeting by asking everyone to share something they are grateful for and why. By expressing gratitude publicly, both those that express and witness the expressions will reap the benefits of gratitude—and it might even strengthen team member’s relationships.
Grow a Gratitude Tree: Gratitude trees are physical manifestations of gratitude. The tree is populated with leaves which have notes of gratitude written on them. These can be homemade or purchased at stores like Walmart. This passive and anonymous type of gratitude express can allow even the most hesitant employee to engage in a gratitude practice at work. Virtual work teams can grow virtual gratitude trees, using the new GratitudeTree app.
Write a Hand-Written Note: My recent work shows that out of all of the ways we often express gratitude at work—verbally, via text, via email, through gifts—a hand-written note is the most impactful and makes receivers feel the most appreciated. So, on World Gratitude Day, don’t forget the power of a thank you card.
— LAUREN LOCKLEAR IS AN ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF MANAGEMENT AT TEXAS TECH UNIVERSITY —