Can we be grateful during tough times?

Contrary to what we may think, researchers are finding people who

are grateful in spite of significant problems.  As the saying goes, 

“what the times get tough, the tough get going.”  One study looked 

at grieving spouses who were dealing with the death of their 

spouse.  At one month after the death of their spouse, 73 percent 

reported something positive.  By eighteen months after the death 

of their spouse, 81 percent had found something to be grateful for.  Emmons, Robert A., Thanks!  How Practicing Gratitude Can Make You Happier, (Boston:  Houghton Mifflin Co., 2007), 164

A study done at Baylor University looked at caregivers of Alzheimer’s patients.  Half of the caregivers were asked to write in gratitude journals on a daily basis while the other half listed problems and hardships.  At the end of this study, caregivers “who kept gratitude journals experienced an increase in overall wellbeing and a reduction in stress and depression levels from the beginning to the end of the study.”  Emmons, Robert A., Thanks!  How Practicing Gratitude Can Make You Happier, (Boston:  Houghton Mifflin Co., 2007), 169.

Brother David Steindl-Rast, Benedictine monk and teacher of 

gratitude says this:  “times that challenge us physically, 

emotionally, and spiritually may make it almost impossible for us 

to feel grateful.  Yet we can decide to live gratefully, courageously 

open to life in all its fullness.  By living the gratefulness we don’t 

feel, we begin to feel the gratefulness we life.”  Emmons, Robert A., Thanks!  How Practicing Gratitude C an Make You Happier, (Boston:  Houghton Mifflin Co., 2007), 181.