Thanks!: How Practicing Gratitude Can Make You Happier

Front Cover
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2008 - Fiction - 244 pages
A scientifically groundbreaking, eloquent look at how we benefit -- psychologically, physically, and interpersonally -- when we practice gratitude

Did you know that there is a crucial component of happiness that is often overlooked? In Thanks!, Robert Emmons draws on the first major study of the subject of gratitude, of "wanting what we have," and shows that a systematic cultivation of this underexamined emotion can measurably change people's lives. Readers will discover how

- People who regularly practice grateful thinking can increase their "set-point" for happiness by as much as 25 percent.

- Such increases can be sustained over a period of months, challenging the previously held notion that our "set-point" is frozen at birth.

- Keeping a gratitude journal for as little as three weeks can result in better sleep and more energy.

Emmons also reaches beyond science to bolster the case for gratitude by weaving in the writings of philosophers, novelists, and theologians.
Thanks! inspires readers to embrace gratitude and all the benefits it can bring into their lives.

 

Contents

THE NEW SCIENCE OF GRATITUDE
1
GRATITUDE AND THE PSYCHE
19
HOW GRATITUDE IS EMBODIED
56
GRATITUDE
90
INGRATITUDE
123
GRATITUDE IN TRYING TIMES
156
PRACTICING GRATITUDE
185
Notes
211
Copyright

Other editions - View all

Thanks!: How the New Science of Gratitude Can Make You Happier
Robert A. Emmons
Limited preview - 2007

Common terms and phrases

acknowledge American anger appreciation asked attitude Barbara Fredrickson behavior believe Ben Stein benefactor benefits Bicycle helmet Charles Shelton Chesterton circumstances Corrie ten Boom counting blessings daily depression Dietrich Bonhoeffer disease effect Emmons example experience express gratitude feel grateful feel gratitude friends G. K. Chesterton gift give thanks giver God's grace grati gratitude condition gratitude journals happen happiness hassles human Hurricane Katrina individuals ingratitude Karl Barth less lives look loss McCaugheys mood moral motive Naikan narcissistic negative ness never pain parents participants patients Pentecostal perceived percent person physical physician positive emotions positive psychology practice gratitude prayer received recipient relationship religion religious remember reminded response sense set-point Severus Snape social someone spiritual stress suffering tears telomeres thanksgiving things thought tion tive tude ungrateful University week well-being words write wrote York

About the author (2008)

DR. ROBERT EMMONS is a professor at the University of California, Davis, and one of the leading scholars in the positive psychology movement. He is also editor-in-chief of the Journal of Positive Psychology. His work on gratitude has been featured in the Washington Post, the New Republic, Newsweek, and other mainstream media. Dr. Emmons has received multiple grants from the National Institute of Mental Health and the John Templeton Foundation.

Bibliographic information

TitleThanks!: How Practicing Gratitude Can Make You Happier
G - Reference,Information and Interdisciplinary Subjects Series
AuthorRobert A. Emmons
Editionreprint
PublisherHoughton Mifflin Harcourt, 2008
ISBN0547085737, 9780547085739
Length244 pages
Subjects ›  › 

Fiction / General
Psychology / Emotions
Psychology / Mental Health
Psychology / Reference
Reference / General
Self-Help / Emotions
Self-Help / Motivational & Inspirational
Self-Help / Personal Growth / Happiness
Self-Help / Personal Growth / Memory Improvement
Self-Help / Personal Growth / Self-Esteem
Self-Help / Personal Growth / Success
  
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