Last weekend, I was on the Dr. Marquita Blades' Radio Show. It was a fun learning experience. Check it out when you get a chance at this link:

Owen's Radio Show

5 Steps to Reducing Teacher Burnout

Recently, ASCD published my blog, 5 Steps to Reducing Teacher Burnout. Here is link to the article and below is a copy of that article also.

http://inservice.ascd.org/5-steps-to-reducing-teacher-burnout/

Teaching is a challenging profession. With all the demands on a teacher’s time and energy, it is easy to lose the enthusiasm that brought us into the classroom. The situation does not seem to be getting any easier with new requirements added to our load, including standardized testing, dealing with changing curriculum, and inadequate pay.

“Why did I ever want to be a teacher?” That question can come up whether we are a first year teacher or we have been teaching twenty years. We all face burnout, sometimes on a daily basis. Most of the time, we can pick ourselves up, brush ourselves off, and go back to the drawing board to try another strategy to find success with our students.

But, an accumulation of little and big frustrations may make it more and more difficult to feel like we are willingness to try again. At times, we may ask, “Is there hope? Can we regain our enthusiasm about teaching and feel rejuvenated on a regular basis, not just after summer break?”

Yes, we can become revitalized and help others keep growing through the roller coaster ride of the school year by becoming aware of what leads to burn-out and then becoming more resilient as we add some of the following tools to our teacher’s tool-kit.

What is “Burn-Out?”

According to a top burn-out researcher, Carol Maslach, “Burn-out is more than feeling blue. It is a chronic state of being out of sync at work and can be a significant problem for educators. People feel constantly overwhelmed, stressed, and exhausted. Teachers may try to get away from it for a while, but when they come back, it is as bad as ever…Burn-out is loss of enthusiasm. The original passion to teacher has faded or gone away completely. Teaching feels like a burden and a chore. Instead of doing their best, they do the bare minimum.” Here are my 5 steps to reducing teacher burnout.

Step #1. Reach out for Help

Even though burn-out makes us feel isolated, we are not alone. Reach out to mentors, trusted colleagues, administrators, counselors, and friends to start getting help and support, and don’t be afraid to get professional help. We can help others who are experiencing the same thing and create networks of colleagues and friends. A study by Figley (2012) shows that we can heal from “compassion fatigue” before it becomes full burn-out.

Step #2. Be Grateful-Look for the Positive

Research (Emmons, Froh, Bono) shows that practicing gratitude helps restore our energy. Gratitude is much more than a pleasant emotion; it is a potent action. Start to practice gratitude: write a gratitude letter to a colleague, or make a gratitude list about things in your classroom and life. Do it on a daily basis for two weeks and watch your classroom become brighter. Here’s an article about implementing gratitude in the classroom:
http://www.edutopia.org/blog/gratitude-powerful-tool-for-classroom-owen-griffith

Step #3 Develop a Growth Mindset

Research by Dr. Carol Dweck affirms that applying growth mindset activities helps teachers avoid burnout and also helps students achieve in the classroom. Dweck tells us that praising the process versus praising intelligence “may involve commending effort, strategies, focus, persistence in the face of difficulty, and willingness to take on challenges.” She gives some helpful examples in this article:
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-secret-to-raising-smart-kids1/

Step #4 Help Others

In the classroom and in the world, when we help others in big and small ways, we are helping ourselves stay rejuvenated all year. By partaking in altruistic actions, we open ourselves to the profound joy of giving freely as we focus on others and not on ourselves. Write or call a parent and tell them something about their student that you are proud of. Find a student that is struggling and sincerely complement them for something they are doing well. Altruistic giving has been shown to increase positive neurotransmitters in the giver, receiver, and anyone observing the act of giving. People who volunteer or care for others consistently are happier and less depressed. In her book, Raising Happiness, Dr. Christine Carter writes about the “Helper’s High” we get when we give of ourselves. http://www.christinecarter.com/book/about-the-book/

Step #5 Have Fun in the Classroom

Humor is a powerful way to stay fresh and rejuvenated throughout the long school year. Although life can be serious, we can temper that with a sense of humor about situations in the classrooms. We can learn to laugh at ourselves in stressful situations and keep some balance and positive perspective.

Sometimes when I am in survival mode, I forget that teaching can be fun. So, I start every day off with a riddle. Not only is this fun, but it helps students think outside the box. Sharing jokes, brief stories, brain teasers, etc., only takes a minute and can easily be aligned to the day’s topic. Make time to connect with students, like standing at the door at the beginning and ending of class and simply shaking their hand and telling them something you appreciate about them.

Get Through the School Year with a Smile

These suggestions may seem daunting, but we don’t have to try everything at once. Take some time to reflect this summer and make a plan to try the easiest of these tips to get unstuck and feel refreshed. Then, try something else from the list to revitalize and keep out of burn-out mode. If something doesn’t work, remember that one mistake is not a failure but a step in learning. Keep trying and reach out for help. We can do this! We can get through the year with a smile.

Owen will be on a Radio Show

I am excited about a radio show I will be on this Sunday, 12-17-17, at 5 PM. If you have chance, check it out.

Thanksgiving Gratitude Guest Blog by Dr. Stephen L. Sokolow

Gratitude is a way of thinking, feeling, acting, and being. It is a powerful force that affects us both as givers and receivers. We long remember expressions of gratitude. Imagine what it would be like to live in a world without gratitude! Imagine what relationships would be like without feelings and expressions of gratitude. Regardless of our feelings and sensitivities, we can choose to become more grateful. We can choose to express gratitude more often to more people in ways large and small, for in large measure gratitude is a matter of choice. We each decide what we are grateful for. We each decide to whom or to what we are grateful and under what circumstances we will express it.

Are we grateful to parents, children, teachers, friends, colleagues, business associates, and those who enrich our lives and light our way? Are we grateful for obstacles and adversaries? Are we grateful for challenges and opportunities? Are we grateful for second chances? Are we grateful for health, for a job, for the opportunity to earn a living, for humor and laughter, for the opportunity to help others? For air, water, sunlight, and the natural world? Are we grateful for life? And to whom or to what are we grateful?

Each of us decides where we will focus the energy of gratitude. We can focus on others, events, a higher power, or something more amorphous—Lady Luck, for example. We can do so silently in our hearts and minds, or we can express ourselves in a discernible way. I’m grateful that our country has a national holiday devoted to giving thanks. Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays. In our family we have a tradition of going around the table after our Thanksgiving feast and sharing what we are especially thankful for. This year I expressed gratitude for our two grandchildren, Gabrielle and Sebastien, who are a continual source of joy and delight. Next I focused on another source of family joy: our son Brian’s recent marriage to Barbara Grinspan. My devoted wife Laney and I are delighted that Barb has joined our family as a new daughter.

This brings to mind something else for which I’m especially thankful. Brian’s full name is Brian L. Sokolow. Where did the “L.” come from? I was 33 when Brian was born. Laney and I selected Lee as Brian’s middle name to honor my mentor, Professor Lee Olson. Brian is now 33 and during this past Thanksgiving Lee Olson was in hospice care. It was clear that he was in the last stage of his life and had only days or, at most, weeks to live. So around the Thanksgiving table I expressed my gratitude for the blessing that Lee Olson has been and is to me and to our entire family. Lee knew that he was dying. He asked me and my son Brian Lee to speak at the celebration of his life. When he passed on a few weeks later, it was our honor to do so. It was a time for the ultimate expression of gratitude.

Lee had been a guiding light in my life for 42 years. Over the years our relationship had evolved from the formal ones of master’s advisor, intern advisor, and doctoral advisor, to a dear friend who was like a second father to me. Lee Olson was a blessing in my life and I told him so. He was an uncommonly good and wise man. His influence on my professional, personal, and spiritual growth was profound and enduring. In many ways, by example, he taught me how to live and, ultimately, how to die. Despite his failing health and imminent death, he maintained his good sense of humor, focus on others, and gratitude toward life. In fact, before his health began to deteriorate he was planning a seminar on the power of gratitude for the members of his retirement community. Lee Olson had an Attitude of Gratitude.

Some people have the vision and ability to light the way for others. What made Lee Olson so special is that he could do it for so many people in countless ways. I once told him that I was deeply indebted to him for all the things he did to enhance my life but that I felt frustrated because I couldn’t think of a way to adequately repay him. To which he responded, “Repay me by passing it along to as many people in as many ways as you can.” In the spirit of all great teachers, he challenged me to follow his example and share the principles he lived and taught.

Forty-two years ago this remarkable man entered my life. Call it good fortune, karma, synchronicity, grace, or a blessing. The entire trajectory of my life was positively affected by this extraordinary man.

Dr. Stephen L. Sokolow, a former superintendent of schools, is currently co-authoring a series of books on the spiritual principles of leadership. He is also a founding partner and executive director of the Center for Empowered Leadership.

Oprah and Brother David Steindl-Rast on GRATITUDE

Oprah recently posted a powerful video about Gratitude where she is talking to author David Steindl-Rast. Check here to view it: video.

Gratitude – A Double Gift

Debbie Silver, Ed.D.

          Recently a superintendent confided in me that as a principal he inherited a school with a negative school culture. Desperate to shift the climate, he purchased wrist counters for every adult on campus. He instructed them to click their counters each time they made a positive comment to a student.  At the end of each week teachers and staff met together to share results. Within a few months, the number of positive affirmations were noticeably increased, and the attitudes of both teachers and faculty remarkably improved.  

          I shared with him that every year I taught, I wrote at least one letter to each of my students describing my favorite things about them and listing the qualities I would most likely remember about them. Writing those letters proved to be a gift not only for their recipients but for me as well.  

          Many students later told me the letter they got was the first time an adult had taken the time to write positive things about them. I had phone calls from parents telling me they framed their child’s letter. (One dad even tried to use his son’s letter in a custody hearing as evidence that he was a good parent).

          Though I taught as many as 200 students in a year, I made the time to continue my practice. For me writing was a natural way to express my appreciation for the time we spent together. Three decades later I still occasionally hear from former students who tell me they still have their letters and how much it meant to them then and now.  

          When I began writing letters I did it as a means for me to convey the gratitude I felt for the people who were such a big part of my life. I knew they enjoyed reading them, and I was glad to commit the time and effort to give them that small gift.

          Often, I noticed improved behavior from kids shortly after they read their letters. I considered that bonus serendipitous, but I came to understand the letter writing enterprise was not only impacting students in positive ways, it was having an advantageous effect on me.

         

          Composing a thank-you note to a student often compelled me to shift my focus from being piqued at their current misbehavior to considering the unique qualities of that child. Reflecting on the kid’s positive attributes never failed to lift my spirits and help me “reframe” my appreciation for them. My gift to them turned out to be an even greater gift to me.

          I’ve always enjoyed writing, so this activity had great appeal for me.  It’s certainly not the only way to express their gratitude to students.  Each teacher must figure out their preferred way to connect with their charges. There are many ways to do it, and my style is just one of many.  However, I am frequently asked for an example of what one of my letters might say, so here is one:

SAMPLE STUDENT LETTER

May 20, 1991

Dear Yolanda,

    It has been a delight to have you in my class this year.  You literally brighten the room when you walk in with your twinkling eyes and your infectious smile. I admire how you use your sense of humor and your excellent observational skills to help keep things calm for all those around you. You have developed the ability to sense what needs to be said and when to say it.  Because of your skills, I have a feeling you are going to end up in a profession that deals with helping people (teaching, maybe?).

    When I look back on this year I will remember you standing up for Kathy when no one else would.  I will think about how courageous you were when you came to me and confessed about the “you-know-what.”   I’ll smile every time I recall you bounding excitedly in the door calling, “I’m here, did I miss anything?” And I will never forget your many acts of kindness to me and to those around you.

Thanks for being such a shining star!

Sincerely,

Mrs. Silver

          I often wonder how much we could improve school cultures by engaging the adults in the act of communicating our gratitude to each other as well as to our students.  I realize that not everyone feels comfortable writing to each other, but a simple grateful statement expressed on a regular basis can uplift both the giver and the recipient.  Even an unsigned note in a teacher’s box can uplift their spirits for an entire day. Perhaps it’s time to shift our attention from all that is wrong with our schools and start giving thanks for what’s right. Expressing gratitude has rewards for both the giver and the receiver.

Dr. Debbie Silver is a humorist and learning consultant with over 30 years experience as a teacher, staff development facilitator, and university professor. As a classroom teacher, Debbie won numerous awards, including the 1990 Louisiana Teacher of the Year award. She speaks worldwide on issues involving education and is a passionate advocate for students and teachers.  She is the author of four bestselling books including, DeliberateOptimism: Reclaiming the Joy in Teaching and Teaching Kids to Thrive: Essential Skills for Success.

Guest Blog: Compassionate Critical Thinking

Compassionate Critical Thinking:

How Mindfulness, Creativity, Empathy and Socratic Questioning Can Transform Teaching

by Ira Rabois

When I first discussed my book with friends, many said that compassion and critical thinking seemed contradictory to them. They thought compassion necessitated taking in or opening to people, and critical meant being judgmental, questioning or pushing them away.  I then asked What happens inside a person when they’re compassionate? And then, after listening to their responses, What does critical thinking mean to you? If compassion leads to openness, taking in information, improved perception and understanding; and if critical thinking requires understanding a person or situation better, then wouldn’t compassion aid such thinking?

My book takes readers inside a classroom to witness an engaging way of teaching in tune with current neuroscience. In a time when education is under attack and both teachers and students report high levels of stress and anxiety, the book offers a method to improve instructional effectiveness with increased student participation and decreased classroom stress.

Using mindfulness and a Socratic style of questioning, the book guides teachers  in methods to help themselves and their students learn about their own emotions and develop critical thinking skills. Classroom vignettes capture dialogue between teacher and students illustrating how challenging questions stimulate and direct inquiry and discovery. Not only teachers, but administrators wanting to improve the relationship between teachers and students, students who want to develop their thinking skills on their own, parents, any reader interested in reducing stress and increasing clarity might be interested in the book. Many books teach mindfulness, but few provide a model for teaching critical thinking and integrating it across the curriculum.

My intention is to demonstrate just how insightful, open, and willing to learn students can be when presented with material they consider challenging and real, and classes are structured to relate to their inner lives. One year in a Psychological Literature class, we read an anecdote about a person putting his own life at risk to save someone drowning in an icy river. I asked, “How can a person do that? Does it show that humans are compassionate or altruistic by nature?” I was surprised by the response by many students. They said that the situation was unreal. Maybe a rare person would put their life at risk to help someone else, but most people—never. Altruism was a rarity. There was too much cruelty in the world for altruism or compassion to be natural. So I asked, “Imagine you were standing by that river. What would you feel seeing the person drowning?” At first, there were some uncomfortable jokes. But then students said, “I’d feel awful.” Another said that he’d be haunted by the situation for the rest of his life. Another said she would have jumped in. “If the situation would haunt you, then were you feeling empathy? If you would have jumped in, then were you feeling compassion? Altruism?”

In the abstract, compassion might seem unreal, especially since many students grow up in a competitive environment and read about and feel so much violence in the world. But when questioned mindfully, their inner reality is uncovered. This is the nature of compassionate critical thinking. It incorporates the big questions into the curriculum. As assumptions are challenged, discussions become mindfulness and compassion practices. Compassionate critical thinking is reason deepened by empathy and by valuing the welfare of the countless others who inhabit the world with us. This is the core of my book.

Ira Rabois taught English, philosophy, drama, karate, history and psychology for 27 years at the Lehman Alternative Community School in Ithaca, NY. His book, Compassionate Critical Thinking: How Mindfulness, Creativity, Empathy, and Socratic Questioning Can Transform Teaching, was published in October 2016, by Rowman & Littlefield. He is now semi-retired, and blogs on education and mindfulness. Here is a link to this book on Amazon. 

Owen's New Podcast

Recently, a best-selling author and fitness expert, Ben Greenfield, asked me to be on his Podcast. He introduces some cutting-edge research and ideas about Gratitude. Check it out and feel free to share it on Social Media. 

Owen's Podcast

Guest Blog and Video by Whitney Cole

Whitney Cole is a teacher who is utilizing gratitude in a powerful way in her classroom. For years, I have been using the video of her on You Tube to show everyone how gratitude can spread from the classroom out into the community. Please watch her video and then read her Guest Blog.

Whitney's Video 

Five years ago, the bell would ring and the students left discouraged and exhausted from a long day of struggle. In a neighborhood where daily life was full of uncertainty for most families, the anxiety only continued in school with rigorous academics, navigating social complexities, and worrying about family hardships. As a teacher, it was heartbreaking to see them leave so defeated from the day. It was then that my grade level decided to explicitly teach gratitude and begin a gratitude journal, a way to end the day on a softer, happier note.

In a community that didn’t have a lot of material blessings, we wanted to focus on the world, opportunities, people, and simple acts of kindness. We wanted gratitude to go beyond robotically saying thank you and appreciating the “things” of life. The journals had three segments and were completed in the last 15 minutes of every day. Students were expected to write a detailed reflection, three things that they appreciated from the day, and an act of kindness that they either participated in or planned to do later. Afterward, every child shared at least one gratitude while the rest of the class listened. It was a sweet and hopeful way to end the day, and the benefits were astounding.

Academically, gratitude fostered a stronger relationship with school. It allowed me as their teacher to hear what works and what doesn’t in our lessons. Since students were leaving school feeling better and more connected to what they were learning, parents were more willing to support staff and see us as part of their team. By widening the students’ support network, children were naturally more successful and engaged. Plus, even if students struggled academically during the day, that didn’t negate success in the gratitude journal. Having a spot in the day to feel valued and heard imprinted on a child’s willingness to put forth effort throughout the day.

Socially, the journals connected students to each other without them even realizing it. Despite different social cliques or interests on the playground, students were connecting to each other across peer groups. They began inquiring about each others’ lives and asking follow up questions to what they shared during gratitudes. In turn, this decreased the amount of in-class behaviors and instead, kids were being more supportive and softer with each other. Knowing that their fellow students had their backs allowed for a family feel and a safe place for learning. Students were more willing to be risk takers academically and more eager to collaborate in group work.

Emotionally, the gratitudes started at the surface level. It took weeks, even months, for the students to show vulnerability. Over time, students became more secure in their place in the classroom community, and trust was built, allowing them to be unharnessed. With patience, their gratitudes became less commerce-centered, and more value-centered, exposing who they truly were as people. Sometimes in darkness it is easier to see the light, and they began to reveal family struggles, personal hardships, or social speed bumps. If a parent was struggling with illness, a child’s gratitude might reflect their happiness for them feeling better. As a teacher, it gave me an avenue to hear about their lives both in and out of the classroom. Relationships were strengthened, and students understood that they were not seen as one-dimensional, but as multifaceted people with a myriad of strengths and weaknesses.

I now teach at a more affluent school, and the hierarchy of needs is much different. I doubted the effectiveness of the gratitude journal with a population that doesn’t have to look so hard to find the wonder of the world. But I was wrong. Gratitude brings perspective, drives empathy, and all demographics benefit from that. Just as it was important to soften the edges of those from rougher backgrounds, it is equally important to instill a well-rounded, global context for those with fewer worries in life. The gratitude journals provide a chance to discuss all aspects of life and that their blessings and opportunities should not be taken for granted. After all, we are all interdependent, and by understanding society’s greater landscape, students are more inclined to show appreciation and treat others with dignity.

At its core, gratitude is about being aware of who or what makes the good parts of life possible and acknowledging that contribution. By practicing this daily, students will become more balanced and less self-centered. They can instead focus on the juicy bits of life, and learn to recognize and empathize the needs of others, resulting in a happier, more caring world.

Guest Blog - What You Didn’t Realize About Gratitude

What You Didn’t Realize About Gratitude

By: Ari Banayan

“Do not spoil what you have by desiring what you have not; remember that what you now have was once among the things you only hoped for.” 
― Epicurus

The very simple truth is that it feels much better to feel grateful and happy for what we have than it does to long and desire for what we don’t.

It’s remarkable how much time we spend in negativity- suspicion, anxiety, longing, loneliness, anger, frustration, etc. If anybody was asked whether they enjoy their own negative thoughts or corresponding feelings, the obvious answer is of course not.

The question then is, why are our psyches constantly bathing in what doesn’t feel good?

One of the ways in which we can grow out of our usual negative associative thinking is through replacing it with gratitude.

If we take a look at the way we live, we can clearly see that we generally only feel grateful when good things happen to us (and limited situations like Holidays or hearing about other people’s difficulties). We take everything we currently have for granted because we’ve grown accustomed to having it.

I have a very simple exercise for you:

Take a moment to connect with your arms and think about how much work they do throughout the course of a day. Have you ever thought about how much more difficult it would be to turn off your alarm, open a door, brush your teeth, put on your shoes, drink water, or change your child’s diaper would be without arms?

What you’re hopefully feeling now by just connecting with how valuable your arms and hands are is gratitude.

When we take steps to begin replacing our usual associative thinking with thoughts about all that we have to be grateful for, the quality of our lives begins to change. The positivity that results can quite literally penetrate our entire psyche and outlook on the world.

When we look at any given situation and see either an ‘opportunity’ or an ‘obstacle,’ a ‘problem’ or merely something that has to be dealt with, something to be grateful for or negative about, we’re making a decision at that moment about what our reality will consist of. As we continue to see the situations we’re presented with in the same manner over and over, we start to believe that what we think is the absolute truth.

If we can begin to stop listening to our initial automatic response to what life presents us with, we can learn to choose how to view and feel about the circumstances of our lives.

We all know that gratitude ‘feels good.’ We all long to have a life that we can be grateful for, but the truth is that the circumstances of our lives will never make us grateful. No matter what amazing things happen in our lives, we will eventually take for granted everything that this beautiful world gives us the same way we take for granted all that we currently have.

Unless we start realizing what we have to be grateful for, right now, in this moment, we will never enjoy gratitude on a consistent basis. This requires effort – making a practice of thinking differently every single day.

But the reward is beyond measure.

Ari Banayan is an attorney and healthy lifestyle entrepreneur focused on fundamentally changing the way we approach personal development. He's a co-founder of Habit Nest, a company that creates products and content intended to help anyone take action to create positive change. He also co-founded the Morning Sidekick Journal - a journal that can help anyone become a morning person and create the perfect morning routine to start the day.

How Gratitude Changes You and Your Brain 

(from Greater Good Science Center's Website: http://greatergood.berkeley.edu/)

By: Joel Wong and Joshua Brown 

 

With the rise of managed health care, which emphasizes cost-efficiency and brevity, mental health professionals have had to confront this burning question: How can they help clients derive the greatest possible benefit from treatment in the shortest amount of time?

Recent evidence suggests that a promising approach is to complement psychological counseling with additional activities that are not too taxing for clients but yield high results. In our own research, we have zeroed in on one such activity: the practice of gratitude. Indeed, many studies over the past decade have found that people who consciously count their blessings tend to be happier and less depressed.  

The problem is that most research studies on gratitude have been conducted with college students or other well-functioning people. Is gratitude beneficial for people who struggle with mental health concerns? And, if so, how?

We set out to address these questions in a recent research study involving nearly 300 adults, mostly college students, who were seeking mental health counseling at a university. We recruited these participants just before they began their first session of counseling, and, on average, they reported clinically low levels of mental health at the time. The majority of people seeking counseling services at this university in general struggled with issues related to depression and anxiety.

We randomly assigned our study participants into three groups. Although all three groups received counseling services, the first group was also instructed to write one letter of gratitude to another person each week for three weeks, whereas the second group was asked to write about their deepest thoughts and feelings about negative experiences. The third group did not do any writing activity.

What did we find? Compared with the participants who wrote about negative experiences or only received counseling, those who wrote gratitude letters reported significantly better mental health four weeks and 12 weeks after their writing exercise ended. This suggests that gratitude writing can be beneficial not just for healthy, well-adjusted individuals, but also for those who struggle with mental health concerns. In fact, it seems, practicing gratitude on top of receiving psychological counseling carries greater benefits than counseling alone, even when that gratitude practice is brief. 

And that’s not all. When we dug deeper into our results, we found indications of how gratitude might actually work on our minds and bodies. While not definitive, here are four insights from our research suggesting what might be behind gratitude’s psychological benefits.

1. Gratitude unshackles us from toxic emotions

First, by analyzing the words used by participants in each of the two writing groups, we were able to understand the mechanisms behind the mental health benefits of gratitude letter writing. We compared the percentage of positive emotion words, negative emotion words, and “we” words (first-person plural words) that participants used in their writing. Not surprisingly, those in the gratitude writing group used a higher percentage of positive emotion words and “we” words, and a lower proportion of negative emotion words, than those in the other writing group.

However, people who used more positive emotion words and more “we” words in their gratitude letters didn’t necessarily have better mental health later. It was only when people used fewer negative emotion words in their letters that they were significantly more likely to report better mental health. In fact, it was the lack of negative emotion words—not the abundance of positive words—that explained the mental health gap between the gratitude writing group and the other writing group.

Perhaps this suggests that gratitude letter writing produces better mental health by shifting one’s attention away from toxic emotions, such as resentment and envy. When you write about how grateful you are to others and how much other people have blessed your life, it might become considerably harder for you to ruminate on your negative experiences.

2. Gratitude helps even if you don’t share it

We told participants who were assigned to write gratitude letters that they weren’t required to send their letters to their intended recipient. In fact, only 23 percent of participants who wrote gratitude letters sent them. But those who didn’t send their letters enjoyed the benefits of experiencing gratitude nonetheless. (Because the number of people who sent their letters was so small, it was hard for us to determine whether this group’s mental health was better than those who didn’t send their letter.)

This suggests that the mental health benefits of writing gratitude letters are not entirely dependent on actually communicating that gratitude to another person.

So if you’re thinking of writing a letter of gratitude to someone, but you’re unsure whether you want that person to read the letter, we encourage you to write it anyway. You can decide later whether to send it (and we think it’s often a good idea to do so). But the mere act of writing the letter can help you appreciate the people in your life and shift your focus away from negative feelings and thoughts.

3. Gratitude’s benefits take time

It’s important to note that the mental health benefits of gratitude writing in our study did not emerge immediately, but gradually accrued over time. Although the different groups in our study did not differ in mental health levels one week after the end of the writing activities, individuals in the gratitude group reported better mental health than the others four weeks after the writing activities, and this difference in mental health became even larger 12 weeks after the writing activities.

These results are encouraging because many other studies suggest that the mental health benefits of positive activities often decrease rather than increase over time afterward. We don’t really know why this positive snowball effect occurred in our study. Perhaps the gratitude letter writers discussed what they wrote in their letters with their counselors or with others. These conversations may have reinforced the psychological benefits derived from the gratitude writing itself.

For now, the bottom line is this: If you participate in a gratitude writing activity, don’t be too surprised if you don’t feel dramatically better immediately after the writing. Be patient and remember that the benefits of gratitude might take time to kick in.

4. Gratitude has lasting effects on the brain

About three months after the psychotherapy sessions began, we took some of the people who wrote gratitude letters and compared them with those who didn’t do any writing. We wanted to know if their brains were processing information differently.

We used an fMRI scanner to measure brain activity while people from each group did a “pay it forward” task. In that task, the individuals were regularly given a small amount of money by a nice person, called the “benefactor.” This benefactor only asked that they pass the money on to someone if they felt grateful. Our participants then decided how much of the money, if any, to pass on to a worthy cause (and we did in fact donate that money to a local charity).

We wanted to distinguish donations motivated by gratitude from donations driven by other motivations, like feelings of guilt or obligation. So we asked the participants to rate how grateful they felt toward the benefactor, and how much they wanted to help each charitable cause, as well as how guilty they would feel if they didn’t help. We also gave them questionnaires to measure how grateful they are in their lives in general.

We found that across the participants, when people felt more grateful, their brain activity was distinct from brain activity related to guilt and the desire to help a cause. More specifically, we found that when people who are generally more grateful gave more money to a cause, they showed greater neural sensitivity in the medial prefrontal cortex, a brain area associated with learning and decision making. This suggests that people who are more grateful are also more attentive to how they express gratitude.

Most interestingly, when we compared those who wrote the gratitude letters with those who didn’t, the gratitude letter writers showed greater activation in the medial prefrontal cortex when they experienced gratitude in the fMRI scanner. This is striking as this effect was found three months after the letter writing began. This indicates that simply expressing gratitude may have lasting effects on the brain. While not conclusive, this finding suggests that practicing gratitude may help train the brain to be more sensitive to the experience of gratitude down the line, and this could contribute to improved mental health over time. 

Though these are just the first steps in what should be a longer research journey, our research so far not only suggests that writing gratitude letters may be helpful for people seeking counseling services but also explains what’s behind gratitude’s psychological benefits. At a time when many mental health professionals are feeling crunched, we hope that this research can point them—and their clients—toward an effective and beneficial tool.

Regardless of whether you’re facing serious psychological challenges, if you have never written a gratitude letter before, we encourage you to try it. Much of our time and energy is spent pursuing things we currently don’t have. Gratitude reverses our priorities to help us appreciate the people and things we do.