Gratitude Project

Sujets

• Sociologie, société et politique
• Assertiveness
• Psychology

Informations

• Publié par: New Harbinger Publications
• Date de parution: 01 août 2020
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781684034635
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

“Gratitude arises when we bring an open and full presence to our life, and its sweetness is a feeling of homecoming. The Gratitude Project is an exquisite and wise inquiry into this beautiful expression of the heart!”
—Tara Brach , author of Radical Acceptance and Radical Compassion
“ The Gratitude Project is a practical and thoughtful exploration of how appreciation can help us find hope and strengthen our most important relationships. Gratitude is a mind-set that does far more than make you feel good; it can help you be your best self, connect with others, and see the good in the world.”
—Kelly McGonigal , author of The Joy of Movement and The Upside of Stress
“In these difficult times, The Gratitude Project is timely and beautiful. It offers marvelous, wise, loving, and scientific ways to uplift and nourish the heart.”
—Jack Kornfield, PhD , author of A Path with Heart


Publisher’s Note
This publication is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information in regard to the subject matter covered. It is sold with the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in rendering psychological, financial, legal, or other professional services. If expert assistance or counseling is needed, the services of a competent professional should be sought.
Distributed in Canada by Raincoast Books
Copyright © 2020 by Jeremy Adam Smith, Kira Newman, Jason Marsh, and Dacher Keltner
New Harbinger Publications, Inc.
5674 Shattuck Avenue
Oakland, CA 94609
www.newharbinger.com
Lines from “The Lanyard” from The Trouble with Poetry: And Other Poems by Billy Collins, copyright © 2005 by Billy Collins. Used by permission of Random House, an imprint and division of Penguin Random House LLC. All rights reserved.
Lines from “A Brief for the Defense” from Refusing Heaven by Jack Gilbert, copyright © 2005 by Jack Gilbert. Used by permission of Alfred A. Knopf, an imprint of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House LLC. All rights reserved.
The section “Grief, Grace, and Gratitude” is adapted from “Wisdom” in Thrive: The Third Metric to Redefining Success and Creating a Life of Well-Being, Wisdom, and Wonder by Arianna Huffington, copyright © 2014 by Christabella, LLC. Used by permission of Harmony Books, an imprint of Random House, a division of Penguin Random House LLC. All rights reserved.
Cover design by Sara Christian; Acquired by Ryan Buresh; Edited by Brady Kahn
All Rights Reserved
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Smith, Jeremy Adam, 1970- editor. | Newman, Kira, editor. | Marsh, Jason, editor. | Keltner, Dacher, editor.
Title: The gratitude project : how the science of thankfulness can rewire our brains for resilience, optimism, and the greater good / edited by Jeremy Adam Smith, Kira Newman, Jason Marsh, Dacher Keltner, PhD.
Description: Oakland, CA : New Harbinger Publications, Inc., [2020] | Includes bibliographical references.
Identifiers: LCCN 2020009883 (print) | LCCN 2020009884 (ebook) | ISBN 9781684034611 (trade paperback) | ISBN 9781684034628 (pdf) | ISBN 9781684034635 (epub)
Subjects: LCSH: Gratitude.
Classification: LCC BF575.G68 G735 2020 (print) | LCC BF575.G68 (ebook) | DDC 179/.9--dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020009883
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020009884


Contents
Preface
Part 1: The Roots and Meaning of Gratitude
Chapter 1: What Gratitude Is and Why It Matters
Chapter 2: Looking for Gratitude’s Roots in Primates
Chapter 3: How Gratitude Develops in Us
Chapter 4: What Can the Brain Reveal About Gratitude?
Chapter 5: The Surprising Neural Link Between Giving and Gratitude
Part 2: The Impact of Gratitude
Chapter 6: Why Gratitude Is Good for Us
Chapter 7: How Gender Shapes Gratitude
Chapter 8: How Cultural Differences Shape Gratitude and Its Impact
Chapter 9: How Gratitude Builds Cooperation
Part 3: How to Be Grateful
Chapter 10: How to Cultivate Gratitude in Yourself
Chapter 11: How to Say Thanks Without Feeling Indebted
Chapter 12: Can Loss Make You More Grateful?
Chapter 13: How Gratitude Can Help You Through Hard Times
Part 4: How to Be a Grateful Family
Chapter 14: Why Couples Need to Thank Each Other
Chapter 15: How to Help Gratitude Grow in Your Kids
Chapter 16: Feeling Entitled to a Little Gratitude on Mother’s Day?
Chapter 17: What Being a Stepfather Taught Me About Gratitude
Part 5: How to Foster Gratefulness Around You
Chapter 18: How to Foster Gratitude in Schools
Chapter 19: Gratitude Is a Survival Skill
Chapter 20: Five Ways to Cultivate Gratitude at Work
Chapter 21: Why Health Professionals Should Cultivate Gratitude
Chapter 22: How to Help Other People Become More Grateful
Part 6: Conversations About the Transformative Potential of Gratitude
Chapter 23: Can Gratitude Confront Suffering?
Chapter 24: Can Gratitude Bring Americans Back Together?
Chapter 25: Is Gratitude the Path to a Better World?
Contributors
Bibliography
Preface
The Greater Good Science Center is unique in its commitment to both science and practice. Based at the University of California, Berkeley, one of the world’s leading institutions of research and higher education, we sponsor groundbreaking scientific research into social and emotional well-being. More than that, however, we help people apply this research to their personal and professional lives. Since 2001, we have tried to be at the fore of a new scientific movement to explore the roots of happy and compassionate individuals, strong social bonds, and altruistic behavior—the science of a meaningful life.
In 2014, we launched Expanding the Science and Practice of Gratitude, a multiyear project funded by the John Templeton Foundation. We distributed nearly $4 million in funding to researchers across the country, including university faculty, postdoctoral researchers, and graduate students. Their work broke new ground in the study of gratitude, ranging from how gratitude can benefit our cardiovascular health to the role of gratitude in romantic relationships to the neuroscience of gratitude.
Through this work, we have discovered that gratitude can have a transformative impact on individuals and on our families, neighborhoods, schools, workplaces—and perhaps even nations. Studies have consistently found that people who practice gratitude report fewer symptoms of illness, including depression, and more optimism and happiness. As scientists and journalists describe throughout this book, many of these benefits seem to come to us through the way that gratitude fosters stronger relationships, which are associated with more generous and cooperative behavior.
This book turns that research into tools you can use right now to cultivate gratitude in yourself, the people around you, and the world. In these pages, you’ll find essays about the basic science of gratitude, supplemented by shorter pieces that highlight specific scientific findings or that complicate the story we’re telling about gratefulness. Some of the essays are by the scientists themselves, about their own gratitude journeys. You’ll also encounter some personal essays by ordinary people—and conversations with not-so-ordinary people—who are struggling to be grateful in their own lives.
Not all pieces will be relevant to all readers, but every one of them has something valuable to say about gratitude’s transformative impact. We have aimed to capture how gratitude can be leveraged across a variety of contexts, from our personal lives to the organization of the entire world. Finally, at the website for this book, http://www.newhar binger.com/44611, you’ll find some research-tested exercises to help you see and appreciate the good things in life—and, beyond that, to help the rest of the world see and appreciate them, too. (See the very back of this book for more details.)
Most of these insights and tips come straight from our online magazine, Greater Good (https://greatergood.berkeley.edu) , which covers “the science of a meaningful life,” and Greater Good in Action (http://ggia.berkeley.edu), a free website that collects the best research-based methods for a happier life.
Thanks so much for picking up this book—and we wish you the best.
Part 1: The Roots and Meaning of Gratitude
In this part of this book, scientists define gratitude and draw from their own research to explore its roots in our behavior, biology, and brains. This information will serve as the basis for everything that comes later in this book.
Researchers define appreciation as the act of acknowledging the goodness in life—in other words, seeing the positives in events, experiences, or other people (like our colleagues). That’s important, but gratitude goes a step further: it recognizes how the positive things in our lives—like a success at work—are often due to forces outside of ourselves, particularly the efforts of other people.
Because gratitude encourages us not only to appreciate gifts but also to repay them (or pay them forward), the sociologist Georg Simmel called it “the moral memory of mankind.” As Malini Suchak and other contributors argue in their essays, this is how gratitude may have evolved: by strengthening bonds between members of the same species who mutually helped each other out.
Chapter 1: What Gratitude Is and Why It Matters
By Robert Emmons with Jeremy Adam Smith
“Thank you” should be a simple thing to say, polite and uncontroversial. In fact, for many people, that’s far from the case.
In a 2015 New York Times op-ed, for example, best-selling author Barbara Ehrenreich argued tha