III. How well does gratitude and savouring relieve anxiety? What do studies show?

Being thankful and showing gratitude can give you the following positive qualities which can help you cope better during hard times, and make you feel less stressed and anxious. The positive qualities help:

• maintain different levels of happiness；
• change how you view negative events；
• help you to achieve your goals； and
• keep you healthy and fit.

Research on happiness have shown that there are a number of ways which a dose of regular gratitude can benefit our minds and bodies. In gratitude comparison studies by researchers at the University of California, Davis, results show that people who:

• people who wrote about events they were grateful for each week were more optimistic；
• people who exercised more, saw a doctor less than those who wrote about negative or neutral events [3, 9]；
• people who kept a gratitude journal made more progress towards personal goals than those who wrote about negative or neutral events [11]；
• people who have experienced trauma or great stress, and who have focused on the positive elements of a stressful event, have less unpleasant or negative reactions associated with the event [13]；
• people who have listed three things they are thankful for every day, can show a small but a longer-term increase in happiness [14, 11, 17]. This exercise is called the ‘Three Blessings’；
• people who had greater gratitude and forgiveness increased their ability to plan, organise [8], and think on a higher level.

Showing gratitude can be done face to face, writing a letter and by forgiving and forgetting the hurt someone has caused you. A sense of gratitude can also come from doing something good for someone else, even after difficult experiences that can lead to fear, isolation or “blanking out” the pain of others. In the aftermath of a traumatic event, people who were heroic were shown to have greater resilience and lower stress than those who were not. In the University of California, Irvine researchers found those who gave blood, volunteered, or donated money showed lower levels of everyday stress [15].

Research also suggests that to truly experience the full ‘happiness –inducing effect’ of being grateful for things, people and deeds in our lives, we need to savour those moments with all our senses. Studies have shown that:

• In groups suffering from depression, remembering and focusing on pleasurable events have shown to lead to a more positive outlook on themselves, their relationships, and their future [13].
• People suffering from anxiety with negative interpretations of events have shown to cope better with the stress and panic associated with the events when they began savouring pleasure instead.
• People taking pleasure to savour leisure and recreational activities like watching movies or television, playing video games or playing sports, for no material benefit, have shown an improvement in social skills, problem solving, and cognitive abilities, which can lessen anxiety and tension [6].

Materialism and an abundance of choice have been shown to negatively affect not only happiness but also:

• the social and thinking factors induced by anxiety；
• the reduction of wellbeing and positive social bonds； and
• the lessening of compassion for others [12]. 

People who focus solely on their desires lose out on happiness and the stress-protecting effects of gratitude and the savouring of simple things. University of Minnesota researchers have found that:

• maximisers, or people who make the best choices, often get the best and make more money, but experience more negative emotions and tend to be less satisfied when they get what they want [2,10]；
• maximisers may also “dumb down” when too many choices are offered；
• the more choices there are, the lesser the attention and the ability to solve simple problems in a shopping mall simulation [2]； but
• people with grateful dispositions on the other hand, are more empathetic, less materialistic, less jealous, and are more able to cope with stress and negative events [11].

Overall, current research on gratitude and savouring suggests that we should take time and enjoy life for the sake of enjoyment, be thankful for who we are, what we have, and what we do for others in our day-to-day lives. The stress and anxiety that comes from desire can disrupt our feelings, relationships and health.