Barre with Justine

I can remember the very first time I heard of a gratitude journal. It was 1996 (I had to look it up!) and the author Sarah Ban Breathnach was a guest on the Oprah Winfrey show to discuss her books including the Simple Abundance Journal of Gratitude; I can recall Oprah being nearly moved to tears as she described the book as “life-changing”. It was enough to plant the seed of the importance of gratitude and the impact it can have on our perspective of our life.

I don’t keep a gratitude journal but there are times when I remember to note down things that made me happy that day – a sweet thing that one of my children have done or said, a lovely comment from a fitness participant, or a more abstract feeling that my life is pretty charmed, even if I don’t always believe it. When I am grateful, life feels peaceful and happy.

The Science behind Gratitude

Research on the emotional and physical benefits of gratitude has been growing over the past few decades. This article from Harvard Health News is a nice summary of some of the main researchers in the area of ‘gratitude’ and the main benefits.

When you dive into the research, the evidence can be a bit tricky to navigate. Typically, a research study will involve a gratitude-based intervention (e.g. keeping a gratitude journal) into a population to observe the results. Many studies have examined the emotional and social benefits of gratitude and a smaller amount have looked into the physical benefits on populations such as cardiovascular patients.

In a recent review article (Jans-Beken et al. 2020), the authors examined the literature and identified some clearly established benefits for gratitude interventions including:

• increased self-esteem
• enhanced resilience
• healthier relationships
• better life satisfaction

Some studies have suggested that gratitude can also have a positive effect on the physical body such as improved sleep, lower stress and a reduced perception of pain. Jans-Beken’s review of the literature notes that the PHYSICAL connections to gratitude are inconclusive so it’s difficult to make any statements about how a grateful heart might impact our physical wellness.

Research on Higher Education and Gratitude

There are a handful of studies exploring gratitude-based interventions on college and university students, two of which I have cited below. The 2017 study by Işık and Ergüner-Tekinalp examined the effect of 3-weeks of gratitude journaling on first-year Turkish students who showed signs of distress and difficulties adjusting to college life; the study had positive results with the authors noting the students “showed significant gains in gratitude, adjustment to college life, satisfaction with life and positive affect.”

In a 2018 article, authors Renshaw and Rock studied a group of 97 undergraduate students with the intervention group taking 5 minutes each day to think of something they were grateful for. While they found therapeutic benefits in the “gratitude” group, it was a small study and, in their words, the results were more “nuanced” than anticipated.

A very recent article (Biber et al. 2022) examining the transition to online course delivery during COVID found that students who exhibited higher levels of optimism and gratitude (unsurprisingly) suffered less anxiety throughout the transition, reinforcing the connection between gratitude and resilience.

Gratitude Practices

Many of the interventions used in research studies use journaling or gratitude “moments” to encourage the feeling of gratitude. Gratitude practices may also include:

• writing a letter of thanks to an individual (a parent, teacher, or other significant acquaintance)
• loving-kindness meditation
• prayer
• a gratitude jar (noting moments of gratitude and collecting them to read on difficult days)
• doing an activity with a friend where each shares what they are grateful for about the other!

For more ideas, you can look at this website.

Can the Academic Library help students with gratitude?

As I thought about this topic, I wondered if there were ways that we could encourage gratitude so that students might benefit from the many ways that the practice benefits our health. We know how much the pandemic has accelerated the trends of increasing anxiety and depression among university students.

I believe there are some small ways that libraries can introduce students to the practice of gratitude including:

• offering gratitude resources such as a small collection of books or pointing to free apps (like Gratitude or Gratitude Jar)
• inviting students to consider gratitude with a prompt such as a whiteboard question, where they could share what they feel grateful about OR a social media post with the same prompt.
• offer a workshop where students could design a gratitude journal! This would be a great opportunity for anyone on staff with a talent for crafts or a way to include the Library’s Makerspace or an opportunity to collaborate with Student Services.
• offer a meditation workshop with the theme of gratitude.

I would love to hear your ideas! Please share what your library is offering in terms of wellness and/or what gratitude practices mean to you.

References

Biber, Duke D., et al. “The Impact of COVID-19 on College Anxiety, Optimism, Gratitude, and Course Satisfaction.” Journal of American College Health, vol. 70, no. 7, 2022, pp. 1947–52.

*open access* Huang, Naizhu, et al. “How Incivility and Academic Stress Influence Psychological Health Among College Students: The Moderating Role of Gratitude.” International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, vol. 17, no. 9, 2020, p. 3237–

Işık, Şerife, and Bengü Ergüner-Tekinalp. “The Effects of Gratitude Journaling on Turkish First Year College Students’ College Adjustment, Life Satisfaction and Positive Affect.” International Journal for the Advancement of Counselling, vol. 39, no. 2, Apr. 2017, pp. 164–175.

Jans-Beken, Lilian, et al. “Gratitude and Health: An Updated Review.” The Journal of Positive Psychology, vol. 15, no. 6, 2020, pp. 743–82, https://doi.org/10.1080/17439760.2019.1651888.

Renshaw, Tyler L., and Dana K. Rock. “Effects of a Brief Grateful Thinking Intervention on College Students’ Mental Health.” Mental Health & Prevention, vol. 9, no. Complete, Mar. 2018, pp. 19–24.

Winfrey, Oprah. “What I Know for Sure.” O (New York, N.Y.), vol. 13, no. 11, 2012, p. 194–.