For this week's blog assignments (final two in one week!) I will be posting a sample from my research project, my Introduction that I have thus far and here it is. Go Team EMMA!
Intro to My Take on Gratitude: Terms like "gratitude" and "well-being" each have their own separate ideal definition, there are a class of people who have their own scholarly opinion on what each means. For example, when we think of the word "gratitude" our minds generally think of appreciating something or giving someone a wholehearted "thank you" when she gives you a compliment or gives you her cell phone charger to borrow. However, psychologists would argue that "gratitude" has a far deeper, much more intuitive meaning behind it while agreeing with the overall "thank you" ideology. Having said all this, some may say that the "Three Good Things" gratitude process is ineffective in improving a person's well-being if some unfortunate events happened during someone's week that may cause her mind to focus more on the unfavorable events rather than the favorable ones, in which case the "Three Good Things" gratitude process may become a rote, chore-like routine. As children, when we were growing up, we—more times than not—are instilled with the lesson that we should be “grateful for the things that we already have” whether something isn’t going the way we want it to or if we desire something that is seemingly out of reach. Then there are the self-help gurus who argue that being grateful for what we already have energetically opens us up to receiving more of that which we are grateful for, more of the things we want, or possibly both. But does it really? For some, the answer is yes; but for others such as me the answer is often no. There is an exercise called the “Three Good Things” gratitude process that entails keeping a journal in which you list at least three good things that has happened that day that you are grateful for (i.g. an attractive person sitting next to you on the train ride home, finding a $20 bill in the middle of the sidewalk during the walk home, receiving an unexpected phone call or e-mail from a long-time friend or relative you’ve not seen in a long time, etc.), and repeat this process every day for at least a week, and this supposedly is supposed to improve your wellbeing, which it has failed to do for me personally. For me, personally, the “Three Good Things” gratitude process failed to have a positive impact on my emotional wellbeing because I do not find that my emotional wellbeing is up to par for gratitude to have a good effect on me (what I mean by this is explained below).
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December 2018
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