感恩的五種方式可以改善你的生活

感恩的五種方式可以改善你的生活

Some Thanksgiving traditions are best in small doses, like pie binges, chair naps and televised parade coverage. But thanks to a group of scientists at the University of California-Berkeley, the holiday's namesake spirit of gratitude is quickly outgrowing its November context, fed by research that points to wide-ranging health benefits from a steady diet of thankfulness.

有些感恩節(jié)傳統(tǒng)最好是小劑量的，比如餡餅大餐、在椅子上打盹和電視上報道游行。不過，加州大學(xué)伯克利分校的一群科學(xué)家表示，感恩節(jié)的感恩精神正迅速超越11月的背景，研究顯示，經(jīng)常感恩對健康有廣泛好處。

This vintage Thanksgiving card is circa 1870, long before football games and overindulging marked the holiday celebration. (Photo: cea + [CC BY 2.0]/Flickr)

Here's a closer look at some potential benefits year-round gratitude can bring:

以下是一些全年感恩可能帶來的潛在好處:

1. Less stress, better moods

壓力越小，心情越好

Grateful people tend to be happier, according to research cited by the GGSC. A study published in the journal Social Behavior and Personality used a questionnaire to test "dispositional gratitude," linking it to several measures of subjective well-being and reporting that "grateful thinking improved mood." A study in Clinical Psychology Review tied gratitude to reduced anxiety and depression, stating it's "strongly related to well-being, however defined, and this link may be unique and causal." It also noted the potential for gratitude exercises in clinical psychology.

GGSC引用的研究表明，感恩的人往往更快樂。發(fā)表在《社會行為與人格》雜志上的一項研究使用了一份問卷來測試“性格上的感恩”，將其與幾個主觀幸福感指標(biāo)聯(lián)系起來，并報告稱“感恩思維改善了情緒”?！杜R床心理學(xué)評論》上的一項研究將感恩與減輕焦慮和抑郁聯(lián)系在一起，稱它“無論如何定義，都與幸福感密切相關(guān)，而且這種聯(lián)系可能是獨特的、因果性的。”它還指出了在臨床心理學(xué)中感恩練習(xí)的潛力。

2. Less pain, more gain

少一點痛苦，多一點收獲

Beyond helping us exorcise anxiety, gratitude might also help us exercise. It "encourages us to exercise more and take better care of our health," the GGSC says, and research by Emmons and University of Miami psychologist Michael McCullough suggests it contributes to a wide range of physical health benefits, including a stronger immune system, reduced disease symptoms and lower blood pressure. It can even make people "less bothered by aches and pains," the GGSC adds.

除了幫助我們驅(qū)除焦慮，感恩還可以幫助我們鍛煉身體。它“鼓勵我們多鍛煉，更好地照顧我們的健康，”GGSC說，埃蒙斯和邁阿密大學(xué)的心理學(xué)家邁克爾·麥卡洛的研究表明，它對身體健康有廣泛的好處，包括增強免疫系統(tǒng)，減少疾病癥狀和降低血壓。GGSC補充道，它甚至可以讓人們“少受疼痛的困擾”。

3. Better sleep

更好的睡眠

Grateful people get more sleep each night. (Photo: gpointstudio/Shutterstock)

A good night's sleep can make anyone thankful, but a study published in the Journal of Psychosomatic Research found the reverse is true, too. Grateful people get more hours of sleep per night, fall asleep more quickly and feel more refreshed upon waking. "This is the first study to show that a positive trait is related to good sleep quality above the effect of other personality traits," the study's authors wrote, adding it's "also the first to show ... gratitude is related to sleep and to explain why this occurs, suggesting future directions for research and novel clinical implications." As the GGSC puts it, "to sleep more soundly, count blessings, not sheep."

睡個好覺會讓人心存感激，但《身心研究雜志》上發(fā)表的一項研究發(fā)現(xiàn)，事實正好相反。感恩的人每晚睡眠時間更長，入睡更快，醒來后更有精神。該研究的作者寫道:“這是第一個表明積極的性格特征比其他性格特征更能影響睡眠質(zhì)量的研究。”感恩與睡眠有關(guān)，并解釋為什么會發(fā)生這種情況，為未來的研究方向和新的臨床意義提供建議。”正如GGSC所說，“要想睡得更香，數(shù)一數(shù)祝福，而不是羊。”

4. Stronger relationships

更好的人際關(guān)系

Expressing gratitude to a relationship partner — whether a close friend, colleague or significant other — "enhances one's perception of the relationship's communal strength," according to a study in Psychological Science. Feeling thankful for a friend's generosity or a spouse's patience helps you appreciate the relationship's mutual give-and-take, as long as gratitude doesn't mutate into feelings of indebtedness. "Although indebtedness may maintain external signals of relationship engagement," the authors of another study wrote, "gratitude had uniquely predictive power in relationship promotion, perhaps acting as a booster shot for the relationship."

《心理科學(xué)》雜志的一項研究表明，對伴侶——無論是親密的朋友、同事還是重要的人——表達(dá)感激“能增強一個人對這段關(guān)系的集體力量的感知”。對朋友的慷慨或配偶的耐心心存感激，有助于你欣賞這段關(guān)系中相互的給予和接受，只要感激之情不轉(zhuǎn)變?yōu)樨?fù)債之感。另一項研究的作者寫道:“盡管負(fù)債可能會維持關(guān)系投入的外部信號，但感恩在促進(jìn)關(guān)系方面具有獨特的預(yù)測力，可能會成為關(guān)系的一劑強心針。”

5. Resilience

恢復(fù)力

Misfortune itself is rarely cause for thanks, but Emmons says a broader sense of gratitude — religious or not — comes from learning to take nothing for granted. "Our national holiday of gratitude, Thanksgiving, was born and grew out of hard times," he writes for the GGSC. "The first Thanksgiving took place after nearly half the pilgrims died from a rough winter and year. It became a national holiday in 1863 in the middle of the Civil War and was moved to its current date in the 1930s following the Depression." Even among war veterans with post-traumatic stress syndrome, a study published in Behaviour Research and Therapy found that dispositional gratitude predicted things like daily self-esteem, "daily intrinsically motivating activity" and percentage of pleasant days "over and above" the severity of PTSD.

不幸本身很少成為感恩的理由，但埃蒙斯說，一種更廣泛的感恩之心——無論是否信教——來自于學(xué)會不把任何事視為理所當(dāng)然。他在GGSC網(wǎng)站上寫道:“我們國家感恩的節(jié)日——感恩節(jié)——誕生了，并在艱難時期成長起來。”第一個感恩節(jié)發(fā)生在將近一半的清教徒死于一個艱難的冬天和一年之后。1863年美國內(nèi)戰(zhàn)期間，感恩節(jié)成為美國的國定假日，并在20世紀(jì)30年代的大蕭條后改為現(xiàn)在的節(jié)日。”一項發(fā)表在《行為研究與治療》雜志上的研究發(fā)現(xiàn)，即使是患有創(chuàng)傷后應(yīng)激綜合癥的戰(zhàn)爭老兵，性格上的感激之情也比創(chuàng)傷后應(yīng)激障礙的嚴(yán)重程度更能預(yù)測諸如日常自尊、"日常內(nèi)在激勵活動"和快樂時光的比例等因素。