An Attitude of Gratitude

In the United States, it’s Thanksgiving Week.

Besides getting texts from every nail salon, power bank vendor, and other merchandise we used to trample on people in big box stores to get to, what can students do to improve their well-being, academic performance, and relationships?

Turns out, there’s a lot of scientific backing for consciously cultivating gratitude. Let’s look at some of the studies.

In July, Frontiers published an article about elite college students and the statistical effects on their “perceived,” that is, self-reported, stress levels.

A remarkable 96% were at least moderately physically active, but it turned out that actively expressing gratitude lowered stress even beyond the effect of just working out.

   A significant main effect of gratitude on perceived stress [F (2, 99) = 16.732, p < .001, ω2 = .253] was found with higher perceived stress among    participants with low compared to moderate (p = .001) or high gratitude (p < .001). Gratitude exerted an independent, significant effect on    perceived stress among elite university undergraduates and could be used as an additional healthy coping mechanism along with physical    activity to combat stress.

So, hit the gym to burn off the stuffing calories, and count your blessings on the way.

In June, Applied Psychology: Health and Well-Being published a meta-analysis study robustly showing not just a correlation, but causation, with greater degrees of gratitude predicting lower levels of loneliness.

   They found that if a random individual scores above average in gratitude, there is a 62.4% chance that this person will also score below average    in loneliness.

Many parents worry about their high school and college students’ lack of in-person connections, so the Thanksgiving holiday offers an excellent opportunity to foster sibling, neighborhood friends, and cross-generational friendships to boost both positive emotions.

Berry College, a private college in Georgia, put together a comprehensive list of practices students can incorporate into their daily lives to manage stress better. Gratitude journaling is high on that list.

And here at Mindspire Prep? We’re grateful for the families we serve every day, for a community of tutors and college advisors, and that with another year almost in the books, we continue to grow to meet the needs of even more students as they embark to explore the wider world.

And that we can now order any Black Friday widescreen TVs online.