Thankfulness: Meaning, Quotes, and Messages

What is the meaning of thankfulness and how can you express it in your daily life? Here, we'll explore thankfulness more deeply.

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Are you wondering what it means to be thankful? Or, perhaps you're wondering how to express more thankfulness with quotes or other messages. Well, then this article can help you. We'll help you better understand what thankfulness is so you can use it in your daily life. As a result, you'll be able to reap the benefits of this prosocial and happiness-boosting practice.

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What Is the Meaning of Thankfulness? ( A Definition)

Thankfulness—which can also be called gratitude or appreciation—is a positive, other-focused emotion (Emmons & McCullough, 2004). It generally involves positive feelings about another person's actions, but it might just be for the other person's existence--I'm just thankful to have you!

Thankfulness may just be one of the best things we can do to improve our well-being. Both expressing and experiencing thankfulness are linked with happiness and other positive outcomes (Bono, Emmons, & McCullough, 2004). All this is to say that thankfulness is a great thing to cultivate. And, the more often and intensely we feel thankfulness, the better.

Thankfulness and Gratefulness

In recent years, psychology research has taken an interest in studying gratitude and thankfulness. One of the most rigorous ways to do this is by creating gratitude interventions—interventions designed to teach people how to practice gratitude in their real lives. By now, numerous gratitude intervention studies have shown the benefits of gratitude. In particular, cultivating gratitude appears to be good for increasing well-being (Davis et al., 2016).

The most common strategies used in these studies that aim to promote gratitude and thankfulness involve short activities—the gratitude list, gratitude letters, gratitude journals, etc... These are short and therefore easy ways to boost well-being.

Even though some people speculate that gratitude/thankfulness interventions may not be as efficacious as other more involved psychotherapeutic interventions, they may actually be more effective (Davis et al., 2016). That is, we're more likely to actually do them so they work better in the long run and in real life. They're easy, they're fun, and they're doable—that's what really matters to us well-being seekers.

What it's like to practice thankfulness
According to the research, people really enjoy cultivating their thankfulness skills because it involves:

Having positive social interactions
Recalling deeply meaningful memories
Easy activities that can be done almost anytime, anywhere.

Overall, cultivating gratitude and thankfulness appears to result not only in short-term benefits but in some sustained improvements in well-being over time (Davis et al., 2016).

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Thankfulness Messages

Hopefully, you're feeling like thankfulness is a good thing—a thing you want to express more often and to more people. So how might you express your thankfulness? Here are some messages you might share to show how thankful you are. You can express these verbally or in text, like in an email, text message, or social media message.

"I appreciate you."
"I am grateful for this opportunity"
"I just wanted to say thanks for ________"
"You rock!"
"I'm so lucky to have you."
"You make my life better."
"I appreciate you doing _______."
"I appreciate you being _______."

Whenever possible, try to focus more on appreciating who people are rather than what they do for you. These expressions of gratitude are often more beneficial for the person you are sharing them with.

Video: Morning Gratitude Affirmations

Thankfulness Quotes

Do you want some quotes to help inspire thankfulness? Here are some great examples:

“Appreciation is a wonderful thing. It makes what is excellent in others belong to us as well.” - Voltaire
“When eating fruit, remember the one who planted the tree.” - Vietnamese Proverb
“Enjoy the little things, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things.” - Robert Brault
“What separates privilege from entitlement is gratitude.” - Brené Brown
“Gratitude turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos into order, confusion into clarity...it makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow.” - Melody Beattie
“He is a wise man who does not grieve for the things which he has not, but rejoices for those which he has.” - Epictetus
“It’s a funny thing about life, once you begin to take note of the things you are grateful for, you begin to lose sight of the things that you lack.” - Germany Kent
“In ordinary life, we hardly realize that we receive a great deal more than we give, and that it is only with gratitude that life becomes rich.” - Dietrich Bonhoeffer
“Do not spoil what you have by desiring what you have not; remember that what you now have was once among the things you only hoped for.” - Epicurus
“Gratitude looks to the Past and love to the Present; fear, avarice, lust, and ambition look ahead.” - C.S. Lewis
“When it comes to life the critical thing is whether you take things for granted or take them with gratitude.” - G.K. Chesterton
“When I started counting my blessings, my whole life turned around." - Willie Nelson
“Thankfulness is the quickest path to joy.” - Jefferson Bethke
“Gratitude is a quality similar to electricity: It must be produced and discharged and used up in order to exist at all.” - William Faulkner

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Thankfulness Pictures

Here are some pictures that might help you think of more things you're thankful for.

Video: Want to be happy? Be grateful

Thankfulness Poems

Here are a couple of poems on thankfulness that might inspire you.

Thankfulness Exercises

The research has suggested that a variety of different exercises can help us increase our thankfulness. For example, writing down 3 good things each day has been shown to be beneficial (Seligman, Steen, Park, & Peterson, 2005). Here are a few other exercises that can help you practice thankfulness.

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Books Related to Thankfulness

If you’d like to keep learning more about thankfulness, here are a few books that you might be interested in.

Final Thoughts on Thankfulness

Taking a few minutes each day to practice thankfulness can be an easy and effective way to boost your mood and your well-being. Hopefully, this article was a good jumping-off point to inspire you and get you started.

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References

Bono, G., Emmons, R. A., & McCullough, M. E. (2004). Gratitude in practice and the practice of gratitude. Positive psychology in practice, 464-481.
Davis, D. E., Choe, E., Meyers, J., Wade, N., Varjas, K., Gifford, A., ... & Worthington Jr, E. L. (2016). Thankful for the little things: A meta-analysis of gratitude interventions. Journal of counseling psychology, 63(1), 20.
Emmons, R. A., & McCullough, M. E. (Eds.). (2004). The psychology of gratitude. Oxford University Press.
Seligman, M. E., Steen, T. A., Park, N., & Peterson, C. (2005). Positive psychology progress: Empirical validation of interventions. American Psychologist, 60(5), 410.

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