Gratitude and The

Good Life
Annaliese Roegner
 Think of something
difficult you have
experienced and write it
down.
Now write down 1-3 positive
outcomes from the situation
that you are grateful for.
• 2 minutes
 Gratitude and the Good Life

Negative Achieve the Positive

Impacts. Balance Impacts
Using gratitude as a coping mechanism
Toxic Gratitude Perspective in difficult situations is beneficial
towards the good life.
 Toxic Gratitude

● Article from Forge:

● Abramson, argues that although naming what you're grateful for can reset your
perspective, “over fixating [on it] can also shame you away from some very valid
emotions.”
● Used to avoid facing difficult emotions, an escape mechanism.
● Leans towards the ideas from the Archbishop, “hold[ing] down emotions in a
controlled environment... is not wise.” vs. The Dalai Lama's control of emotions.
● Others push this on us as a quick fix when it is unrelated, invalidating our struggles...
ex.
 Achieving Balance
• Use gratitude to find the benefit in a situation... like the activity
• When presented with a difficult situation we need to ask ourselves not “How do I escape?” instead, “How can I use
this as something positive?” -The Book Of Joy
• Example from students.
• First every person must work through the difficult emotion initially, and then begin looking for the positive in the
situation, even if it is only one small thing. Dwelling on the more difficult emotions is when they become negative,
not just a part of healing that can lead us closer to the good life.
 Benefits

• This gives us hope and pushes us closer to community.

• Widens our lenses, giving us perspective.
• Unites our situations with others.
• Improves Well-Being
• . In a research project titled The Source and Impact of Specific Parameters that Enhance Well-Being
in Daily Life7 it was found through 63 studies that gratitude can generally improve a person’s well-
being. This includes (but is not limited to) issues dealing with social relationships, delinquent
behavior and physical health.
• Effects academic success, beneficial towards us as college students.
• In an academic article on “How Gratitude Influences Well-Being," it was found that “gratitude had
indirect effects on undergraduates' well-being via an active coping style and social support had direct
effects on undergraduates' active coping styles.
• Gratitude is also a coping mechanism that can be used for mental health issues.
• In the same article written by Chih-che Lin, it is said that “Many researchers have suggested that
gratitude, like other positive emotions, may broaden the scope of cognition and enable flexible
thinking, which facilitates effective methods of coping with stress and anxiety and leads to improved
coping skills over time.
 Thesis
Gratitude is a necessary component of attaining the
good life.
 Daily Exercise
Every night find three things you are grateful
for.
1. Something good that happened that day.
2. Somethings constantly happening we are
unaware of.
3. Something good that came out of a difficult
situation.
 Source Page
1. Carr, David. “Is Gratitude a Moral Virtue?” Philosophical Studies: An International
Journal for Philosophy in the Analytic Tradition 172, no. 6 (2015): 1475–84.
http://www.jstor.org/stable/24704228.
2. Lin, Chih-Che, and Yu-chu Yeh. “How Gratitude Influences Well-Being: A Structural
Equation Modeling Approach.” Social Indicators Research 118, no. 1 (2014): 205–17.
http://www.jstor.org/stable/24721000.
3. Stewart, William C., Kelly E. Reynolds, Lydia J. Jones, Jeanette A. Stewart, and
Lindsay A. Nelson. “The Source and Impact of Specific Parameters That Enhance
Well-Being in Daily Life.” Journal of Religion and Health 55, no. 4 (2016): 1326–35.
http://www.jstor.org/stable/24735921.
4. Abramson, Ashley. “The Dark Side of Gratitude.” Forge. July 15, 2020.
https://forge.medium.com/the-dark-side-of-gratitude.
5. Abrams, Douglas. The Book of Joy. New York: Random House, 2016.