第1680期:Why gratitude is good for you

Gratitude is more than just saying ‘thank you’ to someone who has helped us or given us a gift. Gratitude is a deeper appreciation for someone or something that makes us feel a positive emotion. And this positive emotion can be good for our health – our emotional and physical health, as well as the health of our relationships.感恩不仅仅是对帮助过我们或送给我们礼物的人说“谢谢”。感恩是对某人或某事的更深层次的欣赏，使我们感受到积极的情绪。这种积极的情绪对我们的健康有益——我们的情绪和身体健康，以及我们人际关系的健康。Let’s start by looking at the emotional or mental health benefits of expressing gratitude. There have been many studies, as described in a 2018 paper from the Greater Good Science Center titled ‘The Science of Gratitude’ , showing that writing a gratitude letter to another person or writing in a gratitude journal, if done regularly, improves mental health. One reason for this, is that gratitude stops us from ruminating on toxic, negative emotions, and writing a ‘thank you’ letter, for example, shifts our attention so that we focus on positive emotions. But even if we don’t share our writing with anyone, like in a journal, the act of completing the exercise alone makes us happier and more satisfied with life. And this gets better with time. As we are essentially training our brain to be more in tune with noticing the positive, after several weeks or months, this becomes more intuitive. And so, the more we express gratitude, the more positive we feel.让我们先看看表达感激之情对情感或心理健康的好处。正如 Greater Good Science Center 在 2018 年发表的一篇题为“感恩的科学”的论文中所述，有许多研究表明，如果定期写一封感谢信给另一个人或写一篇感恩日记，可以改善心理健康。这样做的一个原因是，感恩阻止我们反思有毒的、消极的情绪，例如，写一封“谢谢你”的信会转移我们的注意力，让我们专注于积极的情绪。但即使我们不与任何人分享我们的写作，比如在日记中，单独完成练习的行为也会让我们更快乐，对生活更满意。随着时间的推移，情况会变得更好。由于我们本质上是在训练我们的大脑更加注意积极的方面，因此在几周或几个月后，这会变得更加直观。因此，我们越表达感激之情，我们就会越积极。Gratitude can also make us feel good in our bodies. There are studies linking a gratitude practice to better sleep quality, better eating habits, and reduced inflammation in people who have had heart problems. So gratitude is clearly good for us, but is it also good for the people in our lives?感恩还可以让我们的身体感觉良好。有研究将感恩练习与更好的睡眠质量、更好的饮食习惯和减少患有心脏病的人的炎症联系起来。所以感恩显然对我们有好处，但它对我们生活中的人也有好处吗？The simple answer is ‘yes’. When shared – spoken or written – gratitude is about feeling valued and helping others feel valued too. Feeling valued can help build stronger relationships – be it with family, partners, friends or even colleagues. And that’s on top of all the other ways gratitude is clearly good for us. Maybe we should all stop counting sheep or counting calories and start counting our blessings instead?简单的答案是“是”。当分享——口头或书面——感恩是关于感到被重视并帮助他人也感到被重视。感觉受到重视可以帮助建立更牢固的关系——无论是与家人、伴侣、朋友甚至同事。感恩显然对我们有好处，这是最重要的。也许我们都应该停止数羊或计算卡路里，而是开始数我们的祝福？词汇表deep 深层次的appreciation for 对…的感激之情emotional 情感的mental health 心理健康express (v) 表达study (n) 研究ruminate on 反复思考toxic 令人不愉快的shift your attention 转移你的注意力the act of …的行为satisfied 满足的，满意的essentially 本质上，基本上be in tune with 与…一致intuitive 凭直觉的practice 实践reduce 减少inflammation 炎症feel valued 感觉受到尊重count your blessings 常怀感恩，知足