Effect of Gratitude on Wellbeing: A Systematic Review

Gratitude is the ultimate source of happiness. Gratitude is strongly associated with happiness and joy. People who are grateful and happy with what they have are happier and report higher levels of wellbeing. Wellbeing of a person is defined as a positive sense about life and feeling good(Diener, Suh , Oishi 1997; Veenhoven 2008). Gratitude can be defined as a "moral virtue, an attitude, an emotion, a habit, a personality trait, and a coping response" (Emmons et al., 2003) and simply can be practiced by recognizing something good, thinking about something good and paying attention to something for what you feel happy; something you appreciate in your life. Higher level of wellbeing decreases the risk rate of disease and improves functioning of immune system, speed recovery and increases longevity (Pressman et al., 2005; Ostiret al.,2000; Diener, Biswas-Diener2008;Frederickson & Levenson 1998). When we feel grateful, the body becomes calm and the nice thing about gratitude is that it is easy to practice, and you can quickly start to see the benefits. The present paper explores how gratitude and wellbeing relates and review of related researches revealed that gratitude positively related with wellbeing. Gratitude improves person's mental health, happiness and many other benefits are relates with by practicing gratitude. It can be concluded that gratitude is a most influential strength which can be used to sustain the happiness level. Hence gratitude contributes in satisfaction with life(Wood et al., 2008).