The power of gratitude

The Great Orange One had rambled out another missive. I forget who the target was this time. But, as usual, it was dripping with hate and malice. It was just too much.

I closed up my computer, threw off my shoes and walked over the newly mown grass to the beach. As my feet sank into the damp sand, I felt overwhelmingly grateful – for the satisfaction of walking barefoot, for the smell of cut grass, for being able to do this on a Wednesday afternoon, even for the ability to walk. And for a while, the world did not seem so bleak – a world increasingly defined by the unimaginable cruelty of those who impose their will without restraint and the unquestioning faith of those who support them.

A way to resist

I had stumbled on a secret weapon that we all have in this assault on humanity and human decency – gratitude.

Gratitude, I am realizing, is a form of resistance, a way to rise above the turmoil. It is NOT an acceptance of injustice and cruelty; it is a refusal to give up. Even in the face of adversity, gratitude is an insistence that there is a better future.

Bright stars

Two bright stars come to mind when I think about the power of gratitude: psychologist and writer Edith Eger; and neurologist, psychologist and philosopher Viktor E Frankl. Both survived Nazi concentration camps in World War 2. They showed that even in the face of incredible cruelty, we can choose hope, meaning and connection.

Viktor E Frankl

I first came across the writings of Viktor Frankl when I was a psychology student in the ’80s, and they affected me profoundly.

“Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way,” he wrote in Man’s Search for Meaning (published in 1946). As explained in this article, his book chronicles his and other prisoners’ suffering, and describes how it enabled them to understand what was truly important in life and be grateful for things that the rest of us take for granted.

This gratitude for the smallest things – a sunset, perhaps – was the difference between life and death. Frankl relates that “the ability to accept suffering with dignity and spiritual integrity, and the ability to find a higher meaning in and through the confusion and agony, could make the difference to whether a prisoner literally shrivelled up and died, or whether he continued to live”.

As detailed in this interview with Frankl at the age of 90 in 1995, he remarried (he lost his wife, brother, mother and father in Nazi camps), wrote 25 more books, founded a school of psychotherapy, built an institute bearing his name in Vienna, lectured around the world, and had lived to see Man’s Search for Meaning reprinted in 23 languages.

“When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves.” – Victor Frankl

Edith Eger

Frankl was a major influence on Edith Eger, who wrote The Choice (2017) about surviving Auschwitz and, later, The Gift (2020). In both books, she weaves gratitude with choice, resilience and healing; it is never a denial of reality.

“You can live to avenge the past, or you can live to enrich the present,” she writes in The Choice. “We cannot choose to have a life free of hurt. But we can choose to be free, to escape the past, no matter what befalls us, and to embrace the possible.”

Even in situations as dire as Auschwitz, she could choose to find something to be grateful for – the beauty in her sister’s eyes or, simply, being alive. Gratitude, for Eger, does not negate suffering; it is a way to preserve the spirit and reclaim agency over one’s life and outlook. In The Gift, she encourages readers to actively practice gratitude by acknowledging pain and purposefully finding moments of beauty, joy or connection in daily life.

In August, she posted on Facebook: “On a day when we are greeted with tragic news, it can feel like the time to give up and hide. Let me be the one to motivate you to be a conduit of love. You are a powerful and loving being who is here to help shape this moment in time.”

“You have the choice to really see the light and see a gift in everything; everything has a gift in it.” – Edith Eger

What science says

Science drives home the importance of gratitude for optimal living – and of conscious and mindful gratitude in dark times such as these. This paper from Berkeley, titled The Science of Gratitude, explains that practicing gratitude increases happiness, optimism and life satisfaction, and reduces symptoms of depression, anxiety and psychological pain. It talks about studies that suggest an association between gratitude and benefits such as better physical and psychological health and more happiness and life satisfaction. Some studies, it says, even suggest that gratitude may live up to its reputation as “the mother of all virtues” as it encourages the development of virtues such as patience, humility and wisdom.

A 2024 study from Pakistan points to a host of benefits of practicing gratitude, including:

• Emotional resilience
• Gaining a focus on positive aspects of life, even during uncertainty
• Allowing people to reframe challenges by shifting attention from worries about the future to appreciating the present
• Restoring a sense of control by letting people choose to focus on what they value
• Strengthening social bonds and support networks
• Fostering personal growth
• Helping people find new meaning and appreciation for life despite adversity

Just do it

Choosing gratitude is more than feeling thankful – it’s a deliberate way to resist despair, a way to reclaim our power and hope. And the true wonder is that we can all “do” gratitude. It’s free. It’s in all our hands. Amid the hardship and the noise, you’ll be doing yourself a favour if you pause to find what grounds you, what lifts you – focus on that; lose yourself in it, even if just for a moment.

Thank you.