How Can We Best Express Gratitude Towards Others?

Gratitude can have a lasting positive impact if we work towards incorporating it into our daily lives.

The expression of gratitude is a self-promoting exercise, grateful people are found to be more likely to respond with gratitude to a wider range of scenarios and recognize the beneficence on the part of others.

This leads to a positive, self-renewing, feedback loop – the more gratitude we display, the more our subjective wellbeing and resistance to negativity increases, and the more grateful we are likely to be.

Actions that display gratitude are more valuable than solely feeling gratitude towards others. For this very reason, it’s important to recognize the methods by which we can express gratitude effectively and exercise them as and when the situation warrants.

How we choose to express gratitude can depend significantly on the social context – taking a partner to their favorite restaurant to thank them for their support may be a completely suitable practice, but would not be a measured expression of gratitude towards, say, a stranger who held open a door.

Below are just a few ways in which you can express gratitude to others – the list is by no means definitive but is a starting point for finding methods of expressing your thanks.

• Random acts of kindness. Random acts of kindness can yield substantial reward in terms of subjective wellbeing. If you see a stranger struggling under a heavy load of shopping, offer a hand. Donate unwanted clothes to charity. Help someone lost with directions. The list is nigh inexhaustible!

• Be respectful. Maintain standards of etiquette in your day-to-day interactions with strangers. Just because you don’t know them, it doesn’t mean you should withhold the common courtesy you expect yourself. Hold the door open, respect their space, and be mindful of how your actions impact them.

• Tip your server. Going to the effort to make your experience a positive one, service-industry employees are often unsung heroes. In a fast-paced service environment, stopping a server to read them a gratitude letter isn’t likely to be received well but dropping a tip in the jar (if you can afford to) lets the staff know you’re thankful for their efforts.

• Volunteer in your community. Volunteering is not only a great way to connect with others and gain experience, it has also been found to increase subjective wellbeing and pose significant health benefits. Research has found that volunteer work has a positive impact on elements of personal wellbeing. Those who undertook volunteering opportunities reported increased levels of happiness, life satisfaction, self-esteem, sense of control over life, physical health and lower levels of depression.