The effects of gratitude and kindness on life satisfaction, positive emotions, negative emotions, and COVID‐19 anxiety: An online pilot experimental study

Positive psychology has offered an important corrective to the disease model by identifying the characteristics of happy people, such as gratitude, compassion, open-mindedness, and curiosity, but

Research by Dr. Michele M. Tugade suggests that resilient people experience positive emotions more frequently. Gratitude reminds you that we’ll get through this, too. It can be difficult to be grateful for negative experiences, but by shifting your focus to the positive outcomes of these experiences, you take power away from the bad and put it in t

The first category is symptom reduction, which is typically measured by a self-report rating scale. This could be a reduction in anxiety symptoms or an improvement in psychosocial and quality-of-life outcomes

However, those who kept a simple “gratitude journal” for three weeks or longer reported better sleep, increased energy, heightened creativity, enthusiasm, determination, and optimism … and an increased desire for exercise. Now that’s something to be grateful for!

The first mental training, “Presence,” entailed a body scan and breath focus. Another, “Perspective,” included observing thoughts via a novel interpersonal practice of “contemplative dyads,” where partners share their stream of thought with each other for ten minutes daily, either through a cell phone app or in person.23 The third, “Affect,” includ