I woke up this morning to the most amazing surprise.\u00a0 An email from a total stranger sharing a heartfelt, sincere, yet simple thank you for the positive impact my blog was having on his life.\u00a0 I was blown away at the impact this man\u2019s simple, kind words had on me.\u00a0 I was genuinely choked up when I read it.\u00a0 I don\u2019t know why it had such a profound effect on me, but it did.\u00a0 His expression of gratitude was amazingly powerful.\u00a0 It made me feel valued.\u00a0 It made me feel appreciated.\u00a0 It made me feel glad that I had pushed through those nights when the last thing I wanted to do was to stay up and write my blog, and it renewed my dedication to continue writing in the future.<\/p>\n
A professor at Harvard University, Francesca Gino, did a study highlighting the science of gratitude.\u00a0 They did several experiments in which two subject groups were given the same assignment, one was given sincere thanks for their efforts and the other was not.\u00a0 Consistently the results of the study showed that there was anywhere from a 50% to 200% increase in the efforts of the group who received thanks for the efforts they were making.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0What a huge impact that comes from a simple expression of gratitude!<\/p>\n
\u201c\u201cReceiving expressions of gratitude makes us feel a heightened sense of self-worth, and that in turn triggers other helpful behaviors toward both the person we are helping and other people, too,\u201d Gino said. She described the scope of the \u201cgratitude effect\u201d as \u201cthe most surprising part\u201d of her research.\u201d<\/p>\n
Another research study shows that it is physiologically impossible for a person to be stressed and grateful at the same time.\u00a0 When you are grateful your body has a surge of endorphins which uplift and energize you rather than the stress hormones that drain you.<\/p>\n
Perhaps that is the reason I was so impacted by this morning\u2019s email.\u00a0 It made me feel grateful that someone would take the time out of their busy life to tell a total stranger \u201cThank You\u201d and express appreciation for something I had done.\u00a0 My entire day was brightened today.\u00a0 My spirit was touched and my life was changed for the better.\u00a0\u00a0 I knew I had to reach back to this stranger and say \u201cThank You\u201d to him for touching my life as he had.<\/p>\n
I come away from today with a renewed focus on the impact I can have on others by just opening my mouth more quickly to say \u201cThank You\u201d.\u00a0 I come away from today with the desire to make it more of a daily focus to not let those moments to compliment or thank another pass by me.\u00a0 I come away from today determined not to let fear, or shyness, or trepidation be an excuse for me not to say \u201cThank you\u201d to anyone deserving of hearing that.<\/p>\n
And so you can see the impact this man had on me not only made me feel better about myself, but it inspired me to try and pay that same feeling forward to those I come in contact with as well.\u00a0\u00a0 THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!\u00a0\u00a0 To the man who is no longer someone I think of us a stranger, but rather a friend.\u00a0 And to all of those people in my life who have made my world better for having been a part of it.\u00a0 THANK YOU!<\/p>\n
Have a beautiful, brilliant, marvelous, glorious weekend everyone.<\/p>\n
Love,<\/p>\n
Amy<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I woke up this morning to the most amazing surprise.\u00a0 An email from a total stranger sharing a heartfelt, sincere, yet simple thank you for the positive impact my blog was having on his life.\u00a0 I was blown away at the impact this man\u2019s simple, kind words had on me.\u00a0 I was genuinely choked up […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2651,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[501,939,500,46,60,63,945,224,163,96,942,943,93,189,29,65,568,940,152,153,27,112,81,275,941,489,944,938],"class_list":["post-2984","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-appreciate","tag-appreciated","tag-appreciation","tag-attitude","tag-beautiful","tag-blessings","tag-compliment","tag-confidence","tag-courage","tag-culture","tag-endorphins","tag-energize","tag-fear","tag-friends","tag-god","tag-gratitude","tag-harvard","tag-harvard-university","tag-impact","tag-positive","tag-self-confidence","tag-self-improvement","tag-smile","tag-stress","tag-stressed","tag-thank-you","tag-uplift","tag-value"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2984","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2984"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2984\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2988,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2984\/revisions\/2988"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2651"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2984"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2984"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2984"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}