Research studies have scientifically proven that gratitude is good for us and good for our businesses. Yet, it is amazing that like a good diet and exercise, we don’t practice gratitude more often. In this episode of By Your Life, we’ll talk about how and why to become more grateful.

Mass Readings Audio
http://ccc.usccb.org/cccradio/NABPodcasts/2019/19_10_13.mp3

Twenty-eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time – October 13, 2019

Welcome to the eighty-first episode of By Your Life. I’m Lisa Huetteman and I know that you have a hundred different things you could be doing right now, so I thank you for choosing By Your Life. If you haven’t already, please sign up for notifications, and if you know of someone who can benefit from By Your Life, tag them, share it, like it.

My goal is to inspire, empower, support, challenge, and encourage you to connect Sunday, with Monday-Friday, in a secular, business world. It’s my desire to help you live our Catholic faith in the marketplace. I hope to offer you practical ways to go forth and glorify the Lord by your life.

In this edition, we’ll reflect on the readings for the Twenty-eighth Sunday in Ordinary time. In our Gospel this Sunday, Jesus cleanses the ten lepers and only one returns to thank him. Jesus asks, “Where are the other nine?” (Lk 17:17) Good question! Where are they?  Well, maybe they went to show themselves to the priests. After all, that is what Jesus told them to do and it is what the law prescribed. The Book of Leviticus 14:2-9 gives detailed instructions for the purification of one who had been a victim of leprosy.

So, there is really nothing wrong with what the other nine did. But Jesus is calling them out not for what they did, but for what they failed to do—give thanks. But why did Jesus stress the importance of returning to give thanks? It surely isn’t because God needs our thanks. No, the reason is that being thankful is good for us.

According to Amy Morin, a psychotherapist who wrote an article in Psychology Today, gratitude has been scientifically proven to improve physical and psychological health, relationships, resilience, quality and quantity of sleep, mental acuity and self-esteem. At work, research studies have linked gratitude and related traits to improvement in productivity, quality, loyalty, safety, absenteeism, and other cost and performance metrics which all lead to improved profitability. So, gratitude benefits us and benefits our businesses.

First, gratitude opens the door to more relationships. Amy Morin writes that when you express gratitude to a new acquaintance, they are more likely to seek an ongoing relationship. Saying thank you to a stranger or writing a note to a colleague can lead to more opportunities.

Gratitude improves physical health. This because grateful people are more likely to take care of their health. If you had the choice of hiring a healthy person or an unhealthy person, you’d pick the healthy one every time. The reason is that you know when someone is physically unhealthy, they cost you more in terms of lost productivity, absenteeism and health care.

Another related benefit of gratitude is that grateful people sleep better. When people get less sleep or less quality sleep, their job satisfaction goes down and so does their executive functioning, innovative thinking, and occupational performance. What goes up with less sleep is safety errors, work injuries, and even death. Sleep-deprived people have less healthy relationships because they are less trusting, more impatient, frustrated and even hostile. And all this costs US companies a lot of money. In fact, a 2016 study by the Rand Corporation said the economic cost to US companies of sleep deprivation was $411 billion which was over 2% of GDP.

Gratitude also improves psychological health, enhances empathy and reduces aggression. In the workplace, gratitude inspires people to be helpful, volunteer for extra work assignments, mentor coworkers, be compassionate to someone who needs help, and encourage and praise others.

Gratitude improves self-esteem. When people are experiencing gratitude, they are less susceptible to having their feelings hurt, and, when their feelings are hurt, they are less likely to strike back. Gratitude produces higher levels of positive emotions that are beneficial in the workplace, such as joy, enthusiasm, and optimism.

Gratitude also increases mental strength. It drives creative and innovative thinking, openness, curiosity and love of learning. Research also shows that mentally strong people choose to exchange self-pity for gratitude, and gratitude is the antidote to thinking you are owed something.

The opposite is also true. People who feel entitled to everything will be grateful for nothing. On the job, people with excessive entitlement tend to engage in more counterproductive work behaviors, that include theft, aggression, violence, sabotage, withdrawal, deliberate poor performance, and threatening, abusing, and blaming others. Entitlement can show up in toxic workplace cultures alongside gossip, complaining, and negativity.

I could go on and on. Research study after research study proves that gratitude is good for us, but so is eating right and exercising and we don’t do that as much as we should. Robert Emmons, Ph.D., is the world’s leading scientific expert on gratitude and he says, “Given its magnetic appeal, it is a wonder that gratitude might be rejected. Yet it is. If we fail to choose it, by default we choose ingratitude. Millions make this choice every day.” In Sunday’s Gospel, you might say that nine out of ten made the choice to reject it.

But why?

In his article titled What Gets in the Way of Gratitude? published by the Greater Good Science Center at UC Berkeley, Dr. Emmons says that we have become so accustomed to getting what we want, we take it for granted. Even worse, we believe the universe owes us. As a result, we have become spiritually and morally bankrupt. Quoting this Sunday’s Gospel when Jesus said to the grateful leper, “Stand up and go; your faith has saved you.” (Lk 17:19) Dr Emmons writes, “Biblical scholars of this passage agree that by ‘faith,’ what Jesus really meant was thankfulness, as in, ‘Your gratitude has made you well.’ The parable reminds us of just how common ingratitude is and how easy it is to take blessings for granted, and how gratitude is dependent upon unmerited favors.”

So, what enables gratitude? Mark T. Mitchell, professor of political science at Patrick Henry College and author of The Politics of Gratitude: Scale, Place, and Community in a Global Age, says: “Gratitude is born of humility, for it acknowledges the giftedness of the creation and the benevolence of the Creator.” And this is what we saw in the grateful leper. He “glorified God in a loud voice;” (Lk 17:15) and in humility, he “fell at the feet of Jesus and thanked him.” (Lk 17:16) and Jesus affirmed him saying, “Your faith has saved you.” (Lk 17:19)

According to Dr. Emmons, research shows that people who are ungrateful tend to be characterized by an excessive sense of self-importance, arrogance, vanity, and an unquenchable need for admiration and approval. I don’t have the research to prove it, but I believe that those of us who aren’t narcissists don’t choose to be ungrateful. The problem is that we don’t choose to be grateful. Like the nine lepers, we just move on to the next thing before stopping and giving thanks for the last. We live a life of “what’s next?” And fail to be grateful for what’s now.

I was listening to a CD on the Mass by Fr. Larry Richards and I was reminded that I fail to be present at Mass. I fail to recognize…truly realize what is before me. I fail to be grateful for the Sacrament of Thanksgiving. Not because I don’t know and believe what is happening, and not because I’m not grateful, but because in my mind, I’ve fast-forwarded to what’s next. I’m planning my day and making my mental grocery list.

As I write this, I am very mindful that I have this tendency. I’m am a co-lead of our parish’s new Welcome (CRHP 2.0) Ministry. Welcome is the new and improved version of the Christ Renews His Parish and it involves a renewal weekend for a group of men and group of women, followed by six months of formation by the teams who attended the retreat, who then give the next retreat to a new group of men or women. It is a process of receiving, forming, and giving that repeats itself.

Last weekend, the men’s giving team hosted a group of men for the renewal weekend. We hadn’t even finished the breakdown and clean-up of the facility before our minds shifted to what we learned and what we need to change for the women’s retreat that will take place this coming weekend. Not only that, we are already busy with the details for getting the formation process started for the men who received and plan to move forward. Heck, I had a conversation this morning about reserving rooms for the meeting that will be happening seven months from now.

We’ve known all along that all the logistical details that we busy ourselves with are important to the success of the retreat, but they aren’t the point of the retreat. If there isn’t enough potato salad for lunch on Sunday, it doesn’t matter in the scheme of eternity. Men’s lives were touched, hearts were transformed, spirits were renewed as a result of the weekend. Men were healed, inspired, and loved. But we did none of that. It was all God and I am truly grateful to God for that.

I’m also truly grateful to the army of men and women who volunteered to take care of the details. Our job was to create an environment for men to gather and for the Holy Spirit to work. Yes, there were a thousand details. Yes, there were a few we failed to plan for. Yes, there were things we planned for but could have done better and will be changed for the upcoming weekend.

But, as I was reflecting on this Sunday’s scripture, and as I thought about how busy these two weeks have been, I became very aware of the fact that my habit is not to stop and say thank you. My habit is always to be looking ahead to what is next. So, what can you and I do to develop new habits—gratitude habits?

An article published by the University of Minnesota listed 10 things you can do to become a more thankful person. If you want the benefits of gratitude, pick one that you can put into practice.

1. Every day say aloud three good things that happened.
2. Keep a gratitude journal. Research showed that people who kept a gratitude journal slept on average 30 minutes more per night, woke up feeling more refreshed, and had an easier time staying awake during the day compared to those who didn’t. “This reminds me of the song from the movie White Christmas…If you’re weary and cannot sleep, just count your blessings instead of sheep and you’ll fall asleep, counting your blessings.”
3. Say thanks to your spouse, family members, or co-workers.
4. When you feel your temper flair, take a quick gratitude inventory. I had a friend vent to me this morning about something that irritated her. She wrote me back later after she recognized the things that were going right far outweighed that one irritation.
5. Thank yourself by acknowledging yourself for good habits.
6. Use technology to text, post, comment, or email three gratitude messages a week. Even better, send one hand-written thank you note each week.
7. Savor the good moments. In other words, don’t be so quick to move on to what’s next.
8. Check for silver linings. Wisdom knows that life’s difficulties always bring benefits. You just have to look for them.
9. Look outward, not inward. People are more likely to be grateful when they put their focus on others.

• Change your perspective. Walking a mile in someone else’s shoes makes you grateful to be walking in your own.

At work, there are three simple things that are the foundation of grateful leadership, according to Judith Umlas, author of Grateful Leadership: Using the Power of Acknowledgment to Engage All Your People and Achieve Superior Results. The three things are giving simple thanks, acknowledgment, and recognition. Simple thanks is nothing more than the common courtesy of saying “thank you.” Recognition is an appreciation for what a person does, for example, the quality of their work, efficiency, or responsiveness; and acknowledgment expresses appreciation of a person for who they are, for example, kind, generous, or creative.

The grateful leper exhibited all three. He recognized Jesus for healing him and by falling at his feet, he acknowledged him for who he was and then, he thanked him. If we want to experience the benefits of gratitude, we too should make a conscious effort to be humbly thankful. As Alice Walker, author of The Color Purple said, “ ‘Thank you’ is the best prayer that anyone could say. I say that one a lot. Thank you expresses extreme gratitude, humility, and understanding.”

Let’s ask the Holy Spirit to instill in us a spirit of gratitude and humility so we may glorify the Lord by our lives.

Gracious God, in the busy-ness of my day, I sometimes forget to stop to thank you for all that is good in my life. My blessings are many and my heart is filled with gratefulness for the gift of living. I thank you, too, for those things in my life that are less than I would hope them to be, things that seem challenging, unfair, or difficult. I rejoice that you are near me and in the midst of turbulence, I am growing and learning. In the silence of my soul, I thank you most of all for your unconditional and eternal love. Amen

May God bless you abundantly this week and may you go and glorify the Lord by your life.

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