Make gratitude more visible and consistent

0:00 my name is Kim Cameron I'm on the 0:02 faculty in the Center for positive 0:03 organizations at the University of 0:05 Michigan I have an opportunity to talk 0:08 to you today about how to handle 0:10 ourselves during crisis it's often a 0:14 anxiety-producing stressful situation 0:16 and the natural tendency is to focus on 0:19 challenges obstacles difficulties but 0:22 there's another strategy that helps us 0:24 cope with these kinds of difficulties 0:27 the strategy is simply to identify 0:29 what's going right that is what's good 0:32 in the world and expressing gratitude 0:33 for those things as it turns out 0:36 expressing gratitude is not only wise 0:39 but healthy for example four students 0:43 were assigned in a chi university 0:44 students were assigned in a class to 0:46 simply keep a journal every day half of 0:49 the students were assigned to keep a 0:51 journal in which they wrote things for 0:54 which they were grateful for the best 0:56 things that happened to them the other 0:57 half of these students were simply asked 0:59 to write down events interactions 1:02 occurrences that occurred during that 1:04 day so we have a gratitude Journal group 1:07 and a non grana to journal group at the 1:09 end of the semester these students were 1:11 each given a flu shot then one week 1:14 later they were tested for the number of 1:17 antibodies in their system those keeping 1:19 a gratitude journal were healthier in 1:21 one week that is a significant number of 1:25 antibodies in their system had increased 1:27 second study students were given a 1:30 mental acuity task what's that you have 1:33 to memorize information have to remember 1:35 information you have to keep track of 1:38 decision rules for complex data those 1:41 keeping a gratitude journal were 1:43 significantly higher in their scores on 1:46 those tasks than were others a Thursday 1:49 was done in which students were given a 1:51 creativity task what's that how many 1:55 things can you think up to use a brick 1:56 for where a ping-pong ball turns out 2:00 students keeping a gratitude journal not 2:02 only had more ideas but a broader 2:04 variety of ideas that is mental 2:06 flexibility then compared to those 2:10 keeping a normal journal 2:13 study was done using heart health 2:16 patients that is people who had heart 2:18 disease heart problems half of these 2:21 people were assigned to keep a gratitude 2:23 journal for eight weeks at the end of 2:27 the eight weeks they were simply tested 2:28 those keeping a gratitude journal were 2:31 healthier that is their hearts had 2:33 deteriorated less and it actually healed 2:35 more at the end of only eight weeks 2:37 compared to those night not keeping a 2:40 gratitude journal and then a final study 2:43 individuals were exposed to a virus in 2:46 this case a cold virus they call it 2:48 Rhino virus those individuals keeping a 2:52 gratitude journal and by the way 2:54 experiencing not only gratitude but 2:56 forgiveness and generosity and 2:58 compassion and other virtuous states got 3:02 sick significantly less often less than 3:05 half as often as those not keeping a 3:08 journal or keeping a normal journal that 3:10 is gratitude matters 3:13 it helps us become healthier physically 3:15 emotionally and mentally now as it turns 3:19 out this also affects organizations I 3:23 know an organization in which thousands 3:25 of employees were given a journal by the 3:28 CEO they were simply assigned to keep a 3:31 gratitude journal another organization 3:33 international organization headquartered 3:35 in Korea was headed by a CEO who asked 3:39 his secretary every single day to put 3:42 five cards on his desk on one side of 3:44 the card was printed thank you on the 3:46 other side was blank he wrote every 3:50 single day five thank-you cards or 3:52 gratitude cards for five different 3:54 individuals in his organization he'd 3:56 simply assigned himself to focus on 3:59 gratitude a third study a CEO of an 4:02 organization assigned every employee 4:04 thousands of employees to positively 4:07 embarrass somebody every day what does 4:10 that mean that means compliment somebody 4:13 in front of somebody else who cares 4:14 in other words focus on what's going 4:17 well and what we should celebrate as it 4:19 turned out in each of those cases the 4:22 organizations went from a difficult 4:23 situation to a flourishing situation in 4:26 terms of 4:27 profitability performance and so on the 4:29 point is when it's easy to focus on 4:32 difficulties on hardships and 4:34 inconveniences highlighting what we're 4:37 grateful for helps us not only weather 4:40 the crisis better but we actually turn 4:43 out to be better off thank you for 4:46 listening