HAPPINESS IS BEING GRATEFUL

• How gratefulness relates to our happiness?
• What can we do to feel grateful?

In the eight episode of Netflix's The Crown season 2 that recounts the relationship between Queen Elizabeth II and U.S. First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy, The Queen Mother remarks how unhappy Mrs. Kennedy was with her marriage with JFK who just got assassinated, to which Queen Elizabeth replied "That's the thing about unhappiness: all it takes is for something worse to happen, and you realize it was really happiness after all."

So what is happiness actually? According to the Queen, happiness is simple: it's being grateful. But how being grateful can relate to our happiness. Feeling grateful or showing gratitude may improve a positive energy in our selves. In 2003, a study conducted by University of Miami shows that a group of student who are instructed to write a diary which focusing on gratitude or blessing experienced a more positive mood in there lives compared to those who writes about natural events or annoyance.

Feeling grateful also helps to people who are suffering from deep stress or trauma. For some people who experienced long sadness, feeling grateful for those people who help them through the hardest time—such as friends or family—may boost their self-esteem as it also may help to build a good social bond with other people.

Showing gratitude is not only helps our selves but it also can help other people feel better about themselves. A study found that people who express gratitude to their partner feel more comfortable with their relationship. An employer who expressed gratitude to their employers might help the employers to feel motivated in their work.

Several ways can be done for us to show out gratitude, either by thanking someone verbally or remember other people kindness. For religious people, praying is the best communication to God and being grateful for what they already have. Some people have another way to show their gratitude such as by writing down what are the good things that they experienced and how they feel about. All is to remind us about the good thing that made them happy.

So perhaps whenever we feel that our life is filled with unhappiness, we probably should see what we have around us and be grateful about it because, maybe, the happiness is already in front of us all the time.