3 Ways to Express Appreciation

Expressing appreciation for someone is a simple and effective way to improve mental health.

There are many ways to improve mental health, and gratitude is my favorite way! It is free, is accessible to all, feels good in the moment, and has long-term positive benefits for mental health.

When I deliver my signature keynote presentation, The Grateful Day™, exercise #3 is to express appreciation for someone every day. This is a powerful exercise because the strongest predictor of happiness is our relationships. Expressing appreciation for people in our lives or their behavior is the easiest way to increase the level of closeness and improve the quality of our relationships.

Here are 3 ways to express appreciation:

1. Send an email at the beginning of every day.

One study found that 80% of people hold their breath when they open up their work email in the morning. This does not promote well-being or relaxation! One way to prevent the negative impact of holding your breath is to intentionally make opening up your computer a positive one by writing a positive email before you read any of your emails.

Start your day by expressing appreciation for one person through email.

2. Scroll to the bottom of your text messages

Your text messages are in chronological order. In other words, the longest amount of time has passed since you have corresponded with the people at the bottom. You may have seen them in person or communicated in another fashion, but these are the people where the longest amount of time has passed via text

Reach out to one person at the bottom of the list. Surprise that person and express appreciation for a shared experience, for a quality about that person, or for your relationship.

So often, we hesitate to reach out. We think it doesn’t matter. We think too much time has passed, and we feel awkward. We discount the positive impact that it has on the recipient. Research demonstrates that not only receiving a text boosts mood, but the surprise factor elevates mood! So surprise someone and send the text!

3. Write a gratitude letter

A gratitude letter involves thinking about who you appreciate, and sending a letter to that person.

One study found that this simple exercise improved the mental health status of college students, simply by writing one gratitude letter, once a week, for three weeks.

What’s even more powerful is that these benefits were maintained over time! Writing letters of gratitude resulted in an increase in self-reported mental health functioning over time for these college students.

When we sit down to thoughtfully write a gratitude letter, we are focused on positivity. Recalling memories and nice qualities about a special person brings up a warm feeling, which can be attributed to the release of serotonin and dopamine in the brain.

In addition to being an exercise in positivity, this is also powerful due to the absence of negativity. You’re not thinking about your worries of the day or your to-do list. It’s a nice reprieve from the cycle of negative thinking.

This simple exercise of expressing appreciation is a win-win-win!

It makes you feel good!

It makes the other person feel good!

It fosters closeness in the relationship!

Which one can you do today?