Grateful vs Thankful and Benefits From Both

Happiness is that much-coveted emotion that most of us wish to experience, associated with our general sense of well-being. Our well-being is something we can work on and develop. Fortunately, there are many ways to improve our overall sense of well-being—from changing our mindset and focusing on positive actions to inducing the needed changes in our lives for happiness to reign.

Gratitude and thankfulness are ways we can affect our well-being, wherein expressing our thanks for certain acts. So, this article explores this grateful vs thankful concept and how these two benefit our lives.

Grateful vs Thankful: Is There a Difference?

Being more grateful or thankful in our lives can enhance our relationship with the world. We feel acceptance and appreciation and develop a more peaceful approach to life that promotes our mental and physical health and well-being. Creating a more grateful or thankful approach to life has many benefits. But is there a difference between grateful and thankful?

Grateful Meaning

To be grateful means that you’re appreciative of the benefits received. Gratefulness, however, infers a more complicated concept than thankfulness—conveying more spirituality from the core of our senses. Being grateful is about developing powerful and positive emotions that help us in our biological evolution and individual existences.

Gratefulness is not a single act of feeling grateful. Instead, it’s a complete mindset that allows us to live with a sense of gratitude permeating all and everything. As a result, our time and attention are focused on more positive feelings of gratitude or appreciation, affecting our lives and making us happier in general.

What are you grateful for? Gratitude is expressed by a deep knowledge of appreciation, leading to many small and positive actions. It’s not an attitude of ignoring problems and challenges in our lives, but it’s a transformation of our perspective(s) in a new light. Gratitude can be used to evoke changes in the short term. Yet, it’s also a long-term, life-changing conversion of our general attitude and temperament, allowing us to feel more love and to be at peace. In essence, gratitude develops a mindset conducive to a permanent state of thankfulness.

Thankful Meaning 

To be thankful is generally thought of as being conscious of the benefits one has received or feeling pleased about a situation. Thankfulness is an emotion you may feel after you’ve received a gift or benefit—a sense that is evoked after a positive event in your life. It’s generally a short-lived response to external stimuli that has directly and positively affected you, e.g., receiving a gift on Christmas Day.

Thankful vs Grateful

There is a vast chasm between the meanings of thankfulness and gratefulness. Although both are expressed in positive action and emotion, gratefulness is a way of life. It concerns being grateful to be alive and experiencing value in everything, as well as feeling a divine presence that permeates all things.

Thankfulness is a short-lived sense of being thankful for something that has happened in our lives, such as receiving some benefit. One can be thankful without knowing what genuine gratitude is.

It’s essential to realize that it’s nearly impossible for someone adept at practicing gratitude to be materialistic. Of course, one can be the world’s most materialistic person and still be thankful for certain things. But this person might have difficulty if asked how to show gratitude, as their materialistic philosophy of life is disproportionate to the concept of gratitude itself.

Key Takeaways

Benefits of Gratitude and Thankfulness

There are many benefits to adopting a mindset of gratitude and thankfulness in our everyday lives.

Practicing Gratitude Can:

• Make you happier
• Reduce stress levels
• Improve physical and mental health
• Help build self-esteem
• Help sleep
• Increase resilience
• Create an inspired life
• Improve ability to build loving relationships and friendships
• Make you feel more accepted as an essential part of the universe

The Benefits of Being Thankful Can:

• Help show others that we appreciate them and their gifts
• Lead us towards a deeper appreciation of life
• Allow us to enjoy the moment and live in the present

How to Practice Gratitude

You can begin practicing gratitude by keeping a daily gratitude journal—remind yourself of all the good in your life each day. You can also start a meditation practice to organize your grateful thoughts. Consider the laws of the universe in your practice and be aware of what karma is. Think of all the goodness in the world. Be mindful of your thoughts and what you say. Take pleasure and focus on all that is good in your life.

Conclusion

What are you thankful for? Although thankfulness and gratitude are positive emotions, when we delve into the concepts of grateful vs thankful, genuine gratefulness is difficult to achieve, as it’s an entire philosophy of life that permeates the mind, body, and soul and sees value in everything and every action, even the bad. Being thankful, however, is merely a passing positive emotion.