Research has shown that people benefit greatly from showing gratitude. Being grateful for what you have and expressing thanks directly to a friend or colleague has a significant and lasting effect on one’s well-being and happiness.

Studies performed by positive psychologists like Sonja Lyubomirsky (author of The How of Happiness) have empirically measured these effects and quantified how much happier it makes one feel and for how long.  It turns out that maintaining a gratitude journal for only one week makes one noticeably more happy even three months later (!) when compared to a statically-balanced control group.

These studies are remarkable and carry a valuable lesson for improving happiness.  Perhaps more interesting is the fact that people also benefit from reading and learning about the things that others are grateful for.  Scientists think that the reason for this phenomenon is that knowing about others’ gratitude inspires people to think about their own good fortune and makes them aware of the good things that others experience that could come their way too in the future.  This additional boost in happiness when learning about others’ good fortune most likely comes from the optimistic attitude that it cultivates.

The Gratitude Stream is an easy-to-use online app that we developed here at Signal Patterns Labs.   There’s also an accompanying iPhone app for those ‘on the go.’

The Gratitude Stream app’s designed to help people get the best of both worlds of gratitude: see the stream of gratitude that people all over the world share, and get inspired by others’ good fortune, and also share what you are thankful for and inspire others.

Gratitude Stream iPhone App

Here at the labs we already feel the joy!  The morning after the Gratitude iPhone application was approved by Apple, we all woke up to see people from Kyoto, Kuala Lumpur and Texas counting their blessings and sharing their gratitude with the rest of the world.