What is Project Gratitude?
Created to better understand the role gratitude plays in our health journey
Initiated By:
Project Gratitude is an ambition to better understand the role gratitude plays in our health journey.
Project Gratitude is collaboration between the Baptist Health Foundation and their communities to better understand the role gratitude can or should play in our culture and in a person’s health journey. This project explores gratitude from the perspective of patients, a patient’s family, care providers and their loved ones, community members and community leaders.
The outcome of this project may educate us on the science of gratitude, connect us through meaningful personal stories and insights, prepare us to act upon our gratitude and may create new relationships or new ways of seeing the world around us.
Scientists characterize gratitude as a complex, social emotion
Gratitude has distinctive qualities and an inherent social purpose. Ultimately, four elements distinguish gratitude from other forms of thankful appreciation and hint at its complexity:
- The benefit was unexpected and unearned.
- Receipt of the benefit moves the receiver.
- The intention behind the good deed matters.
- Gratitude is action-oriented.
There is also healing power in gratitude for patients. Those who express gratitude experience health benefits including improved ability to heal, improved immune function, lower blood pressure and more. They are also rewarded with positive mental health benefits including increased happiness, motivation, optimism and reduced stress. In short, scientific evidence clearly affirms gratitude not only feels good…and inspires us to do good…but is also good for us.
Healthcare and gratitude share a connection
Healthcare and gratitude share a historical connection, a powerful bond that is often created between a patient and their care provider. This connection has led to partnerships that have built hospitals, sped up innovation and changed how communities come together to solve their individual and collective health and wellness needs.
Today, healthcare is the business of everyone. We’ve witnessed how physicians and nurses put themselves in harm’s way for their community and how communities have in turn rallied to their aid through donations of PPE and charitable gifts. Project gratitude is about answering the question —why.
It’s about asking if gratitude has the power to keep us connected, to drive a shared purpose in our communities and to elevate our appreciation for our health and for one another. Project Gratitude is a multi-phase, multi-year initiative of exploration, inspiration and appreciation for how the science of gratitude impacts our lives.
