We all are familiar with the feeling that things are not as they should be in terms of success, relationships, material possessions. This feeling can make you look outwards with envy and inwards with disappointment.
Pop culture, social media and advertisements are not helping either, because they work as a constant reminder that aiming for less than "perfect" equals failure.

Chronic Dissatisfaction

In the last two decades, researchers have started to work on ways to counteract our chronic dissatisfaction. This is how positive psychology was born - the study of what makes life worth living, while cognitive behavioral therapy was developed to change negative feelings.
Scientists also began to investigate why some people are happier and more satisfied than others and how to apply what they are doing right to the rest of the world.

Studying What Makes Life Worth Living

The ability to experience more or less gratitude is not equally distributed.
We have what's known as trait gratitude, which determines how much we can feel it. It depends on genetics, personality, and culture.

Trait Gratitude

One of the most relevant predictors of how happy people are, how easily they make friends, and how good they are at dealing with hardship is gratitude.
Gratitude can mean different things to different people, depending on the context: it's a character trait, a virtue, a feeling, and a behavior.

An Antidote To Dissatisfaction

<ul>
<li>Gratitude directly counteracts negative feelings and traits, like envy and social comparison, narcissism, cynicism, and materialism.</li>
<li>People that are happy no matter what, tend to be happier and more satisfied; they have better relationships and easier time making friends, they sleep better, tend to suffer less from depression, addiction and burnout, and are better at dealing with traumatic events.</li>
<li> Gratitude counteracts our natural tendency to forget and downplay positive events.</li>
</ul>

The Consequences Of Gratitude

<ul>
<li>When your brain recognizes that someone is doing something positive for you, it reacts with gratitude to motivate you to repay them.</li>
<li>This gratitude makes you care about others and others care about you.</li>
<li>It became an evolutionary advantage to play well with others and build lasting relationships.</li>
<li>Early forms of gratitude were biological mechanisms that modified your behavior towards cooperation, which helped humans to dominate the earth.</li>
<li>As we got better at reading emotions, selfish individuals were identified and avoided.</li>
</ul>

How Gratitude Connects Us

The easiest gratitude exercise with the most solid research behind it is gratitude journaling. It involves sitting down for a few minutes, 1-3 times a week, and writing down 5 to 10things you are grateful for.
Participants in studies on gratitude journaling reported more happiness and higher general life satisfaction after doing this practice for a few weeks. Practicing gratitude may be a real way to reprogram yourself.

How To Make Your Brain Feel More Gratitude

2nd edition of our gratitude journal is now available for pre-order: https://shop.kurzgesagt.org/ WORLDWIDE SHIPPING IS AVAILABLE! We want to get you the best shipping fees. So If you’re located in the EU, please order from our EU-warehouse. If you’re located anywhere else in the world, please go to our World Wide Shop. (The link is the same you will be asked to choose your location once you are there.) Thanks to everyone for the support! Sources: https://sites.google.com/view/sources-dissatisfaction/ Everybody is familiar with the feeling that things are not as they should be. That you are not successful enough, your relationships not satisfying enough. That you don’t have the things you crave. In this video we want to talk about one of the strongest predictors of how happy people are, how easily they make friends and how good they are at dealing with hardship. An antidote against dissatisfaction so to speak: Gratitude. OUR CHANNELS ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ German Channel: https://kgs.link/youtubeDE Spanish Channel: https://kgs.link/youtubeES HOW CAN YOU SUPPORT US? ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ This is how we make our living and it would be a pleasure if you support us! Get Merch designed with ❤ from https://kgs.link/shop Join the Patreon Bird Army 🐧 https://kgs.link/patreon DISCUSSIONS & SOCIAL MEDIA ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ Reddit: https://kgs.link/reddit Instagram: https://kgs.link/instagram Twitter: https://kgs.link/twitter Facebook: https://kgs.link/facebook Discord: https://kgs.link/discord Newsletter: https://kgs.link/newsletter OUR VOICE ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ The Kurzgesagt voice is from Steve Taylor: https://kgs.link/youtube-voice OUR MUSIC ♬♪ ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ 700+ minutes of Kurzgesagt Soundtracks by Epic Mountain: Spotify: https://kgs.link/music-spotify Soundcloud: https://kgs.link/music-soundcloud Bandcamp: https://kgs.link/music-bandcamp Youtube: https://kgs.link/music-youtube Facebook: https://kgs.link/music-facebook The Soundtrack of this video: Soundcloud: https://bit.ly/38aJ6He Bandcamp: https://bit.ly/2rksOuQ Youtube: https://bit.ly/2CZ6PeN Facebook: http://bit.ly/2qW6bY4 🐦🐧🐤 PATREON BIRD ARMY 🐤🐧🐦 ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ Many Thanks to our wonderful Patreons from http://kgs.link/patreon who support us every month and made this video possible: Patrick Hall, Evan Wenden, riz, Nick Rose, Kevin, Patrick Huizinga, Mike Chang, Deddy Jobson, David Nir, Danny Mill, Kai Hebeler, Gabriel Averett, Pierre Xavier, Rohan Kapoor, Bray Demonbreun, Olivier L, Jared Capelle, Mike, Pierre Krenn, Kristofer Kirss, The Captain, Имяя Фамилияя, Marie Samira, Hekmon, Dsurian, Martina, William Wold, Carston Cook, Daniel Bruce, Milan Juza, michal pol, Dmitry Sadakov, Brian Tieskoetter, kagami suigin, Rosamelia, Amir Johnson, Spencer Byars, Jarrod Parsons, Tayler Martin, bmwniquester, Saito Nakamura, Arnulf Kraan, Emilia Liu, Roosevelt Perry, Frank Blood, Máté Szabó, Kasper Kylmälä, Zach Riddle, Damian Campbell, XeleX55, Johann Pardanaud, Cemil Urganci, 3theNet

personaldevelopment

Personal Development

2nd edition of our gratitude journal is now available for pre-order: https://shop.kurzgesagt.org/
WORLDWIDE SHIPPING IS AVAILABLE!

We want to get you the best shipping fees. So If you’re located in the EU, please order from our EU-warehouse. If you’re located anywhere else in the world, please go to our World Wide Shop. (The link is the same you will be asked to choose your location once you are there.)
Thanks to everyone for the support!

Sources: https://sites.google.com/view/sources-dissatisfaction/

Everybody is familiar with the feeling that things are not as they should be. That you are not successful enough, your relationships not satisfying enough. That you don’t have the things you crave.

In this video we want to talk about one of the strongest predictors of how happy people are, how easily they make friends and how good they are at dealing with hardship. An antidote against dissatisfaction so to speak: Gratitude. 


OUR CHANNELS
▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀
German Channel: https://kgs.link/youtubeDE 
Spanish Channel: https://kgs.link/youtubeES 


HOW CAN YOU SUPPORT US?
▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀
This is how we make our living and it would be a pleasure if you support us!

Get Merch designed with ❤ from https://kgs.link/shop  
Join the Patreon Bird Army 🐧 https://kgs.link/patreon  


DISCUSSIONS & SOCIAL MEDIA
▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀
Reddit:            https://kgs.link/reddit
Instagram:     https://kgs.link/instagram
Twitter:           https://kgs.link/twitter
Facebook:      https://kgs.link/facebook
Discord:          https://kgs.link/discord
Newsletter:    https://kgs.link/newsletter


OUR VOICE
▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀
The Kurzgesagt voice is from 
Steve Taylor:  https://kgs.link/youtube-voice


OUR MUSIC ♬♪
▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀
700+ minutes of Kurzgesagt Soundtracks by Epic Mountain:

Spotify:            https://kgs.link/music-spotify
Soundcloud:   https://kgs.link/music-soundcloud
Bandcamp:     https://kgs.link/music-bandcamp
Youtube:          https://kgs.link/music-youtube
Facebook:       https://kgs.link/music-facebook

The Soundtrack of this video:
Soundcloud: https://bit.ly/38aJ6He
Bandcamp: https://bit.ly/2rksOuQ
Youtube: https://bit.ly/2CZ6PeN
Facebook: http://bit.ly/2qW6bY4 
 

🐦🐧🐤 PATREON BIRD ARMY 🐤🐧🐦
▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀
Many Thanks to our wonderful Patreons from http://kgs.link/patreon who support us every month and made this video possible:

Patrick Hall, Evan Wenden, riz, Nick Rose, Kevin, Patrick Huizinga, Mike Chang, Deddy Jobson, David Nir, Danny Mill, Kai Hebeler, Gabriel Averett, Pierre Xavier, Rohan Kapoor, Bray Demonbreun, Olivier L, Jared Capelle, Mike, Pierre Krenn, Kristofer Kirss, The Captain, Имяя Фамилияя, Marie Samira, Hekmon, Dsurian, Martina, William Wold, Carston Cook, Daniel Bruce, Milan Juza, michal pol, Dmitry Sadakov, Brian Tieskoetter, kagami suigin, Rosamelia, Amir Johnson, Spencer Byars, Jarrod Parsons, Tayler Martin, bmwniquester, Saito Nakamura, Arnulf Kraan, Emilia Liu, Roosevelt Perry, Frank Blood, Máté Szabó, Kasper Kylmälä, Zach Riddle, Damian Campbell, XeleX55, Johann Pardanaud, Cemil Urganci, 3theNet

Animation videos explaining things with optimistic nihilism since 12,013.

We’re a team of illustrators, animators, number crunchers and one dog who aim to spark curiosity about science and the world we live in. To us nothing is boring if you tell a good story.

For updates on our videos and other news from the kurzgesagt universe follow us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn.
