Reaping the benefits of gratitude couldn’t be easier.

BY JESSICA STILLMAN, CONTRIBUTOR, INC.COM@ENTRYLEVELREBEL

For Inc.

Photo: Getty Images

If you lift heavy barbells every day, you will soon find it easier to lift heavy barbells. Similarly, research shows that if you look for the positive in life, you will soon find it easier to see the positive. Just as physical exercise alters our muscles, practicing gratitude alters our brain to make optimism easier. And optimism, a range of studies show, is likely to make you a happier and more successful entrepreneur.

Which raises an obvious point. If you want weight lifting to make a difference in your life, you’re going to have to put in significant time and weather significant discomfort. It doesn’t work unless you sweat and strain. Is the same true of gratitude? Will “working out” your brain to give it a more positive attitude involve long hours of demanding exercises?

Happily, science has a clear answer to this question, and it’s one time-starved entrepreneurs will like. Recent studies show that just 15 minutes a day of dead simple gratitude exercises is enough to make a significant change to your mental well-being.

15 minutes a day leads to six months of benefits

This happy insight comes courtesy of a team of Dutch researchers who recently recruited 200 volunteers for a study. The participants were randomly assigned to one of three groups. The control group did nothing different. Another group focused on performing acts of self-kindness, like taking a bubble bath or buying themselves a treat. A final group was asked to do a gratitude exercise for just 10 to 15 minutes a day.

After six weeks, how did the three groups fare? While just 13 percent of the control group and 19 percent of the self-care group reported greater well-being after six weeks, nearly a third of those practicing gratitude felt better. Even more impressively, the grateful group were still feeling the positive effects of the exercises six months later.

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