Playing with Thanks: Using Gratitude to Enhance Performance and Well-Being in Sport
By: Teddy Chu, MKin, MC, RP (Qualifying), RCC
Athletes and coaches, before you read beyond this point, I invite you to think about your most recent game or competition. If you are neither an athlete or a coach, reflect on yesterday’s events. How did things go? How did you perform? What happened? What events come to mind?
If your mind leans toward mishaps, mistakes, or negative experiences, then your brain is doing its job! We are wired to have a negativity bias, and it takes practice to work against it. When athletes approach me with the need to enhance their mental performance, they tend to focus on what is going wrong or what needs to be fixed. This can help correct and improve behaviours; however, it is equally important to attend to what’s going well. One way this can be done is through the practice of gratitude, which has been shown to enhance athlete performance and well-being.
This blog has been designed for you to choose sections that are relevant to you or interest you most (see key points below). I encourage you to read from start to finish for an enriched understanding of gratitude. Whether you’re jumping in à la carte style or here for the full-course meal, please choose your adventure!
What is Gratitude?
Gratitude is a state of simple appreciation and a sense of abundance. It’s the tendency to focus on what’s going well. Gratitude can be a private experience in the form of self-reflection or expressed outwardly toward others. Ultimately, it’s a form of appreciation for someone, something, or experiences. Note that there is a difference between feeling versus expressing gratitude.
Broaden-and-Build Theory
Before I introduce you to the wonders of gratitude and how to practice it, I want to take a quick moment to explain the theory of how gratitude works. If this doesn’t interest you, feel free to skip ahead to the main course – this is an appetizer to get your minds warmed up a bit.
According to Barbara Fredrickson’s broaden-and-build theory, positive emotions help people build resources and enhance coping. Positive emotions create an ‘upward spiral’ which broadens our awareness, builds resiliency, and enhances our well-being. Negative emotions narrow our attention to limited choices and perspectives, and positive emotions can undo the lingering effects of these negative emotions.
That upward spiral really boosted me. If I had let the initial disappointment run its course, it might have led me to focus on all the things I was missing out on. This could have led to loneliness, boredom, frustration, or even jealousy of those same long-distance friends, negative emotions that then narrow my view. Contrast this to the possibilities sparked by positive emotions.
In short, gratitude is one of many positive emotions that can cause an upward spiral and enhance our lives.
The Hedonic Treadmill
Sorry - one more theory to explain why gratitude works. I promise this will help you understand its magic better. Who doesn’t love a second appetizer? (If this doesn’t make sense, then you’re facing the consequence of reading and skipping ahead!) Again, for you skim-readers out there, if you’re looking for practical nuggets, feel free to keep calm and skip on. As someone who likes to sometimes eat dessert first, I’m not judging.
The hedonic treadmill, or hedonic adaptation, is a concept explaining that our emotional responses to experiences, either positive or negative, will fade over time, and we will return to a baseline level of happiness. Imagine an athlete who wins a championship competition and feels an extreme high shortly after this success. Eventually, this wears off, and they habituate to this feeling. Another example can be portrayed where an injured athlete fully recovers and finally returns. They may feel a huge sense of excitement upon returning, then eventually forget about the hardship they endured when they were injured and unable to compete.
Because our emotional responses dissipate over time, hedonic adaptation poses the possibility that we will take experiences, people, or things for granted. Gratitude works against the hedonic treadmill by effortfully reflecting on what is going well. With a deliberate focus on life’s positive experiences, we disrupt habituation and remind ourselves to be grateful.
Benefits of Gratitude
Need a reason to practice gratitude? Here are some delicious findings for you to gobble up. Generally, gratitude is related to decreased stress, envy, substance use, anxiety, and depression. It’s also related to increased well-being, optimism, life satisfaction, and relationship satisfaction.
In sport specifically, higher gratitude is related to higher self-esteem, better coach-athlete relationships, increased sport satisfaction, decreased psychological distress, and lower burnout. Clearly, gratitude can play a key role in shaping positive experiences for athletes.
Skills for Developing Gratitude
Alright, you made it! Here are some skills you can start adopting immediately to cultivate a sense of gratitude.
Benefit Finding
This entails finding the positives or silver linings in situations. Whether athletes are faced with adverse or positive experiences, benefit finding can increase well-being, personal growth, and closeness with others. It can also lessen stress and anxiety. Examples of possible benefits in the below sport scenarios:
Losing a competition: opportunity to reflect on areas of improvement, focusing on personal and teammates’ highlights of the game/match for continued growth
Being an injured athlete: opportunity to develop a resilient mindset and practice mental skills, increased time for developing other areas of your sport (e.g., technical or tactical aspects), becoming closer with and leaning on your social support network, a chance to catch up in areas of life outside of sport
Elevation
Elevation is the warm feeling and desire to be morally better when we witness others doing a good deed. This feeling can inspire us to be altruistic. Feelings of elevation may result when we witness or experience acts of gratitude. As a result, this may propagate further gratitude. Examples that might evoke elevation in sport:
An injured marathon runner expressing gratitude for assistance across the finish line from another runner
Witnessing a teammate thank another teammate for encouraging and supporting them after a poor performance
Savouring
Savouring, also known as reminiscing, involves intentionally reflecting on situations with positive emotions. To savour also means to be totally immersed in the pleasure of a moment or experience, making it last as long as possible. Savouring leads to the likelihood of feeling positive emotions at a later time. Examples of savouring in sport:
Taking in the moment of winning a championship competition
Looking around at your teammates, appreciating each person’s strengths and the uniqueness they each bring to the team
Reflecting on the opportunity to play and compete, including what’s contributed to this
Contrasting
Contrasting is another skill that can be used to be more grateful. This can be done by reflecting on unfavourable alternative outcomes or past experiences by contrasting them with the present. Doing so can strengthen the appreciation for what someone has rather than what they don’t have. Examples of contrasting in sport:
A student-athlete remembering they used to commute for an hour to and from training versus now being a 10-minute walk away, freeing up more time
An athlete appreciating the amount of playing time they’re getting now versus being on the bench last season
When an athlete successfully earns their spot on a team that they’ve been consistently cut/de-selected from numerous times in previous years
Considerations for Creating a Gratitude Culture
Gratitude in sport can come with challenges. Competitive sport environments, often adopting a ‘push through it’ and ‘tough it out’ mentality, can be difficult for creating an atmosphere that values gratitude. Athletes might be viewed as ‘sucking up’, have discomfort with giving or receiving gratitude, or see lack of value in being grateful.
Gratitude behaviours are more common in women since men are more likely to encounter negative reactions when talking about their feelings; however, gratitude is beneficial for both. It is, therefore important to consider how to implement gratitude in sport. The following recommendations for those participating in sport environments (e.g., coaches, trainers, healthcare professionals, parents, athletes) can help with fostering a culture of gratitude.
With gratitude,
Teddy Chu
Registered Psychotherapist (Qualifying) | Registered Clinical Counsellor
Client Focus: Teens (14+), Athletes, Teams, Adults
Modalities: Emotion-Focused Therapy (EFT), Internal Family Systems (IFS), Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy (AEDP), Person-Centred, Psychodynamic, Sensorimotor Psychotherapy, Sport Psychology/Mental Skills Training, Self-Compassion
Common Concerns:Anger, Anxiety, Confidence, Depression, Grief, Identity and Self-Development, LGBTQ, Life Transitions, Men’s Concerns, Parenting, Performance Enhancement, Relationship Issues, Self-Esteem, Trauma
Areas of Practice: Sport Psychology, Mental Performance, GBQ (gay, bisexual, queer) Men, Relationship Issues
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