“Dear Diary…”:Exploring the Experience of Gratitude Among Oncology Patients

Through the years, gratitude has been found to facilitate well-being through a combination of reflection, positive emotions and interpersonal relationships, adaptive social behaviors and is associated with both psychological and physical health. Literature has also shown that a conscious deliberate experience of these emotions, especially gratitude, can help individuals better appreciate their life and possessions. Oncology patients often have to be hospitalized in inpatient settings depriving them of the opportunity to avail of professional mental health services, even if they have the resources to do so. Through the current study researchers aimed to explore whether simple gratitude exercises, adapted from a Positive psychology paradigm contributed to the subjective well-being of oncology patients. Participants (N=8) were required to maintain a gratitude journal for one month following which an in-depth interview was conducted to gauge the experiences of their illness and other areas of their life in relevance to the exercise. Eight interviews were transcribed and analyzed using thematic analysis.