"Never worry about your sustenance that has already been arranged, the important thing is that you continue to be grateful".
A word that needs to be planted in the minds of our society nowadays to ensure mental health and also an optimal level of life satisfaction because not thinking too much about something that is not yet certain is better because this will reduce the burden on an individual's mind.
However, this situation is not a measuring stick that shows that we do not need to strive to achieve something.
Our job as humans is to keep trying to achieve a goal without having to think too much about the outcome. When we think too much about the end result of something, things are likely to be an obstacle to achieving something.
Life in this age full of trials requires every individual to have a level of mental,physical and a high sense of self to ensure life well-being when the time comes.
To make sure the community in this age is able to survive a challenging life , then it is important for us to form gratitude in today’s generation.
The fact is that the level of difficulty in life will increase over time due to several factors, whether internal or external.
Based on research that has been done, gratitude is often refered with a variety of positive outcomes including feelings of greater belonging, positive impact, optimism and a high level of confidence.
The trait of gratitude is said to have a significant direct positive relationship with an individual's level of life satisfaction.
This trait is important in shaping a better life by strengthening mental and physical health, ensuring more pro-social behavior with high quality relationships. This situation will drive an individual to live a more meaningful life.
A study conducted by Stoeckel and colleagues in 2016, found that individuals who are grateful are more resilient in facing life's challenges than individuals who lack gratitude.
Individuals who are more grateful will experience less anxiety, stress and depression.
Gratitude is a subjective action based on the views and knowledge of an individual.
However, the act of being grateful is one of the indicators that can show the level of morals, maturity and well-being of an individual's life.
The word gratitude itself may be able to be spoken on the lips. However, the question is whether the feeling of gratitude can be felt in the heart of a person at once, emerging from the actions that reflect that feeling of gratitude in life.
This situation can be seen when there are a few groups of children and teenagers in the generation Z and Gen Alpha category nowadays who lack gratitude and gratitude when receiving gifts from others.
This situation can be seen when the community starts talking about the attitude of a few children and teenagers who question the amount of money given by the host during the tradition of visiting in conjunction with the Hari Raya Aidilfitri celebration.
The situation worsened when there were also adults who were also parents who openly expressed their disagreeable opinions and questioned the amount of raya money given to children in the social media status section until it went viral and became a hot discussion among netizens.
Although in fact the amount of money given is not a task on the host but it is more in the nature of entertaining the guests present based on the ability of the host.
Based on the case, we can see the failure of adults to set a good example for children and teenagers, questioning the extent to which we are able to ensure that the future generation that will lead this country will inherit the qualities that are capable of forming a prosperous society in future.
As a result, ignoring grateful conduct should not become socially acceptable.
A 2020 study found a strong association between appreciation and an individual's degree of well-being, particularly among adults and teenagers aged 10 to 19.
However, the research of this link is still unclear for children under the age of ten, because the average five-year-old child may already recognize many events that can elicit sentiments of gratitude.
Furthermore, children are able to understand the things to be grateful for based on the child's self-understanding, as well as reporting from the child's perspective.
Finally, the habit of being grateful to others for a favor must begin in childhood. Despite this, a child under the age of ten has limited knowledge. At the same time, parents have an important effect on their children conduct and character development.
As the proverb goes, "Like the cake, like the mold". The development of gratitude will foster positive morals and behavior in this community while also ensuring that the community's mental well-being is at its best.
AUTHOR DR. NURUL ASHIKIN ALIAS, is a Research Fellow at the Ungku Aziz Center for Development Studies (UAC), University of Malaya, and can be contacted at
This article is translated from the original Malay article. It is the author's personal view and does not necessarily represent the official view or position of RTM.