Have you ever felt stressed? It’s not very pleasant. Most healthcare workers feel stress every day. Often that prolonged stress leads to emotional exhaustion. There are different ways to deal with this, but they can take too long or are expensive. What if there was a simpler way to reduce emotional exhaustion? Many studies show that gratitude can increase happiness.

We asked healthcare workers to write a letter of gratitude. We assessed their levels of emotional exhaustion before and after this assignment. After using our method, healthcare workers had lower levels of emotional exhaustion. They also said they were happier.