One definition of thankful is expressing gratitude and relief. Did you know there are a number of health benefits when you regularly express gratitude? Gratitude is one of the most researched emotions so there is a lot of data available. Many societies throughout the ages have written about the benefits of gratitude and classical writings have claimed it is “the greatest virtue.” So let’s look at some of these benefits.
There are four areas of health that can improve with the regular practice of expressing gratitude.
- Emotional Health: Gratitude can raise your level of happiness, reduce symptoms of depression, improve your resiliency when life gets challenging, and improve your self-esteem.
- Physical Health: Gratitude can improve your sleep and encourage you to exercise more; one study found that people who kept a gratitude journal were 33% more likely to exercise. It can reduce aches and pains as it releases endogenous opioids within the body. Other health benefits can include lower blood pressure, strengthened immune system, lower stress levels, and help you live longer.
- Social Health: Gratitude can help you to be more understanding, compassionate, helpful, and kind. This will obviously make you much more likable as a person. It can also improve relationships, both personally and professionally. Gratitude can improve decision-making skills and goal achievement.
- Personality Health: Gratitude can help make us more humble, less self-centered, more kind and giving, less materialistically thinking, and more optimistic.
As you can see, practicing gratitude can be very healing to your spirit, soul, and body, this may be why it was claimed as “the greatest virtue.”
So how do we “practice” gratitude?
- Keep a gratitude journal. Making it a daily habit to write down what you are thankful for is one way; this can be especially helpful if done right before bed as it can improve your sleep.
- Write thank you notes to others; not just for gifts received but also for why you are thankful that person is a part of your life.
- Count your blessings. If you aren’t up to daily writing in a gratitude journal, maybe sitting down once a week and writing down your blessings from the week would work for you. This can be a great way to reflect on what went right the past week.
- Meditate by focusing on the good things in your life.
There are so many things to be thankful for and as we have discovered, choosing gratitude can be very health promoting. Do you regularly practice gratitude? What are you most thankful for this Thanksgiving year?
Be blessed and be a blessing,
Heather
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