Gratitude is one of the powerful emotions that can provide you with a number of health benefits that would totally transform your life for the better. A lot of people don’t seem to appreciate the power that gratitude has and you will be way far ahead of everyone from reading this article and applying the techniques in it to develop your attitude of gratitude.
Author, William Arthur Ward, once said, “Gratitude can transform common days into thanksgivings, turn routine jobs into joy, and change ordinary opportunities into blessings.” Gratitude is the unique quality of being entirely thankful for what you have, as well as always being ready to appreciate and help others. It is one of the primary keys to living a healthier, happier and prosperous life. For when you show gratitude for what you have, you are content with your life and positive about all that it has to offer.
It is often much more comfortable to remember the bad experiences in our lives, rather than the good. When unfortunate things happen to us, we tend to spend a significant amount of time and energy on thinking about what went wrong. By taking the time to increase our experience and depth of gratitude, we can start to balance out these negative thoughts. When we focus on the right thoughts, memories, and feelings from our lives, we can begin to gain numerous positive benefits and opportunities that further enrich our daily lives.
“Acknowledging the good that you already have in your life is the foundation for all abundance”. – Eckhart Tolle
When you genuinely feel grateful in your heart and choosing to articulate it through your words and your actions, you’ll be able to grow beyond your self-imposed limits and achieve a life of greatness and happiness. Being able to put your problems into perspective and find the good in every situation will help to keep you grounded and encourage you to nurture those in your life that you love.
Practising gratitude can have numerous positive benefits, both physically and psychologically but why do so many of us fail to practice gratitude in their daily lives? The most straightforward answer is that we are taught to be ambitious and always striving to be better. However, when you practice an attitude of gratitude, you can open your life to more possibilities and achieve the greatness that you seek.
If you feel there is lack of gratitude in your life and are afraid that it may be creating a void, the time is now to take action and learn how you can develop gratitude, get out of the rut and to live a happier life. If you are currently in a difficult situation in your life and think that it is impossible for you to be thankful, then it’s time you learned how to cultivate gratitude and achieve that greatness you’ve been dreaming of. With your determination and effort, you can quickly develop a sense of gratitude and become content with yourself and your life.
Gratitude, like any skill, it can be learnt and developed into a daily habit. Whether it’s in the form of journaling or taking a few moments daily to appreciate what’s around, your life can be transformed significantly. To enjoy the many mental, physical and emotional benefits of gratitude, you have to allow yourself to look around you and have a little bit of introspection. There is quite a lot of benefits that come with being grateful and this article only covers a few, mostly the health benefits. However, you can go on and find out the rest as they’ll benefits you hugely.
The Top Surprising and Proven Health Benefits of Having An Attitude of Gratitude
Improved Relationships
Nowadays we live life at a frantic pace and it is easy to take our loved ones for granted in this situation. So take a moment and give thought to all of your important relationships and the times when you were truly grateful to each of these people. A lot of people make the mistake of assuming that their loved ones know what they are thinking or feeling. This is not a good idea and you should always let those that you love into your life more so that they always know how much they matter to you.
Be grateful toward your partner can improve numerous aspects of your relationship, according to a recent study published in the Journal of Theoretical Social Psychology. This includes stronger feelings of connectedness and overall satisfaction as a couple. Being grateful for each other can significantly help your love life! areas a person as well. If your partner is a very thoughtful person, very compassionate, very generous and so on then tell them how much you appreciate these qualities that they have. They will really appreciate this and probably respond by telling you how much they are grateful to have you in their life.
Gratitude Promote Better Sleep
Feeling grateful can help you sleep better, increases your duration and also decreases the time it takes for you to fall asleep. This is a result of the activation of the hypothalamus by the feeling of gratitude, thus sending you into a deep sleep! Taking at least 15 minutes at the end of the day to journal what you’re grateful for has been found to improve your sleep significantly most likely because you have more positive thoughts before you go to sleep, which can help to soothe the nervous system.
If you are going to make a daily gratitude list, or keep a gratitude journal, it’s better to do it just before going to bed. This will apparently make a huge difference between being groggy and full of morning energy! Remember a healthy mind gives us the chance to have a healthy body.
Reduces Depression
Gratitude is powerful and by focusing on at-least three good things in your life, you’re bound to improve your depressive state in a considerable way thus bringing overall happiness to your life. By simply writing for sending notes of ‘thank you’ is believed to have the ability to increase long term happiness by up to 10%. Robert Emmons did a study which confirmed this in his study to find the link between gratitude and wellbeing. Other several studies also confirmed this and state that having a gratitude journal can act as an antidote or treatment for depression, whereas others showed that keeping a gratitude journal decreased depression on participants by up to 30% for the entire duration of the study.
Allows For More Patience
There is evidence that people who felt grateful for the little everyday things in their lives were more patient and better able to make sensible decisions. This is in comparison to those who didn’t feel thankful on a daily basis. As you probably know, decisions made abruptly to satisfy short term urges never bring good results and the great news is that individuals who practise gratitude develop more patience. This allows them to make the right decisions.
Gives You Happiness That Lasts
Numerous things can give you a boost of happiness, from a compliment to a sugary treat. Unfortunately, these kinds of instant gratification can quickly disappear and leave you craving more. Gratitude, on the other hand, is something that can lead to a much more sustainable form of happiness because it isn’t based in that immediate gratification, but rather a state of mind. If you take the time to regularly express gratitude and thankfulness for the things in your life, you are more than likely to see long-lasting happiness.
Happiness and gratitude have been found to be significantly related as stated by researchers of Positive Psychology. The relationship is mind-blowing and that is why it should be encouraged to be a daily practice.
“I would maintain that thanks are the highest form of thought, and that gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder” Sacasas, 2010
Improves Self-Esteem
When you focus on the negative things in your life, it can become extremely easy to feel discouraged and down. We tend to be more demanding on ourselves than others, but keeping a gratitude journal can help you stay focused on your achievements. Showing gratitude can help to reduce the natural tendencies we have to compare ourselves to those around us, which can be detrimental to our self-esteem. When you show gratitude for what you have, you will harbour less resentment and jealousy toward others and have a greater feeling of self-worth.
It Increases Positivity
When you write things down that you are grateful for in your life, you will naturally become more optimistic and confident. Focusing on the good in your life provides less power to the negative emotions and greater power to the positive ones. Although you may have positive thoughts come to mind throughout the day, taking the time to write them down makes them more concrete. One other great thing is that gratefulness allows you to have broader access to different social networks, more friends and improves general relationships. Majority of people wants to hang around positive people!
Gratitude Increases Your Vitality
There is quite a lot of evidence to show that indeed gratitude help improves our health in general and even boost our metabolism thus giving us more vitality and energy. The evidence is massive and has shown that grateful people have a high level of energy, they’re more confident and relaxed hence allowing them to live a healthier and happier lifestyle. Because of these benefits, it’s now believed that having the attitude of gratitude prolongs your lifespan.
Final Word
Starting an Attitude of Gratitude and maintaining a journal can be a difficult task to undertake at first because it is just something else that you have to remember to do every day. However, after a while, the effort you put into showing your gratitude every day will be well worth it in the long run. As I mentioned above, it’s a skill that needs to be practised every day for it to become a habit. Multiple studies have shown the power of gratitude and its benefits and the evidence is undisputable that supports that Gratitude is beneficial for our bodies, minds and souls.
So be encouraged to continue to push yourself to do it every night until that habit is fully built, find ways to motivate yourself to do it if you’re struggling. The best time to start a gratitude journal is now. What you can also do is refer back to when you started to your gratitude journal, look at how you set your initial goals and what state your mind was in and compare to now and reflect on the changes that you experienced, the challenges you faced, and the progress you’ve made on your journey to a better you through gratitude.
Remember, embracing an attitude of gratitude is a choice and a personal growth that needs to be trained and honed to reap all the benefits it has to offer. Be persistent with your regular practice and keep the idea at the front of your mind every single day if you want to experience real, long-term changes in your life. Gratitude is as much about giving back to others as it is about helping yourself. By practising gratitude, you can lead a truly fulfilling and happy life.
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