Three Ways to Enhance your Health with Gratitude

November is National Gratitude Month. We can practice being thankful all month long, not just on Thanksgiving, and it may segue into a new healthy habit. 

Start a Gratitude Journal

Gratitude is proven to positively impact psychological, physical, and personal well-being. The impact is even more substantial when we write down what we are thankful for. Robert Emmons, the author of Gratitude Works!: A 21-Day Program for Creating Emotional Prosperity has dedicated the last three decades of his life to understanding the science of how to boost our well-being through ground-breaking research on the power of gratitude. Research has found that people are 25 percent happier if they keep gratitude journals, sleep one-half hour more per evening, and exercise 33 percent more each week than those who do not keep journals. 

Turn that Frown Upside Down

That which you focus on, you strengthen. For example, when you focus on what you are thankful for, you take the focus away from what you want and bring it toward what you have. Gratitude for “what is” brings peace and acceptance into the moment. In the never-ending race for future success, this habit brings inevitable calm. In addition, when you switch your focus from negative thoughts to gratitude, you can cope more effectively with stress and trauma, recover more quickly from illness and enjoy more robust physical health. 

Grateful people experience higher levels of positive emotions such as joy, enthusiasm, love, happiness, and optimism. These emotions stimulate neurotransmitters such as dopamine and serotonin in our brain, which sets off a series of immune-enhancing events in the body. Sarah Pressman, a health psychologist at the University of California, Irvine, has spent her career investigating the link between positive emotions and physical health. She supports the host of studies* showing that more positive people live five to 10 years longer than less positive people. 

Start a Gratitude Jar

In addition to the gratitude journal, you can involve the entire family by starting a gratitude jar. Each member writes down a short gratitude reflection on a colorful slip of paper, folds it, and puts it into the jar daily. Then, at the end of the month, or on Thanksgiving day, you can spend time with family reading each other's entries. This time is a special way to magnify life's blessings and according to the law of attraction, like attracts like, you will most likely multiply your blessings.

Finally, whether or not the 21 days to form a habit is a myth or truth, spending the next month focusing on gratitude will most likely bring you into the holiday season with a brighter, healthier attitude. 

Thank you for reading. I'm grateful for your attention :)

*https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/full/10.1146/annurev-psych-010418-102955