Gratitude and Your Healthier Life

I’ve been learning more about the health and life benefits of gratitude. We are now entering the holiday season so it seems doubly on topic. I was gifted with a mother who learned to find gratitude in all situations later in her life. I’ve often thought back to that time and how I might incorporate more gratitude into my life.

While gratitude is a needed quality for our lives at any stage, it becomes something we can more readily access as we approach and live in retirement. As we age, it turns out that our ability to feel grateful goes up. The amygdala, in our limbic system, becomes less reactive to negative information and increases our ability to react to positive information. Being able to focus in on the positive helps us more readily notice what we are grateful for. And that will bring us all sorts of benefits as we age.

What are the benefits? Here are several of the ways that cultivating gratitude in our lives has been shown in several studies to better our wellbeing:

• The practice of gratitude increases amount of sleep and quality of sleep. People who write down what they are grateful for before bedtime actually sleep better.
• Gratitude increases our self-esteem, which supports mental wellbeing and peak performance. 
  
• It softens the impact of social comparison, something that is so common  today with social media and even in our political climate.
  
• Gratitude helps us build relationships more easily. Showing your appreciation, big or small, to another person opens them to you and creates the desire to have conversation.
  
• Gratitude improves our physical health. We will have fewer aches and pains.
• Gratitude lowers blood pressure, helps us build higher good cholesterol and lower bad cholesterol.
• People using gratitude in their lives tend to exercise more often.
• There is some evidence that the practice of gratitude may add as much as 10 years of longevity!
• Gratitude reduces anxiety and depression, and also toxic emotions like envy and regret and resentment.
• It helps us overcome trauma and lower the rate of post-traumatic stress disorder.
• Practicing gratitude increases our level of life satisfaction.
• And gratitude helps us develop more resilience in adversity.

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Pretty impressive, right? Would you like to add more of the benefits of gratitude to your life?

Here are a few easy ways to integrate it into your life:

1. If you like to write, make a running list of all the things you are grateful for and write about why you are grateful.
2. Jot a thank you note to someone you appreciate regularly. Some people do this daily!
3. End your day by coming up with three things you are grateful for in your day.
4. Take a couple deep breaths and be in the moment when you are doing the things you enjoy and are with people you care about to fully appreciate them.
5. Incorporate gratitude into your prayer and meditation time.
   
6. Focus in on the parts of your life you enjoy the most, whether that is hobbies or exercise or volunteering. Make sure to go there in your mind when in the midst of stressful situations.

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What a fun and happy way to improve your health, your life and your longevity! What do you have to be grateful for today?

Sources:

1. Coxwell, Kathleen. Be Thankful as You Near Retirement--It Improves Health and Happiness. Forbes.com, November 9, 2016.
2. Harvard Health Publishing. Giving Thanks Can Make You Happier. https://www.health.harvard.edu/healthbeat/giving-thanks-can-make-you-happier
   
3. Morin, Amy. 7 Scientifically Proven Benefits Of Gratitude That Will Motivate You To Give Thanks Year-Round. Forbes.com, Nov 23, 2014