Content starts here
CLOSE ×

Search

Reply
Honored Social Butterfly

Gratitude as a Health Tool

Gratitude can improve your life, and may even save it! No really. Dartmouth posted this web page on the importance of gratitude: http://www.umassd.edu/counseling/forparents/reccomendedreadings/theimportanceofgratitude/

 

Here’s a clip from that page:

 

"Researchers ... are turning their attention to the study of gratitude and its relationship to health and mental well-being. I will present some of their findings here to help us understand how gratitude is helpful and why it's important to our well-being.

 

People who keep gratitude journals on a weekly basis have been found to exercise more regularly, have fewer physical symptoms, feel better about their lives as a whole, and feel more optimistic about their upcoming week as compared to those who keep journals recording the stressors or neutral events of their lives.


Daily discussion of gratitude results in higher reported levels of alertness, enthusiasm, determination, attentiveness, energy, and sleep duration and quality. Grateful people also report lower levels of depression and stress, although they do not deny or ignore the negative aspects of life.


People who think about, talk about, or write about gratitude daily are more likely to report having helped someone with a personal problem or offered emotional support to another person.


Those with a disposition towards gratitude are found to place less importance on material goods, are less likely to judge their own or others success in terms of possessions accumulated, are less envious of wealthy people, and are more likely to share their possessions with others.


Emerging research suggests that daily gratitude practices may have some preventative benefits in warding of coronary artery disease."

"The key to success is to keep growing in all areas of life - mental, emotional, spiritual, as well as physical." Julius Erving
195,760 Views
640
Report
Honored Social Butterfly

Grateful to have a fantastic tribe. 

 

 

"The key to success is to keep growing in all areas of life - mental, emotional, spiritual, as well as physical." Julius Erving
20,744 Views
0
Report
Contributor

I don't think gratitude is meant to be "used" for anything but itself. True gratitude is a deep feeling I have in my body and mind for anything, from something tiny to something huge, anything at that moment I feel deeply fortunate to have.  Gratitude is more about experience than things for me now.  It took many years for me to experience true gratitude for life, people, perfect moments, beauty, my garden,  a really great book  --  not really about "stuff," or things I got. So yes, I am sure gratitude is good for us physically and mentally, because it brings us out of "mememe" and into caring abouat the rest of the world.

20,753 Views
1
Report
Honored Social Butterfly

Grateful for the great people met at the South Dakota Senior games! Awesome event; even better people!

 

"The key to success is to keep growing in all areas of life - mental, emotional, spiritual, as well as physical." Julius Erving
20,778 Views
0
Report
Honored Social Butterfly

Grateful for firefighters.

 

 

"The key to success is to keep growing in all areas of life - mental, emotional, spiritual, as well as physical." Julius Erving
20,864 Views
0
Report
Honored Social Butterfly

Grateful for a home gym.

 

 

"The key to success is to keep growing in all areas of life - mental, emotional, spiritual, as well as physical." Julius Erving
20,890 Views
0
Report
Honored Social Butterfly

Grateful for planet earth; hoping we humans take better care of it.

 

"The key to success is to keep growing in all areas of life - mental, emotional, spiritual, as well as physical." Julius Erving
20,936 Views
0
Report
Honored Social Butterfly

Grateful to have witnessed the lift-off of seven hot air balloons yesterday shortly after sunrise.  

 

 Not what we saw yesterday, but a fun timelapse of hot air balloons taking off at a NM festival:

 

"The key to success is to keep growing in all areas of life - mental, emotional, spiritual, as well as physical." Julius Erving
21,025 Views
0
Report
Honored Social Butterfly

Grateful for difference. I wake up and check weather reports for all upcoming race locations, then swing by athlete sites to give kudos support to any friends who posted. DH wakes up and checks tech news and is over there talking enthusiastically to the video about the new Star Wars droid, BB-9E. Seriously cute, that man. Seriously different. You know, from me. 🙂 

 

 

"The key to success is to keep growing in all areas of life - mental, emotional, spiritual, as well as physical." Julius Erving
21,000 Views
0
Report
Honored Social Butterfly

Grateful for justice. Thanks, you-know-who!

 

fairness is justice.gif

"The key to success is to keep growing in all areas of life - mental, emotional, spiritual, as well as physical." Julius Erving
21,539 Views
0
Report
Honored Social Butterfly

I am grateful for senior games events and senior athletes. 

 

"The key to success is to keep growing in all areas of life - mental, emotional, spiritual, as well as physical." Julius Erving
21,488 Views
0
Report
Honored Social Butterfly

Grateful for open doors ... even if it is only left open a crack ... LOL.

 

 

"The key to success is to keep growing in all areas of life - mental, emotional, spiritual, as well as physical." Julius Erving
21,455 Views
0
Report
Honored Social Butterfly

Grateful for cycling friends.

 

"The key to success is to keep growing in all areas of life - mental, emotional, spiritual, as well as physical." Julius Erving
21,297 Views
2
Report
Honored Social Butterfly

Grateful to know my place in the universe (and astronomy club nights out ... I see you Dumbell Nebula!).

 

"The key to success is to keep growing in all areas of life - mental, emotional, spiritual, as well as physical." Julius Erving
21,411 Views
1
Report
Honored Social Butterfly

Grateful for the knowledge that persistence pays off.

 

Persistence speech from The Founder.

"The key to success is to keep growing in all areas of life - mental, emotional, spiritual, as well as physical." Julius Erving
21,397 Views
0
Report
Honored Social Butterfly

Grateful DH let me sleep in today. 🙂

 

 

"The key to success is to keep growing in all areas of life - mental, emotional, spiritual, as well as physical." Julius Erving
21,283 Views
0
Report
Honored Social Butterfly


@Epster wrote:

Gratitude can improve your life, and may even save it! No really. Dartmouth posted this web page on the importance of gratitude: http://www.umassd.edu/counseling/forparents/reccomendedreadings/theimportanceofgratitude/

 

Here’s a clip from that page:

 

"Researchers ... are turning their attention to the study of gratitude and its relationship to health and mental well-being. I will present some of their findings here to help us understand how gratitude is helpful and why it's important to our well-being.

 

People who keep gratitude journals on a weekly basis have been found to exercise more regularly, have fewer physical symptoms, feel better about their lives as a whole, and feel more optimistic about their upcoming week as compared to those who keep journals recording the stressors or neutral events of their lives.


Daily discussion of gratitude results in higher reported levels of alertness, enthusiasm, determination, attentiveness, energy, and sleep duration and quality. Grateful people also report lower levels of depression and stress, although they do not deny or ignore the negative aspects of life.


People who think about, talk about, or write about gratitude daily are more likely to report having helped someone with a personal problem or offered emotional support to another person.


Those with a disposition towards gratitude are found to place less importance on material goods, are less likely to judge their own or others success in terms of possessions accumulated, are less envious of wealthy people, and are more likely to share their possessions with others.


Emerging research suggests that daily gratitude practices may have some preventative benefits in warding of coronary artery disease."


 

I'm grateful for faith that it will all work out.

 

 

"The key to success is to keep growing in all areas of life - mental, emotional, spiritual, as well as physical." Julius Erving
21,278 Views
0
Report
Honored Social Butterfly

Woo hoo! Grateful for a brand new day!

 

 

"The key to success is to keep growing in all areas of life - mental, emotional, spiritual, as well as physical." Julius Erving
20,312 Views
5
Report
Honored Social Butterfly

I'm grateful to be comfortable in my own skin.

 

 

"The key to success is to keep growing in all areas of life - mental, emotional, spiritual, as well as physical." Julius Erving
20,242 Views
4
Report
Honored Social Butterfly

Grateful for last night's hard rain. wooo wheee but the hillside is loving it!

 

 

"The key to success is to keep growing in all areas of life - mental, emotional, spiritual, as well as physical." Julius Erving
20,224 Views
3
Report
Honored Social Butterfly

Free irrigation does not irritate, instead it invites gratitude to trickle out.

 

"The key to success is to keep growing in all areas of life - mental, emotional, spiritual, as well as physical." Julius Erving
20,218 Views
2
Report
Honored Social Butterfly

Grateful for super hard workouts and weight training sessions, and time to make tweaks before our next 3 races. Zoom, zoom! 🙂

 

 

"The key to success is to keep growing in all areas of life - mental, emotional, spiritual, as well as physical." Julius Erving
20,221 Views
1
Report
Honored Social Butterfly

Grateful for a training route with a 6% hill and a race route with 2% hills. Rawr!

 

 

"The key to success is to keep growing in all areas of life - mental, emotional, spiritual, as well as physical." Julius Erving
20,234 Views
0
Report
Honored Social Butterfly

Grateful that the 300ish calories in the small dipped ice cream cone I enjoyed today are no match for the nearly 9,000 calories I burned off this weekend. 

 

And that it was the one and only ice cream cone I consumed in the month of July. Huzzbah!

 

See ya never, ice cream calories!See ya never, ice cream calories!

 

 

 

 

 

"The key to success is to keep growing in all areas of life - mental, emotional, spiritual, as well as physical." Julius Erving
20,517 Views
10
Report
Honored Social Butterfly

Grateful for progress on a number of fronts. Rah!

 

progress.jpg

 

 

 

 

"The key to success is to keep growing in all areas of life - mental, emotional, spiritual, as well as physical." Julius Erving
20,996 Views
9
Report
Honored Social Butterfly

Grateful to be awash in possibility.

 

aim high.jpg

"The key to success is to keep growing in all areas of life - mental, emotional, spiritual, as well as physical." Julius Erving
21,056 Views
8
Report
Honored Social Butterfly

Grateful for others willing to work the seam of recumbent racing expansion. These people rock!

 

"The key to success is to keep growing in all areas of life - mental, emotional, spiritual, as well as physical." Julius Erving
21,068 Views
7
Report
Honored Social Butterfly

Grateful for rabbits that lead to gold. (That's cycling-speak for: "Thanks everyone who ever rode the trail before me and made me a better cyclist; imma gonna chase that gold medal now.")

 

 

"The key to success is to keep growing in all areas of life - mental, emotional, spiritual, as well as physical." Julius Erving
21,044 Views
6
Report
Honored Social Butterfly

Grateful for the Nebraska Senior Games that let four Coloradans make history this weekend.

 

 

"The key to success is to keep growing in all areas of life - mental, emotional, spiritual, as well as physical." Julius Erving
20,886 Views
5
Report
Honored Social Butterfly

So grateful for this rain! After last night's fender bender* coming home from the Senior Games, we both need the relaxing sounds. Yes!!!

 

 

*No one was hurt, though the woman who hit us messed up her car when she ran into the recumbent rack on the back of our car. We're investigating possible stress fracture(s) to the recumbent trike rack and possible damage to one of the trikes, but hopefully will find nothing.

 

"The key to success is to keep growing in all areas of life - mental, emotional, spiritual, as well as physical." Julius Erving
20,885 Views
4
Report
Honored Social Butterfly

Grateful for friends with whom to share good news.

 

"The key to success is to keep growing in all areas of life - mental, emotional, spiritual, as well as physical." Julius Erving
20,696 Views
3
Report
cancel
Showing results for 
Show  only  | Search instead for 
Did you mean: 
Users
Need to Know

NEW: AARP Games Tournament Tuesdays! This week, achieve a top score in Atari Centipede® and you could win $100! Learn More.

AARP Games Tournament Tuesdays

More From AARP