Gratitude as a Health Tool

[Epster]

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."

[Epster]

Grateful for a long to-do list: it keeps me moving!

[Epster]

Grateful to the max to each of the recumbent racers (6 women and 19 men) who showed up to the Dallas Senior Games and raced in 25 MPH wind. Such grit, such determination. Wow and wow again.

[Epster]

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@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."

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[Epster]

Grateful the high winds have stopped. 

[Epster]

Grateful for excellent health.

[Epster]

Grateful (again, still) to live in a bird migration zone, and for brilliant, local birder pals.

[Epster]

In the past 36 hours we have pedaled 115 miles (took us 9 hours on the trikes) annnnnnd we are still energized! We are both super grateful for the experience, the training and the fact that we feel great.

So I guess this could read: we are grateful for the benefits of being active and are glad we're health nuts. 

[Epster]

Grateful for a weekend that starts today, warm weather and a ton of fun on the to-do list.

[Epster]

Grateful for senior games sports directors who are expanding to include recumbent racers. And the racers who are going to show up.

[Epster]

Grateful for faith.

[Epster]

Beyond grateful that another state has, as of yesterday afternoon, added recumbent cycling to their Senior Games events. Rah!

[Epster]

Grateful to be a morning person. Love this time of day!

[Epster]

Grateful to have been wired to deeply enjoy nature and all her colors.

[Epster]

Ridiculously grateful for self-reliance.

[EveRH]

I am grateful that despite the lack of good written directions, I finally got my rebounder assembled yesterday!!

[Epster]

Grateful for this snowstorm and the moisture it will gift to the hillside.

[Epster]

Grateful for dreamers.

[Epster]

Grateful for new opportunities. 

[Epster]

Grateful to live in a bird migration zone. What a fun time we had joining in the President's Day weekend Great Backyard Bird Count! (more info here: http://gbbc.birdcount.org)

[Epster]

Grateful for a long weekend. Yahoooooooooo!

[Epster]

Grateful that this warm weather will hold through the weekend! Yay! Perfect weather AND days off! Woot! I don't even mind that our outside water is still turned off and that I had to carry buckets of water to a dozen fruit trees yesterday. Woo! And! Hoo!

[Epster]

Grateful for good health.

[Epster]

Grateful for romance. 

[Epster]

Grateful for recumbent racing friends. 

[Epster]

Grateful for love. The world would be a bleak place indeed without love.

[Epster]

I'm grateful for having been gifted with the freedom (and moxie, I guess) to pursue whatever careers I wanted. It's made for a wonderful life, chasing down one thing after the other and grabbing the opportunity to don many different hats. 

[EveRH]

I'm grateful that the days are getting longer now; it's good for the spirit to have more sunlight! It's also a lot easier to go places in the evening, if it's not pitch black when you get started!

[Epster]

So grateful for the gift of athleticism, the willingness to push myself faster, harder, farther, the desire to be the best I can be (even if that's third place or even off the podium, for like seeking gratitude, it is the drive to be better that benefits oneself).

[EveRH]

I am grateful that I got all my grocery shopping & a work-out in yesterday, when it was up into the 60's .. because today NJ is under a snow storm warning! It's been "pinging" on the windows, since I got up this morning, and there's a layer of frozen rain building up on the driveways & other hard surfaces .. glad to be home!

I wonder how many people connect dangerous winter driving, with a high level of stress .. which isn't good for our health?! I remember the 29 years I workd for a major public utility, and we were expected to get to work, unless the government officially shut down the roadways. It was very scary .. what I thought of as "white knuckle driving". I am so grateful that's in the distant past!!

[EveRH]

I am grateful to the internet as a health tool!

I love how much information is there, so if you have tests done, you can "do your homework" on the results, even before meeting with your doctor.

I love that most labs & many doctors allow you to make an appointment online, and do it well in advance, so you get the time most convenient for you! And by entering the data ahead of time, you don't get stuck rushing to fill at forms when you get there.