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 another day, another opportunity to get things right.

[Epster]

Grateful to live in the Rocky Mountains. I luvs me a blanket of snow.

[Maycyres]

Very well written, much helpful us.

[Epster]

@Maycyres Hello and welcome!

They say looking for something to be grateful for is actually beneficial to your health, so feel free to post your own thoughts of gratitude. Do it one time, once a week or everyday until the cows come home. And be well. 🙂

[Epster]

Grateful to have, this, another day. A day of love, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. I'm up for that. 🙂

[Epster]

Though they portend a long, grasshopper-filled summer, I am grateful for these warm spring days. 

[Epster]

Grateful for homegrown fruit. 

[wilful]

Hi Ep - I like this a lot.. Thanks fr posting it. 🙂

[Epster]

Grateful to be kinetic.

[Epster]

So grateful for the rain and naturalist training; cannot wait to be in the wildlife lab this morning. 

[Epster]

Grateful for the do-ers of this world.

(Never stop, never stop, never stop!)

[Epster]

Grateful for more rain: drink up countryside!

[SaraL218963]

Grateful for rain indeed.
Grateful for roof above my head that doesn't leak when it rains!

[Epster]

Grateful for yesterday's 62 mile training ride. Grateful for the stamina; the speed; the ability to chase down and pass cyclists pedaling upright bikes (such good training, those bursts of speed! Woo hoo!) and the nesting bald eagles along the river.

[Epster]

Grateful to have already gotten in some dyn-o-mite work on a project this morning.  Now for coffee ...

[Epster]

Grateful that it is raining.

[Epster]

Grateful for rain. 

[Epster]

Grateful for artists.

[Epster]

Grateful to be alive. Breathe in; breathe out. Repeat. To agenda-light days!

[Epster]

Grateful for a fresh week with fresh challenges. Go! Go! Go! 🙂

[Epster]

Speaking of pain becoming the source of your strength ... Whew! Super grateful to live in an area with hundreds of miles of bike trails, and recumbent riding friends who push a ride beyond the 'oh my achy knees' point and into the point where you know that 'good gracious endorphins are awesome!'. 70 mile rides with like-minded athletes are beyond fabulous. Super. Grateful. For Athlete Friends. And the trails to ride with them.

[Epster]

Grateful to know this for sure:

[Epster]

Grateful to have encountered others yesterday wearing orange --and knowing what that is all about.

[Epster]

Grateful for a group of athlete friends with whom to train hard.

[Epster]

Grateful to be able to witness another spring in the Rockies.

[Epster]

Grateful for farm life.

[Epster]

Grateful for an abundance of smallish area reservoirs, and the migrating waterfowl that frequent them.

[Epster]

Grateful for four seasons. And the pluck that living with winter inspires.

[Epster]

Grateful for overnight rain! Ahhhhhh, the air will be so fresh for today's birding/cycling exploits. Heaven.

[Epster]

Grateful for humor.