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 slight injuries.

[Epster]

Terrific article about the benefits of one's health brought on by practicing gratitude: https://anticancerclub.com/healthy-mind-and-body/practicing-gratitude/

Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow.  -Melody Beattie

[Epster]

Grateful that I'm not on this planet alone.

[Epster]

Grateful for stamina and good health.

[Epster]

Grateful to have been part of the spring environmental education project, hope DH and my senior games training schedule this fall allow me to join in the fall project events.

[Epster]

Grateful to be done with that. Hello new day!

[Epster]

Grateful for first light that arrives before my first cuppa. And the will to get going. Days are just packed! 🙂

[Epster]

Grateful for 4 AM plans. 

[Epster]

Grateful for hope, optimism and long-range plans. 

[Epster]

Grateful to have been kicked out of my own kitchen. ... But, guys? ... I really do have some food prep to get to ... guys? ... 

[Epster]

Grateful for a well-spent long weekend, true, but more grateful for those men and women who put themselves in harm's way in order to protect the freedom our founding fathers won for us.

[Epster]

Grateful for the beauty of tea and herb gardens, the fun of butterfly and hummingbird gardens, the pay-off of vegetable gardens and this haggard old planet that makes these and other wonders possible.

[Epster]

Grateful to live in this astounding, beautiful, nourishing and otherwise wonderful state.

[Epster]

Grateful for a strong weed pulling arm.

[EveRH]

I'm grateful for cousins within driving distance. Although we're not the same religion, most holidays revolve around "family", and that's what's more important! I'm also grateful for the opportunity to bring a healthy dessert, to share with them.

[EveRH]

I'm grateful I'm an early bird, because the supermarket was already crowded at 7:45 AM, the day before Easter Sunday! Grateful to get a cute little plant as a house gift, and the fruit bowl I'll take to dinner tomorrow .. or I'd have another trip out shopping at an even more crowded farm market. Crowds & stress aren't good for our health! 🙂

[EveRH]

I am grateful that the lab phlebotomist got a vein, on a single try for tests this morning! Sometimes I feel like a pin cushion. 🙂

[LaDolceVita]

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@EveRH wrote:

I am grateful that the lab phlebotomist got a vein, on a single try for tests this morning! Sometimes I feel like a pin cushion. 🙂

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@EveRH.  I have nonexistent veins.  I hate having blood drawn.

[EveRH]

@LaDolceVita - My Mom had a problem too, and once she was getting a lot of treatment, she'd be all black & blue! My doctor recommended taking arnica before going for blood tests, and drinking a lot of water.

[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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Grateful to be nearing certification as an environmental educator. Soon I'll be able to combine my knowledge of wildlife, plants and ecosystems for the good of eager young minds.

[Epster]

Grateful for over the top goofy friends.

[Epster]

Grateful for lots to do, and the will to do it.

[Epster]

Grateful for the ability to raise our own organic meat.

[Epster]

Beyond grateful for the gift of Easter. I'm not worthy.

[Epster]

Grateful to wake up with a song in my heart.

[Epster]

Grateful for the opportunity to share a love of wilderness with young scientists. (As in: more grateful for the opportunity to teach than uncomfortable with the responsibility of teaching.)

[Epster]

[Epster]

Grateful that before, during and after a full day of shadowing other environmental educators this introvert with zero child experience did not freak out. Not quite a miracle, but monumental all the same. Stepping out of one's comfort zone, they say, is good for you. Being grateful that the doing did not undo you, sez me, is even better. 

Am I ready for this? Bring it! 🙂

[Epster]

Grateful that the trip to the Apple store yesterday cost a fraction of what we expected. Huzzbah to you, Tim Cook! Thanks for taking care of loyal customers! 

[Epster]

 That and the sheer beauty of them both. 🙂