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Gratitude as a Health Tool

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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

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Beyond grateful for peace and quiet. (breathes in liberty; smile cuts across face)

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

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Soaking in the rain and loving every minute of it! Grateful for the precip, yessireebob!

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

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Grateful for friends who understand, support and celebrate with me.

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

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Grateful for optimism and confidence. And the training sessions that go with them.

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

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Grateful to have witnessed the 75 y-o runner this morning on the bike trail. I loved her on sight. Well, I certainly adored her sparkly "Push Your Limits" t-shirt on sight; her I decided to love when she smiled wide and waved wildly at us both times we passed.

Like OMG! I want to grow up and be like her. For real.

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

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Grateful to have a life that nurtures my creative spirit.

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

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Grateful we're still having fun and he's still the one.

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

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Grateful for new opportunities.

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

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Heh: reading the thread about mid-life crises reminded me how grateful I am to be through menopause. Whew! How my marriage survived that I may never know. 🙂

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

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Grateful for spam filtering. Ahhhhhh ... that's better. :0)

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

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Grateful for milestones.

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

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Grateful for blood, sweat and tears. (Also knowing race routes and finding appropriate facsimilies.)

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

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Grateful for athlete friends who believe in me. And, yes, big bad hills and headwinds. Grateful for those too.

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

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Taking this thread back to the topic, gratitude: I'm grateful that we did not lose any trees, fruit or otherwise, during this past dry, windy month.

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

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I'm grateful for what gratitude can do for a person.

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

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Grateful for continuing good health.

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

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Grateful for lazy mornings.

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

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Grateful for local farms, farm ponds and migrating waterfowl.

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

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Grateful for memes.

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

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A meme for which to be grateful:

@Epster wrote:
Grateful for memes.

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

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How wonderful, thank-you

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Blessed to be able to fill our freezer with homegrown organic chicken. And grateful.

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

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Grateful for the opportunity to train on the upcoming race route.

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

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Grateful that training is improving performance: fastest time ev-ah yesterday!

P.S. DH: you are cracking me up!

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

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Grateful for this property, the sanctuary it affords us and wildlife.

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

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Wowzers! Another day, another opportunity to make changes! For that, I am grateful.

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

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Grateful for this and other spectacular Colorado views.

6/27/17 Flatirons and Longs Peak

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

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Grateful for the gaggle of business opportunities before us.

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

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Grateful for reach. Reach for it!

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

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Seeing that pluck is serving us well this morning, and grateful for that.

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

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