Re: Gratitude as a Health Tool - Page 8 - AARP Online Community

Menu

Rewards for Good

My Settings Guidelines

Gratitude as a Health Tool

Reply

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

34,751 Views

640

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

4,441 Views

7

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

4,421 Views

6

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

4,397 Views

5

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

4,368 Views

4

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

4,337 Views

3

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

4,320 Views

2

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

4,341 Views

1

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

4,321 Views

0

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

4,907 Views

6

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

4,899 Views

5

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

4,917 Views

4

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

4,933 Views

3

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

4,920 Views

2

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

3,959 Views

1

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

3,972 Views

0

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

5,751 Views

52

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

5,731 Views

51

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

5,686 Views

50

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

5,661 Views

49

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

5,455 Views

41

How wonderful, thank-you

4,757 Views

20

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

4,556 Views

19

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

4,537 Views

18

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

4,544 Views

17

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

4,530 Views

16

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

4,550 Views

15

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

4,301 Views

13

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

4,345 Views

12

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

4,337 Views

11

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

4,335 Views

10

never-displayed

Announcements

To our Online Community Members,

We wanted to let you know that our Community Guidelines and Terms of Service have been updated. The changes are intended to foster more civil discussions in AARP’s online communities. The issues discussed in these communities – including healthcare, retirement and politics – are serious and stir up strong emotions. We should have spirited debates about all of them, but those debates should always be respectful, on topic and fact based. We will be applying these standards in our online communities as we work together, with all of you, to address the challenges that face older Americans. Thank you.

AARP Membership Flash Sale

Your Experts & Advisors

@Susan

Work & Jobs

expert-18469428

@anofziger17

Scams & Fraud

expert-19629080

@SarahLenzLock

Brain Health

expert-12873050

@DrBarryJJacobs

Stress & Anxiety

@agoyer

Caregiving

@lmccann58

Age Discrimination

expert-20988971

@MartinBooker

Budget & Debt

@JaneCares

Caregiving

expert-13250812

@DrJulie

Stress & Anxiety

@FeeBrown

Entrepreneurship

AARP Members Only Games

Throw it back and play Atari's Missile Command. Grab your arsenal to neutralize your enemy and protect your cities from a missile attack. You got this!

AARP Games Atari Missile Command

Your ACEs

@jen43

Acrylic Painting

@catwoman500

Teacher / Social Media

@Frozenoem

Computers / Photography

@LydiaN586309

Fantasy Football / Sports Cards

@RussellP197074

Medical Devices / Rewards

@somarco

Medicare / Insurance

@DaveMcK

Front Porch / Lighthouses

@HokiePoq

Youth Advocate / Trivia / Teaching

@WebWiseWoman

Tech Support / Games

@wvgirlforever

Microsoft Office / Dogs

@MarkV847771

Outdoors / Patents

@RacquelE712599

Retail Enthusiast

Your Daily Puzzle

Enjoy our interactive brain-teasers and treat yourself to some mental gymnastics. Try one today.

Your Daily Puzzle