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."

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Grateful for our forefathers ... and while the form prevalent in our country lately is barely tolerable, grateful, too, for political struggle. 

Why can't we all just shut up & write our reps?

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Grateful for freedom. Let it ring!

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Grateful for a quiet, fireless Fourth, the no-longer-pregnant,-and,-say,-where's-the-wee one? mule deer doe that came to rest yesterday afternoon under one of our willows, but today I am most grateful for Catrike because today is the day the shop starts changing out old trike frames for new, under warranty.

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With a backyard that, in turn, hosts coyotes, bears, elk, deer, foxes, mountain lions and deer, I'm grateful for motion activated lights, to help keep nocturnal ramblers away from the abode, I must say. The local bear revisited our compost pile last night, happily long after we stood on the front porch watching the western wildfire enhanced crimson sun beat the amber moon to the horizon. 

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Grateful to the master herbalists who handed down plant wisdom, but also to the two gentlemen who helped gather material yesterday.

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Grateful for the coolness of early morning.

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Grateful for plant knowledge. (Pulling up and cooking wild spinach, AKA lambsquarter, that's trying to overtake a flower bed today) 

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Grateful that love helps float a soul over bad news. Grateful for a partnership acting as life raft.

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Well wouldja look at those opportunities, all lined up pretty as you please? An opportunity to show compassion, an opportunity to share love, an opportunity to make money, an opportunity to make healthy choices... and so forth. I'm grateful for them, every one. 

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Grateful for steep hills close to home. Ready, set, charge!

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Immense gratitude for the support of a truly good man. Truly, good. (Thanks, DH!)

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Grateful that we can change our metabolism. 

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Grateful for trails, trails and more trails!  See yowse guys and gals out there!

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Grateful for cool mornings and clear trails.

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Grateful for rain and plenty of inside projects.

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Grateful for DHs support here. What a guy! 🙂

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Grateful for the benefits of being actively engaged in life.

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Grateful for cool night air. Ahhhhhh!

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Grateful for photosynthesis.

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Guess what? I'm grateful for technology. Smart phones not so much, but swamp coolers? Da bomb, baby! 🙂

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Grateful for a strong body. (And you guessed it: lots and lots of trail! Wheeeee!)

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Grateful for a hard pedaling, serious training crew ... who are busy this morning emailing race officials with questions and suggestions over race routes. Cannot beat a reconn ride for deets.

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Grateful for a secure chicken yard and a bear that decided not to test it.

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Grateful to be able to get in some serious hill climb (cardio) training on the trikes in our own neighborhood. Foothill living, baby! 🙂

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Grateful for robust coffee and quiet pre-dawn hours.

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Grateful for will. Because with that, comes a way.

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Grateful for race officials who are all about the athletes.

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Grateful to have earned this quesadilla and beer by pedaling 43 miles today. (And 50 yesterday .. with a hill training session planned for tomorrow.)

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Grateful to have witnessed the waning crescent rising through the Milky Way starbed.

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Grateful for today's opportunities and challenges.