Expanding thankfulness expands your quality of life - Health benefits of being thankful
- hollifieldcarol
- Nov 22, 2023
- 3 min read
The Effects Gratitude Has on Health
The holidays are a time of year when many of us struggle because there is traditionally a strong encouragement for an exuberance that often doesn’t align with our reality. If we’re not feeling exuberant, it can be especially difficult. Instead of being weighed down by the external trappings of the holiday, practicing gratitude, not just at Thanksgiving, can offer a renewed sense of hope and introduce an element of perspective that can be healing.
Gratitude can be a vital tool, whether you are struggling with personal challenges such as relationship problems, economic hardship, mental health issues, illness and grief or you’re in recovery from a substance use disorder. The practice of gratitude can help retrain your brain to help reorient it out of despair.
Gratitude helps us realize that our challenges are not the only things in our lives at any given moment and that, even in the most extreme situations, there are still things for which to be grateful. Think of gratitude as a muscle you flex that becomes stronger over time and can help redirect you out of despair and into the bigger picture of life’s possibilities.
The Evidence
The health benefits of expressing gratitude are many, and some might surprise you. Scholars, spiritual leaders, and scientists throughout history have deliberated on gratitude. More recently, the benefits of gratitude are better understood through scientifically validated studies. Through the work of leading researchers like Robert Emmons and Martin Seligman, we know that this virtue is more than just saying, “thank you.”
Numerous studies are demonstrating how gratitude journaling can increase one’s happiness. Others show that inflammation in one’s body can decrease. Each study offers insights into how a person can improve their overall health and wellbeing.
According to Julie Ray (2019) of the Gallup Organization, “The world took a negative turn in 2017, with global levels of stress, worry, sadness and pain hitting new highs.” How can this trend change for the better? Research demonstrates that one way is through practicing gratitude.
The following studies demonstrate the effect gratitude has on one’s mental and physical health.
Writing a gratitude letter and counting blessings had “high utility scores and were associated with substantial improvements in optimism” (Huffman, Dubois, Healy, Boehm, Kashdan, Celano, Denninger, & Lyubomirsky, 2014).
Gratitude letter writing leads to better mental health in adult populations seeking psychotherapy (Wong, Owen, Brown, Mcinnis, Toth, & Gilman, 2016).
Gratitude buffers people from stress and depression (Wood, Maltby, Gillett, Linley, & Joseph, 2008).
Positive reframing underlies the relationship between trait gratitude and a sense of coherence. A sense of coherence is how confident a person feels about potential life outcomes. It is the degree to which a person feels optimistic and in control of future events (Lambert, Graham, Fincham, & Stillman, 2009).
Patients who expressed optimism/gratitude two weeks after an acute coronary event had healthier hearts (Huffman, Beale, Beach, Celano, Belcher, Moore, Suarez, Gandhi, Motiwala, Gaggin, & Januzzi 2015).
Gratitude and spiritual wellbeing are related to positive affect, sleep quality, energy, self-efficacy, and lower cellular inflammation (Mills, Redwine, Wilson, Pung, Chinh, Greenberg, Lunde, Maisel, & Raisinghani, 2015).
Gratitude may enhance peace of mind, reduce rumination, and have a negative effect on depressive symptoms (Liang, Chen, Li, Wu, Wang, Zheng, & Zeng, 2018).
If a person could do only one thing to increase their health and happiness, expressing gratitude might be it. Martin Seligman, a pioneer in the field of Positive Psychology, has remarked, “when we take time to notice the things that go right – it means we’re getting a lot of little rewards throughout the day” (BrainyQuote, n.d.).
Interested in Exploring Gratitude Further?
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