Why practicing Gratitude is beneficial for your health
Impacts of gratitude on your physical health & how to make it a habit.
Every year on the fourth Thursday of November, Thanksgiving day is celebrated as a national holiday in the North American Continent. The purpose of this day is to celebrate the harvest season and count the blessings of the year gone by.
You often hear that you should practice gratitude in your daily life because it has spiritual and mental benefits. Truthfully, it’s hard to practice gratitude by looking at the past problems that you overcame or at a present situation by comparing yourself with others to realize that you are more fortunate.
Experts say that cultivating gratitude has also some benefits for our physical health.
So, how do we practice the habit of gratitude, even when it’s hard?
Why is it so hard?
It’s easy to say be grateful but practically it’s hard enough. Right now you are reading this on your phone or laptop. I am writing this article on my laptop sitting at my home. Our living conditions are better than those in a large majority of the world. If you are working professionals from IT Industry or healthcare sector or academic sector, I hope you got a regular salary during the COVID-19 pandemic during which many people were deprived at that time.
As you are living in a world of the internet and social media, you easily fall into the trap of thinking “If only I had — — — — I’d be happy’.
The benefits of gratitude :
Studies of the brain show that when you feel grateful it enhances your sense of well-being and relaxation. Emotions like gratitude, love, and caring produce a sine wave radiating to the cells of your body. On the other hand, the emotions like frustration, anger, anxiety, and insecurity make the heart-rhythm pattern more erratic and the brain recognizes this as stress. Stress has many negative impacts on health as it raises the risk of developing heart disease and increased blood pressure, weakening the immune system, and impairing cognitive function.
By choosing to be grateful and happy, you are literally choosing better physical health. Higher gratitude scores can lead to better mood, better sleep, more positive health-promoting habits, and improved heart health.
How to make Gratitude a habit :
The good news is, being grateful is absolutely free. You just have to make it a habit with some simple steps.
A Morning List: After waking up in the morning you make a list of a few things that you are especially grateful for that particular day. It helps you to stay positive and grounded.
Writing a Gratitude Journal: Have you learned any new skills in the past few months? Have you got any life lessons recently from any incident? You can write these things in a diary to express your gratitude for what you learned so far.
Gratitude Poster: You can paste some posters that focus on gratitude on the walls of your house. Sometimes we need a visual reminder that keeps us reflecting on the positive.
Acts of Kindness: Doing a selfless good deed can boost grateful feelings which force you to look for the good in any situation. It could be donating some clothes or food or medicine to a needy person.
My blessings :
5 things I am very grateful for today are :
My family
My home
Access to healthy food
Got a platform like Medium
You as a reader.
I have learned and learning many things from all the writers here.
So, what are you grateful for today? Comment below!
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