Benefits of Gratitude

We all race through life wanting the perfect job, home, partner, family, and social life. To achieve all these wishes though, we put a huge amount of strain on our mental and physical well-being.

But how many of us have ever wondered if it is all just smoke and mirrors? If this perfect life that we are all seeking is just a mirage we don’t need to be chasing after the perfect life because what we all have is pretty good anyway.

How many of us actually truly stop and look at all that we have in life and express how grateful we are for it?

We have been raised with the idea that you always have to be striving for the next bigger and better commodity, a better car, a bigger house, a better lifestyle, and this constant seeking out the next best thing is leaving us dissatisfied and often unhappy with the lives that we have.

Many people have a great life they just don’t truly appreciate it and it is only when something bad happens that they really see all that they had.

This constant chasing of the perfect existence is emotionally and physically draining and it is no wonder that there are so many instances of stress-related illnesses and that people burn out so young.

So what’s the answer? Is there a way that we can get away from this existence and begin to appreciate all that we have? Can we start to lead a happier and healthier lifestyle?

The simple answer is YES!!! There is a way to be happy and contented with all that we have and to live a simpler, more gratifying life whilst also benefiting physically and emotionally. The way to do it is to start practising gratitude.

What is gratitude?

Gratitude is a conscious positive emotion that we feel when we express our thanks for something, whether it is tangible or intangible. It is being thankful and appreciative of what we have in our lives. It is when we recognise that something great has happened in our lives and we give thanks for this occurrence.

How gratitude works

Gratitude has long been associated with feelings of happiness and positive emotion. It would be hard to practice gratitude whilst at the same time feeling unhappy or discontented. We have all at some time or other had the experience of being thanked for something that we have done and know the immense pleasure that this can bring us.

This practice of gratitude helps us to establish relationships which in turn add to our overall feeling of well-being. It’s a simple act to perform that is immensely powerful.

When we practice and receive gratitude, our brain releases the chemicals serotonin and dopamine which are responsible for our emotions, these chemicals are what make us feel good.

Happiness is the key to a healthy life. Many psychopathological illnesses’, such as stress, depression, and anxiety are a result of unhappiness. Therefore, the use of gratitude in everyday life goes some way to eliminating these debilitating conditions.

Physical benefits of gratitude

In recent years scientists have been conducting various studies and have found that the practice of gratitude has many health benefits:

• Increase in happiness and positive thinking

• Better quality sleep

• Less overall fatigue

• Better physical health, more likely to take more care of your overall health

• Better mental health, less stress, and anxiety

• Better quality and more abundant relationships

• Better life satisfaction

• More likely to empathize with other people

• Less likely to demonstrate aggression

• Greater self-esteem

10 Physical and Mental Health Benefits

Research has indicated that there are many beneficial advantages to our physical and mental health. Below are ten strong reasons why we should be practising gratitude every day;

1. Gratitude brings more happiness into our lives

   Although already mentioned, this is such an important reason, it needs to be reiterated.

   So much of life is spent chasing an impossible dream to be happy, yet we can be happy anytime and anywhere whether we are rich or poor just by being grateful for what we have in our lives.

   We don’t need more to make us happy we just need to be grateful for what we already have

2. Gratitude produces stress reduction

   If you live a life filled with stress you would probably do whatever you could to remove it wouldn’t you?

   Well, practising gratitude has been shown to reduce stress and anxiety in life. It’s free, easy and can be done anytime anywhere.

3. Increases your level of self-esteem

   Gratitude reduces social comparisons.

   This aids self-esteem, because rather than becoming resentful towards other people for all that they have, and therefore reducing how they feel about themselves, people who practice gratitude, can appreciate the accomplishments of other people which in turn raises their self-esteem.

4. It’s beneficial for your sleep

   Research in the Journal of Psychosomatic Research has discovered that people who practice gratitude are more likely to sleep better and sleep longer because having more positive thoughts promotes better sleep patterns.

5. Gratitude can boost your personal resilience

   You are more likely to bounce back from the stresses and strains of life when you are grateful for what you have. Gratitude reduces worry and anxiety and helps you see life more positively and optimistically, helping to boost your resilience to what life throws at you.

6. Gratitude can enhance your personal energy levels

When you feel good, you always tend to have far more energy. People tend to be lacklustre and slower when they are feeling depressed. Being grateful will give you an energy boost, physically and mentally.

7. Gratitude can help you keep life in perspective

When we are always looking to the future and wishing for material possessions it can lead us to a place of worry and discontentment.

We can start to catastrophe about the future, even when we don’t know what is going to happen.

Practising gratitude puts our lives into perspective and makes us appreciate the here and now without worrying about what is going to happen in the future.

8. Gratitude can make you less materialistic

As a society, we are constantly being persuaded that we need more in our lives.

Capitalist societies thrive on people buying stuff that more often than not they don’t need but feel that they can’t live without because of the influence of corporate companies.

This is a vicious circle that most of us are caught up in. When you are grateful for what you have in life, it can dispel the need to have more. Being grateful for possessions, even if they are not brand new or in perfect condition, means that you are more likely to see the benefits that they bring you and be contented with what you have.

9. Gratitude can boost the degree of optimism you have in life

The most optimistic people around are usually the people who practice gratitude. That’s because they understand that the more they appreciate what they have the more they are likely to receive This in turn raises their levels of optimism.

10. Gratitude can be beneficial for social relationships

The people we will normally gravitate to in social situations, tend to be people who are optimistic, happy, positive and life-affirming. They will also usually be people who are grateful for what they have in their lives as all of these positive traits are usually found in the same people.

Therefore, if you want to attract a larger social circle, start adopting an attitude of gratitude.

Scientific benefits of gratitude

Gratitude can change the brain in amazing and positive ways. When we are grateful certain experiences occur in our brains.

Our pre-frontal cortex is activated, this is an area that is involved in rewards and the feelings associated with them. It is also involved in our interpersonal relationships, our social interactions and our ability to relate to other people and have empathy and understanding for them.

We can produce stronger feelings towards others and a greater bond with them when we practice gratitude.

The feel-good chemicals, oxytocin, serotonin and dopamine are also released when we are grateful. This means that we have more feelings of connection, greater happiness and closer bonding with others.

Harvard University has conducted research into gratitude and the positive effects that it produces and has found that it can help strengthen and improve relationships.

Emmons & McCullough: Counting Blessings experiment was a groundbreaking article on the effects of gratitude on everyday life. They conducted three separate studies and found that gratitude practice had a significant impact on a person’s emotional, mental and physical state.

How to practice gratitude

Anybody can practice gratitude, it doesn’t take qualifications or learning to bring the results into your life. It can be practised anytime and anywhere and will only improve the more that you do it. It is a practice that costs nothing but time but practising can bring great riches into your life, both spiritually and materially.

The art of gratitude is very simple and is something that everyone can do the best part about it is the more you practice it the better life will get for you.

Try adopting some of the practices below to enhance your feelings of gratitude. Even a small step each day will increase the benefits of gratitude in your life and the more that you practice and the more that you discover the benefits, the more you will want to continue.

• Keep a gratitude journal and add to it each day

• Think of all the amazing things that you have in your life and say “ Thank You” to them

• Volunteer some of your time to help out with charities

• Tell people that you love them

• Compliment people when they look nice

• Don’t talk about people behind their back

• Put up post-it notes to remind yourself of all that you have

• Don’t take people for granted

• Spend quality time with loved ones

• Live Mindfully not dwelling on the past or the future

• Don’t think with a “lack” mindset

• Always look for the positives in life instead of the negatives.

• Enjoy the life that you have

• Spend time in nature

• Buy less and recycle more

• Practice meditation

• Break away from social media

• Stop comparing yourself to other people

• Practice tolerance towards others.

By taking time each day to look around and appreciate all that you have you will be amazed at how much better you feel in life.

Thinking about life from a place of gratitude will give you a new perspective and will lead you to live a healthier, happier, and more fulfilled life for both you and those around you.

Final Thoughts

The 10 physical and mental health benefits of practising gratitude discussed here are only scratching the surface of what can be achieved when you start.

If you want to enjoy your life, have less stress, reduce anxiety and have better mental and physical health then start living your life with a practice of daily gratitude.

Gratitude is a practice that enhances every area of your life, from your physical and mental health to your relationship with yourself and others. Gratitude lessens the burdens of society that can be placed upon us by making us less materialistic and more open to what we already have.

Such a simple concept can make a huge difference in every area of your life and can impact a wider social level as well. This scientifically proven technique really works and is one of the easiest ways to live your life in a congruent way.

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