8 Powerful Wellness Reasons to Be Grateful
Want to experience greater health and happiness? Check out these 8 Powerful Wellness Reasons to Be Grateful!
Expressing gratitude has many wellness benefits that can improve your life in various ways. When you’re grateful, you appreciate what and who you have in your life. Although most people give thanks on holidays like Thanksgiving, expressing gratitude daily can positively impact your health and happiness.
HeartMath Institute Research shows that feeling heartfelt emotions like love, joy, and gratitude creates more harmonious heart rate patterns, which creates more harmonious health. How do you quickly shift into an uplifted state? Focus on what you appreciate. No matter what’s going on, there’s always something to be thankful for. Gratitude helps you get present, release the need to do or have more, and take action from a place of love instead of lack. So the next time you’re stressed, tap into the power of gratitude.
“Acknowledging the good that you already have in your life is the foundation for all abundance.” — Eckhart Tolle
8 Wellness Benefits of Gratitude
Being grateful is one of the easiest and most powerful things you can do to experience greater health and happiness. Learn more about the benefits below…
1. Feel Happier
You instantly feel happier when you shift your focus from being frustrated with what you lack to being grateful for what you have. Being grateful releases feel-good neurotransmitters that make you feel happier. Harvard Health says, “Gratitude is strongly and consistently associated with greater happiness. Gratitude helps people feel more positive emotions, relish good experiences, improve their health, deal with adversity, and build strong relationships.”
2. Get Healthier
How does gratitude affect your health? Heart-brain research shows that emotions greatly influence health. Negative emotions like anger, anxiety, and frustration create a chaotic heart rhythm that increase inflammation and illness. Stressful emotions create stressful patterns of dis-ease. In contrast, feeling heartfelt emotions like love, compassion, and gratitude produces smooth and harmonious heart rhythms that relax the nervous system and promote health.
3. Boost Mood
Expressing gratitude supports brain function by activating reward pathways and boosting your feel-good neurotransmitter, serotonin. Feeling grateful allows neurons to fire and wire together to recreate that feeling. What you appreciate appreciates. In other words, when you’re thankful, you create more opportunities to be grateful.
4. Transform Attitude
Being grateful transforms your attitude and the way you see the world. “Gratitude can transform common days into thanksgiving, turn routine jobs into joy, and change ordinary opportunities into blessings.” – Proverb. Viewing life through the lens of appreciation upgrades your perspective, enabling you to view “negative” experiences as a chance to learn and grow. Giving thanks is also a great way to clear your head and nourish your heart.
5. Sleep Better
Want a better night’s sleep? Try writing in a gratitude journal before bed. Feeling grateful gives you a sense of well-being that releases stress and calms a busy mind. Gratitude also increases oxytocin levels in the body, making it easier to fall and stay asleep. Grateful individuals tend to sleep better and wake up feeling more rested.
6. Strengthen Relationships
Gratitude is essential for healthy relationships. It helps you focus on positive qualities, build trust, and form more meaningful connections. When you express your appreciation towards others, they’re more likely to feel respected and cared for, strengthening your bond to create a more nourishing relationship. So express your appreciation to those around you.
7. Enhance Spirituality
What are the spiritual benefits of gratitude? Feeling grateful is a powerful way to connect with your higher self and the divine. Gratitude can deepen your connection to a higher power, helping you feel connected and at peace. When you view life through the lens of gratitude, it helps you see the big picture, recognize abundance, and build faith in your future.
8. Increase Resilience
Gratitude can increase your resilience and help you face challenges with ease. Whether you’re under lots of stress or pressure, gratitude can help you learn and grow stronger. Being grateful makes you more resilient and better able to handle challenges. So if you want to live a happier and healthier life, start counting your blessings!
Fun Ways to Practice Gratitude
Ready to live a happier, healthier life? Start a daily gratitude practice! Giving thanks can be done at any time, anywhere. No matter how you express yourself or how much time you spend doing it, the important thing is to practice. Some great ways to get started include keeping a journal, blessing your food, meditating, giving thanks, and building heart-coherence.
Keep a Journal
One of the easiest ways to practice gratitude is to keep a journal. At the end of each day, write at least five things you’re grateful for. We often think of giving thanks for the big things in our lives, but it’s important to write down the little things too. Be specific and challenge yourself to explore new areas. Focus on people and experiences over possessions.
Bless Your Food
Another fun way to express gratitude is to bless your food before you eat. This practice is common in many cultures. You can bless your food by lighting a candle, praying, or giving thanks. You can even go around the dinner table and share gratitude. Being grateful encourages more mindful eating; one study found it can enhance food flavor.
Meditate More
Meditation helps you get present, clear your head, and connect with your heart. When you live from your heart, it’s easier to feel and express more love and gratitude. So take time each week to meditate and reflect on what you’re grateful for. Cultivating this practice can do wonders for alleviating negative emotions like stress, anxiety, and fear.
Give Thanks
Saying, “thank you” amplifies gratitude. Being grateful strengthens your relationships and inspires more to be thankful for. Express your appreciation by having a conversation or writing a thank-you letter. Gertrude Stein said, “Silent gratitude isn’t very much to anyone.” It doesn’t take much to make someone else’s day or even your own!
Build Coherence
Heart-brain coherence techniques help you replace stress with positive emotions and appreciation is one of the easiest emotions to generate. Everyone can find something to appreciate. Start by recalling a time when you felt much appreciation and re-create that feeling. By shifting into gratitude, you can achieve greater coherence, harmony, and health.
Whether you want to improve physical, mental, or spiritual health, gratitude enhances all aspects of your life. Start expressing your appreciation to benefit from this powerful practice!
Watch Nature Beauty Gratitude
Louie Schwartzberg’s video, “Nature Beauty Gratitude,” pairs incredible time-lapse photos with powerful words from a Benedictine monk to create a lovely meditation.