How Gratitude Can Benefit Your Health

It’s the time of year where many of us take a time-out from our busy schedules to really appreciate everyone and everything that we have in our lives. But you shouldn’t reserve your gratitude and thankfulness for the holiday season; cultivating gratitude in your life on a daily basis can help promote better mental, emotional, and physical health. Here are just some of the many ways you can benefit from daily gratitude.

Have an Attitude of Gratitude

Everyone knows that carrying stress around can negatively impact your health and well-being. Living a life of gratitude is a powerful antidote to external stressors. Grateful people take better care of themselves by exercising regularly, maintaining a healthy diet, and visiting their doctors annually. Being thankful has also been linked to better immunity, having the ability to relax more easily, and decreased rates of disease.

Choose to be Grateful

It’s becoming more obvious that happiness and gratitude are not something you just obtain by getting a new car or finally getting the job promotion you’ve always wanted; gratitude and happiness are the first step, not the end result. Choose to be grateful for something every day, and you’ll soon find yourself being happier and able to perform better is all aspects of your life.

Don’t Let Negativity Win

Turns out, being grateful isn’t as easy as it sounds. There are actually biological reasons why it can be difficult to lead a life of gratitude. As part of our survival instincts, we are prone to focus on things that could be potentially negative or harmful. Living in a world where we are constantly subjected to negativity on social media, finding reasons to be thankful for the things in your life can be a struggle.

Make it a Habit

Though being grateful can be tough, it’s not an impossible feat! It can be one of the easiest things you can do to improve your health.  To get started on the track to gratitude, make a daily list that includes a few things that you are especially grateful for on that particular day, like your children or husband. Starting the list first thing in the morning can set the tone for a positive day. Also, doing a small, un-noticed good deed each day can boost your natural tendency to be grateful.

Now that you’ve had some time to think about the amazing things in your life, what are you grateful for?

Love,

Gen