It’s widely known that a grateful heart and attitude go a long way toward keeping people happy, but now a new study shows being thankful has profound health benefits, too.
“The limits to gratitude’s health benefits are really in how much you pay attention to feeling and practicing gratitude,” said neuroscientist Glenn Fox, a gratitude expert at the University of Southern California. “It’s very similar to working out, in that the more you practice, the better you get. The more you practice, the easier it is to feel grateful when you need it.”
According to The Epoch Times, in one example, 92 adults with advanced cancer engaged in mindful gratitude journaling or routine journaling.
After seven days, those who kept a gratitude journal had significant improvements in measures of anxiety, depression, and spiritual well-being, so much so that the researchers concluded that “mindful gratitude journaling could positively affect the state of suffering, psychological distress, and quality of life of patients with advanced cancer.”
“Grateful people tend to recover faster from trauma and injury,” Fox told The Pulse. “They tend to have better and closer personal relationships and may even just have improved health overall.”
Many people have expressed gratitude over the years simply to help them be less materialistic. It’s easier to avoid temptation to acquire new shiny objects when you are grateful for the things you already have.
Now the study showed that the act of expressing gratitude or even thinking in more optimistic terms can lower heart rate and blood pressure, lead to better sleep quality, less stress, more positive expectations and great feelings of appreciation toward others.
The full story can be found at The Epoch Times.
After closing his business and enduring several painful years of uncertainty regarding what to do with his life, Greg founded Forward From 50 to help men and women over 50 to live more purposeful lives by pursuing things they are passionate about. A Wisconsin native, Greg currently lives in Arizona.