Good Health Expressing Gratitude & Thankfulness
How to Be Healthy with an Attitude of Appreciation and Gratefulness
Apr 30, 2009
In an effort to achieve good health and be healthy, recent-year U.S. consumer spending on vitamins and supplements totaled twenty three billion dollars. Yet positive psychology research indicates good health is a free benefit of expressing gratitude and showing appreciation and thankfulness.
Good Health and Gratitude
There are many variables affecting good health, but the notion that simple acts of gratitude, appreciation, and thankfulness — all free and relatively easy to implement — can have a positive impact on health is intriguing and merits consumer attention.
What is Gratitude?
An International Positive Psychology Association (IPPA) Newsletter article of April 2008 described gratitude as an "orientation towards noticing and appreciating the positive in the world."
People naturally take for granted the routine things of life, becoming immune and unappreciative of the positives of daily life. Though this adaptation guards the senses against overload, it can also deprive a person of the ability to focus upon and appreciate a sunny day, a spring breeze, and a child's laughter. These are all opportunities for gratitude and an incumbent boost to good health.
Epictetus spoke to this end, saying, "He is a wise man who does not grieve for the things which he has not, but rejoices for those which he has."
Gratitude and Health
According to a report from the Pepperdine University Graziadio Business Review (Volume 9, Issue 4, 2006), research is finding a positive relationship between gratitude and a person's cardiovascular and immune system functions.
University of California Davis psychology professor Robert Emmons' research indicates that, "Grateful people take better care of themselves and engage in more protective health behaviors like regular exercise, a healthy diet, (and) regular physical examinations." His research also revealed that grateful people tend to be more optimistic, a characteristic that boosts the immune system.
"A growing body of research supports the notion that rediscovering a sense of abundance by thinking about those people and things we love lowers the risks of coronary events," offers clinical psychologist Blair Justice, Ph.D., professor-emeritus of psychology at the UT School of Public Health at Houston.
Rabbi Harold Kushner spoke on the issue of gratitude in life, saying, "If you concentrate on finding whatever is good in every situation, you will discover that your life will suddenly be filled with gratitude, a feeling that nurtures the soul."
Gratitude Exercises for Good Health
The following gratitude exercises are easy to do and will help you maintain an attitude of gratitude.
- Gratitude Letter – Write a letter of gratitude to someone who has been a positive influence in your life describing how you were affected and what it meant to you. For even greater benefit deliver the letter in person.
- Three Good Things – At the end of each day, recall three good things that happened that day, considering even the smallest positive event.
- You at Your Best – Reflect on an experience that demonstrated you at your very best. Write about it and describe your feelings.
- Novel Use of Signature Strengths – Understand your special skills and abilities often called your signature strengths. Each day find a new way to utilize one of your strengths.
- Three Questions – At the end of each day, ask yourself these three questions: "What has surprised me?," "What has touched me?" and "What has inspired me?"
How to Be Healthy with Gratitude
Regularly use these gratitude exercises from positive psychology research to enhance your good health and feel better in the process.
Related Articles
Readers may also enjoy Psychological Research - Gratitude along with Be Happier with Gratitude and Optimism and Gratitude Can Make You Happier.
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