By Julia Chiappetta
Have you ever taken a short break, with pen to paper, to write a Gratitude List?
Well, apparently, there are health benefits for being grateful and studies have shown that people who regularly practice feeling grateful are in a very positive zone to promote healing.
Robert Emmons, a psychology professor at the University of California at Davis, has been a leading researcher in the growing field, termed “positive psychology.” His research has found that those who adopt an “attitude of gratitude” as a permanent state of mind experience many health benefits and are more likely to:
- Love their bodies
- Take better care of themselves
- Exercise regularly
- Opt for healthy diets
- Enjoy positive & optimistic outlooks
- Cope better with daily stress
- Strengthen immune systems
So, why not start today…saying out loud, what you are grateful for. I usually do this during my morning prayer time, thanking God for my body, mind, soul, health, home, car, clothes, food, family, friends and the simple gift of each day. As I do this, I find the freedom in being grateful that changes my focus.
I have read many abstracts and articles, over the years, that discuss how gratitude and forgiveness, are considered a powerful elixirs, in care plans for those with critical illnesses. While some studies have associated gratitude with a whole slew of benefits, from fewer aches and pains to improved sleep, others have found more mixed results.
According to Summer Allen’s report on March 5, 2018, “After 15 years of research we know that gratitude is a key to psychological well-being. Gratitude can make people happier, improve their relationships, and potentially even counteract depression. But the benefits of gratitude go beyond that.”
“Gratitude…can be an incredibly powerful and invigorating experience,” says researcher Jeff Huffman. “There is growing evidence that being grateful may not only bring good feelings. It could lead to better health.”
The Thnx4 Project, created by the Greater Good Science Center (GGSC), at the University of California, Berkeley, is an online gratitude journal that makes it easier to say thanks, enjoy the benefits of thankfulness, see what happens when you strengthen your habit of feeling and expressing gratitude and draws on two decades of research suggesting that people who regularly feel grateful:
- report better health, reduce their risk of heart disease, and get better sleep
- strengthen feelings of connection and satisfaction in relationships
- feel more satisfied with their lives, find more joy and optimism, and less anxiety
These results are consistent with a 2003 paper published by Robert Emmons and Michael McCullough. In that study, “college students who wrote about things they were grateful for just once a week for ten weeks reported fewer physical symptoms (such as headaches, shortness of breath, sore muscles, and nausea) than students who wrote about daily events or hassles”.
These are just some examples of studies where Gratitude was measured and surely worth pondering.
If you read my columns, you know that my tag line is, Green is Good, and so I encourage you to enjoy a daily yummy, organic, green juice, to take in nutrients, superfoods, vitamins, minerals and enzymes – all of which offer fuel for our immune system!
As I drink my greens this week, I will toast, with gratitude, having known the very dear and sweet, John Setten, who left us way too early, on a one-way flight to heaven, January 22, 2017. He was a great friend, boxing and running partner and so much more. Love and miss you John.
Julia Chiappetta is the author of “Breast Cancer: The Notebook” (Gemini Media, 2006) and is also the owner of Julia Chiappetta Consulting. She lives in Cos Cob. JuliaChiappetta.com
