Gratitude Can Improve Your Physical and Mental Health
The world is precariously balanced today. There are many charged emotions in the lives of many which dictate how they feel and act throughout the day. While recent research has found nothing about negative or hateful emotions, there is a significant evidence that gratitude actually improves your mental and physical health.
Gratitude, as it is scientifically defined, is a feeling of deep appreciation for an act. It’s more than saying thanks; it’s a deep and important feeling which serves a specific and positive biological purpose. Recent studies have linked the feeling gratitude with a litany of positive health outcomes. Here are five of such outcomes.
Improved Physical and Mental Health
The mind and body are closely and irrevocably linked by a feedback loop which is constantly working to connect the two. As such, your mind greatly affects how your body feels and vice versa. Researchers have found that focusing your thoughts on gratitude and feelings of deep appreciation leads to positive benefits not just in your mind, but over your entire body.
For example, participants who focused their energy on gratitude reported reduced inflammation, greater heart health, a lessening of depressive symptoms, and “improved mental resilience.” UC Berkeley recently started an online journal for gratitude and studied the reaction of participants. Those involved in the project experienced clearer skin, less severe headaches, reduced stomach pain, and mitigated congestion.
Reduced Stress and Greater Happiness
In addition to improving both mental and physical health, practicing frequent gratitude is great for blocking toxic emotions, such as envy, resentment, regret, and depression. These feelings can greatly diminish happiness and the feeling of well being in many and may even lead to more severe diseases.
As you may expect, when gratitude reduces these feelings, it leads to an improvement in happiness and other positive emotions. Gratitude was also observed to drastically reduce the production of cortisol, a hormone which modulates stress and is counterproductive at high levels. Gratitude has even been found to lower heart rates in those who practice it frequently.
Practicing Gratitude
If you want to practice gratitude more in your daily life, there are two steps you need to take. Firstly, start by recognizing positive outcomes you achieve and be thankful for the circumstances which led you to these outcomes. Secondly, you must recognize that there are a host of external sources linked to that positive outcome and be happy that these sources were made available to you.
There’s also no reason to be selective about your gratitude; you can appreciate anything and everything throughout life and cultivate a habit of grateful thinking. In addition, there are supplements you can take to improve your immune system. The best supplements for this benefit are our DEFEND - Daily Immune System Booster and Natural Ashwagandha Root Extract.
Our DEFEND immune system booster provides a full range of benefits to your overall immune system and boost your body’s health level through natural ingredients such as vitamin E, vitamin B6, turmeric, and probiotics.
Our Natural Ashwagandha Root Extract helps boost stress relief, adrenal health, thyroid and hormone support. It contains organic black pepper that helps promotes a healthy stress response which in turn boosts your energy and mood.
We make these supplements with the full range of gratitude; they’re cruelty-free, and allergy free, as well as all-natural and non-GMO.
Improves Sleep Patterns and Longevity
Gratitude can lead to both improved sleep quality and duration. Sleep which is long and deep is great for improving mental health, as sleep deprivation is linked to a myriad of poor health outcomes. One study which tracked the progress of students who kept gratitude journals found that the students were able to release their worries and quiet their minds, sleeping far more peacefully and for longer.
Great sleep means great mental health because the body eliminates toxins while you sleep, in addition to consolidating memories, repairing cells, and reduces emotional distress. Better sleep is linked to the reduction in many diseases such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and some forms of cancer.
Improves Self-Esteem
One of the many horrors of the modern world is the presence of social media and the insane pressures it places on people from all walks of life. Many people start to compare their lives to their friends’ and coworkers’, leading to reduced mental health and a high degree of envy, doubt, fear, and anxiety.
However, this feeling can be curbed by expressing gratitude for what you do have, as it distracts and mitigates feelings of jealously from things you lack. When you stop comparing your life to others’, this creates a greater sense of self-esteem and self-respect, leading to greater health results and greatly reducing your anxiety from day to day.
Foster Better Relationships
Relationships are another specter in the 21st century, as many throughout the world are lonelier than they’ve ever been. Satisfying and fulfilling relationships can lead to many positive outcomes, including increased longevity and a higher level of base health. Gratitude is actually great for strengthening relationships, as the more grateful people find less to fault in their friendly and romantic partners.
This in turn leads to greater social bonding which gives people a greater sense of self worth and safety. Gratitude can also be used to open the door to a new relationship, as the showing of gratitude early in a relationship will make the relationship more likely to take root and last longer. Finally, gratitude can also make ended relationships more meaningful and fulfilling, even after they’re over.