Why Adopting an Attitude of Gratitude Can Transform your Health & Wellbeing
We love reminding our patients that healthy spirituality and gratitude is directly linked with increased wellbeing and health! It’s not just wishful thinking– it’s science! Read on to learn more, including a gratitude ritual we’re doing this New Year’s Eve!
This month, in honor of the new year, we explored research between patients with heart failure and disease who adopted an attitude of gratitude and drastically improved their lives! Here’s what we learned.
Three Powerful Benefits of Gratitude
Spirituality and gratitude have long been known and associated with good health. In looking at 186 men and women with Stage B asymptomatic heart failure, scientists found that gratitude was directly correlated with better sleep, fatigue, mood, self-efficacy and inflammation.
The importance of this study can not be overstated– people with severe heart disease essentially transformed their health outcomes by adopting gratitude into their lifestyle. Can you imagine how impactful gratitude can be especially without a serious health condition?
- Gratitude can improve your inflammatory markers. You read that correctly! Are you taking supplements and eating healthy to accomplish this? Well, consider a gratitude journal where you write five things you’re grateful for everyday. Reduce your inflammation for free!
- Gratitude can improve your mood and depression. Often when people feel low or depressed it’s very hard to shift your thinking into an attitude of gratitude. Even a small mindset shift, “I’m grateful for this good tasting coffee. Or for the comfortable couch I’m sitting on” is good enough! Start small, don’t make huge leaps that feel inauthentic to where you are now.
- Gratitude can improve sleep and reduce fatigue. Sleeping is healing! Your body needs to rest, so adding a gratitude list at night is a great way to end the day on a high note and drift into restful sleep. Try leaving a pen and paper on your bedside table and before turning off the lights, jot down five-ten things you feel grateful for!
What do you have to lose? Being grateful has so many benefits, chief among them is improved self-efficacy and confidence!
New Year’s Eve Gratitude Ritual
Start off 2022 on the right foot! This year, as you’re settling in and waiting for midnight– grab a journal, a pen and paper or even your phone notes app. If possible, grab a partner or a group of people to do the exercise with.
Transform what you’re grateful for into powerful new year intentions.
- Set a timer for 10 minutes. On a piece of paper, list every single thing you’re grateful for about the past year. This does not have to be perfect– even if it’s been a hard year, think back to the moments where things went well.
- Once the timer goes off, either stop your list or keep going until you run out of things to list. Share your list with the people you’re doing this exercise with. Highlight or circle the things you were grateful for in 2021 that you want to claim in 2022.
- Take each highlighted item and on a separate paper, transform what you were grateful for, into an intention for the new year. Create an entire list of your intentions, based on your gratitude list. Feel free to add more intentions when you’re complete!
Example:
I’m grateful for all the days I decided to workout, even when I didn’t feel like it.
Intention: I will make exercise a priority and ensure I move my body everyday.
Are you ready to work on your mindset and transform your health? Give us a call or schedule a consultation today to start 2022 off on the right track!
