by Lisa Stockdale
"We can complain because rose bushes have thorns, or rejoice because thorns have roses."
-Alphonse Karr, A Tour Round My Garden
The holidays
are upon us and we kick them off with Thanksgiving which began as a day of
giving thanks for the blessing of the harvest and of the preceding year.
Did you know that practicing an “attitude of
gratitude” daily has the ability to improve your overall quality of life?
It’s
true! Researchers from Harvard Medical
School to the Mayo Clinic and beyond all agree that practicing gratitude will
significantly increase your well-being – including improved physical, mental
and emotional health.
Here are
five ways gratitude can positively impact your life, according to the
research:
1. Improved Sleep
A 2009 study
in the Journal of Psychosomatic Research found
that grateful people (those who express gratitude) sleep longer and better than
those who do not practice gratitude.
Simply writing down a list of a few things to be grateful for before
bedtime has been shown to improve quality of sleep, according to a 2011 study
published in Applied Psychology: Health
and Well-Being.
2. Improved Physical Health
Grateful
people report fewer aches and pains, exercise more regularly and attend regular
medical check-ups more often than ungrateful people, according to a 2012 study
published in Personality and Individual
Differences. Amit Sood, M.D. from
the Mayo Clinic reports that practicing gratitude boosts immunity and decreases
the risk of disease.
3. Increased Empathy and Decreased
Aggression
“Gratitude
motivates people to express sensitivity and concern for others,” researchers
wrote in a 2012 paper in Social
Psychology and Personality Science. Gratitude
was attributed to an increase in empathy and a decrease in aggression. A 2012 study by the University of Kentucky
demonstrated that people who ranked
higher on gratitude scales were less likely to retaliate against others.
4. Increased Happiness and Decreased
Depression
Robert A.
Emmons, Ph.D., a leading gratitude researcher, has concluded that gratitude
reduces an array of toxic emotions like envy, resentment and frustration which
works to improve overall psychological health.
For example, grateful people are less likely to become resentful of
others and more likely to show appreciation for other people’s
accomplishments. A 2014 study published
in the Journal of Applied Sport
Psychology linked gratitude to improved self-esteem.
5. Increased Resilience
Numerous
studies, including a 2006 study in Behaviour
Research and Therapy, found that Vietnam War veterans with high levels of
gratitude were less likely to be impacted by post-traumatic stress disorder. Generally speaking, research has demonstrated
that gratitude reduces stress and improves one’s ability to overcome
trauma.
