What’s your list of top 10 things for which you’re grateful?
Wishing you a Thanksgiving Day where you can really identify and focus on your gratitude through the day.
Gratitude, grateful, thankful, thanksgiving, appreciation
What do these words mean to you? What role do they play in your everyday life?
Finding those areas in your life can have a BIG, POSITIVE impact on your HEALTH.
What is gratitude?
This is being aware of all of the good things in your life. And it is being thankful for those things. Have you considered being grateful for:
- A safe place to sleep
- Food to eat
- Clothes to cover yourself
- Having a friend to call
- Your job – current or past
- A beautiful day
This simple awareness of and being thankful for these ‘little’ things can boost your health.
Note, it doesn’t have to be the biggest house or the softest bed or the tastiest food or the latest fashion clothing to be grateful. Gratitude focuses on what you have – all of the good things – rather than what you don’t have.
Expressing gratitude can:
- Boost your spirits and sense of well-being
- Boost your immune system making you less likely to get sick
- Decrease your chances of heart disease
- Improve your performance (grades, work productivity, concentration)
- Bust your stress
There are many ways you can make gratitude part of your life. Here are a few recommended in a Harvard Mental Health newsletter:
- Write a thank-you note
- Go up and thank someone
- Keep a gratitude journal
- Pray
- Meditate
- Keep a list of your thanks = count your blessings
See your day and your health improve by focusing on the positive.
Even therapy for mood disorders and approaches to negative thinking know this truth. I am quoting this from Rick Warren, “When you change the way you think, it changes the way you feel. And when you change the way you feel, it changes the way you act.”
For more information on gratitude and health, contact us at www.medsmash.com. Or call 410-472-5078.For further application, check out my personal blog.
