What if there were an easy way to improve your sense of well-being so you could feel happier and more content with your life? Somothing so simple, anyone could do it with next to no effort. And what if it could have a positive impact on your physical health at the same time? Best of all, what if there were extensive research to back up those positive results?
Of course, since I’m blogging about it, by now you have figured out that there is a way. And it’s not a magic wonderpill; it’s gratitude.
Enough research has been done on the impact of gratitude that it even caught the attention of conservative mainstream publications like the Wall Street Journal. Here’s what a recent WSJ article had to say:
A growing body of research suggests that maintaining an attitude of gratitude can improve psychological, emotional and physical well-being.
Adults who frequently feel grateful have more energy, more optimism, more social connections and more happiness than those who do not, according to studies conducted over the past decade. They’re also less likely to be depressed, envious, greedy or alcoholics. They earn more money, sleep more soundly, exercise more regularly and have greater resistance to viral infections.
It’s like a wonder-drug! With benefits like that, how can you resist? Even if you don’t naturally feel grateful, it’s easy to train that gratitude muscle, just by making it a point to focus on what you’re grateful for.
Sometimes it’s just a matter of remembering to remember that we have things to be grateful for. It’s so easy for an awareness of all we’re blessed with to fade into the background.
Try this: At least once every day, stop and ask yourself, “What am I grateful for right now?” Challenge yourself to create a daily gratitude habit. Commute to work? Try kicking off your day by spending part of that time mulling over reasons to be grateful.
The more you focus on it, the more your mind naturally looks for reasons to be grateful. And the more you look for them, the more you notice them. And the more you notice them, the more grateful you feel.
[image by psd]
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