Gratitude and thankfulness are abundant right now. I’m going to share 7 things about gratitude you have to experience for yourself. There are so many benefits to it, let’s talk about a few of them today:
1. Gratitude is healthy for your brain.
Being thankful and recognizing things you are thankful for helps to reroute brain patterns to be more positive.
2. Gratitude relieves stress.
When you are thankful in the midst of difficult situations, your stress level lowers, thus keeping the production of cortisol in balance.
3. Gratitude boosts your emotions.
Reflect on a challenging time in your life – did focusing on what you were thankful for, rather than what you were struggling with at that time, improve the situation?
4. Gratitude can decrease pain levels.
A study conducted on gratitude versus burdens revealed that some of the study participants reported having less pain after a mindset shift to the grateful.
5. Gratitude is said to cause better sleep.
Sleep is always difficult when our burdens are heavy and we have so much to process in our minds – however, when we change our minds to being thankful, restfulness comes more easily. (is Bing Crosby singing to anyone else right now? “I’ve Got Plenty to Be Thankful For” – an oldie, but a goodie. Simply stated.)
6. Gratitude is known to reduce anxiety and depression.
Both anxiety and depression thrive when our minds are caught in negative thought patterns. When we break those patterns by being thankful and averting our thoughts to lighter, grateful thoughts, feelings of anxiety and depression can lessen and even dissipate.
7. Gratitude can increase your drive to exercise.
It is thought that being more grateful in general causes one to want to care for oneself better therein driving you to exercise, being thankful for the health and the body you have no matter what state it’s in currently. Being grateful to be alive helps to put exercise and movement into motion.
Want to test the theory yourself? I have a download on my Visibly Fit app that you can get for free! It’s for Apple/IOS and Android users.
Head to the blog section and look for the pumpkin picture. 🙂 You’ll find the printable gratitude journal there. Are you on Instagram? If you’re using the journal, I’d love if you shared a photo and tagged me (@wendiepett)! You can also use the hashtag #visiblyfit.
I look forward to seeing your results.
