Thanksgiving wisdom: Why gratitude is good for your health

How many are really giving the word ‘Grateful’ its right meaning: causing pleasure and having a due sense of benefits, expressing gratitude?

+

In the article

1. The season for being thankful
2. A moment to reflect on the positive things in life and not the bad
3. Gratitude good for your health
4. Effects of  “positive psychology”
5. Needs of our society to raise a generation that is ready to make a difference in the world
6. Powerful motivator in people of all ages
7. Positive outlook on life
8. Influece of Positive thinking
9. Dopamine, the body’s “feel-good” reward chemical
10. The brain’s reward system
11. Satisfaction in life
12. Pro-social behaviours
13. Feelings of depression and anxiety

+++

Related articles

• 16 Thanksgiving Quotes About Gratitude and Grace (thestir.cafemom.com)
  Happy Thanksgiving! It’s that one day of the year when everyone — even the crankiest of the bunch — should be sitting down to take stock of the good in life and say thank you. If it were a perfect world, we’d all express our gratitude daily. But it’s not always easy to know what to say.
• Gratitude (toddlohenry.com) > Gratitude (kristinbartoncuthriell.com)
  “With a grateful heart you don’t have to search for happiness. You will find it all around you. For it is gratitude that clears the fog that covers the magic in life. With the fog lifted, you will see things, wonderful things, that have been there all along- a snowflake, a rainbow, a kind smile, a gentle hug. A grateful heart will open your eyes to the magic that surrounds you.” -Kristin Barton Cuthriell
  +
  7 Habits Of Grateful People
  Ralph Waldo Emerson once said that in order to achieve contentment, one should “cultivate the habit of being grateful for every good thing that comes to you, and to give thanks continuously.”

  Turns out Emerson — who explored the meaning of a good life in much of his work — wasn’t far off when it comes to what we now know about counting one’s blessings. Research is continually finding that expressing thanks can lead to a healthier, happier and less-stressed lifestyle.

  “Life is a series of problems that have to be solved — and a lot of times those problems cause stress,” says Dr. Robert Emmons, gratitude researcher and psychology professor at the University of California, Davis. “Gratitude can be that stress buster.”

• Have You Built a Thankful Company? (inc.com)
  A recent study found that only 10 percent of Americans thanked a colleague on any given day, and just 60 percent reported they never or extremely rarely express gratitude at work.
  +
  The trouble is building a culture of gratitude at work isn’t easy. Bosses often worry that expressions of thanks are less than genuine (i.e. butt kissing in disguise), while workers a little lower down the food chain have told researchers they worry giving thanks could make them seem weak or invite colleagues to take advantage of them.
• Why this Brit Loves Thanksgiving (leonaurarhodes.wordpress.com)
  Gratitude is a powerful tool to reduce stress and increase wellbeing because it focuses your attention on the good things in your life, past and present. Often we get caught up in our busy lives and fail to stop for a moment and notice the good things and to celebrate them, no matter how small. That is why I have created this gratitude meditation to share with the world, so if you have just 5 minutes to spare, I’d love you to listen, you never know it might just be good for your brain!
• The Power of Gratitude (aclearplace.com)
  Being thankful for what you have is the surest way to love where you are. If you are not happy with your place or your space, you have the power to change it. It’s called gratitude. You can shift your world by blessing it. Start right now by looking around your room and saying thank you. When you walk into your home say thank you. Practice mindful placement of your belongings. And always give and receive with gratitude.Giving thanks begins in the heart. It’s where all healing starts. Connect with your heart-self by bringing nature close to you. Its energy will lift you and your space. Simple. A single flower is a good way to start.
• Five Myths about Gratitude (venitism.blogspot.com)
  Even armed with years of scientific data, making the case for gratitude can still be an uphill battle. At times I’ve been confronted with objections, reservations, or flat out hostility to the idea that gratitude is a virtue, or that we should devote more energy to cultivating an attitude of gratitude.
  While I appreciate the questions and concerns people have about gratitude, I think many of the objections are based on fundamental myths or misconceptions about what gratitude really is. And unfortunately, these misconceptions deter people from practicing gratitude—and reaping its many rewards.
• 5 Quotes about Gratitude (adreamerswife.com)
  I thought that I’d share five bits of wisdom about thankfulness!
• The Beauty of the Gratitude List (chavonneawright.wordpress.com)
  My daily gratitude list reminds me to stay grateful for even the little things–there have been days when the only things I felt thankful for were breathing and sunshine. Of course, when you remember the smaller things, the big things come to mind, too. In light of the holiday, I thought I’d share my list for Thanksgiving Eve 2013
• Giving Thanks Could Be Good for You (news.health.com)
  Many people may think of gratitude as a “passive” gesture — you wait for something good, then feel grateful, said David DeSteno, a professor of psychology at Northeastern University, in Boston. DeSteno studies the effects that thankfulness can have on people’s behavior.

  But a growing body of research is suggesting the opposite is true, according to DeSteno: By choosing to feel gratitude, people can make positive changes in their lives.

  “Gratitude isn’t passive reflection. It’s active,” DeSteno said. “And it’s not about the past. It’s there to help direct our behavior in the future.”

  In experiments where he and his colleagues set people up to feel grateful, they found that thankfulness appeared to spur participants to act in more cooperative, less selfish ways.

• Gratitude: Not just for Thanksgiving – Give thanks and improve your health! (suzannemansell.com)
  Dr. David Hamilton, PhD, author of “How Your Mind Can Heal Your Body,” spoke about the connection between the brain, behavior and emotions. He noted that our brains don’t distinguish whether something is really happening versus whether we’re imagining something is happening. He explained a phenomenon called “emotional contagion”
• Giving Thanks (thehobbyhoarder.com)
  Sharing our gratitude doesn’t have to be–and shouldn’t be–an event that is confined to forced conversation over turkey once a year. Showing gratitude is something that we should continuously practice day in and day out. Gratitude is a hobby that travels far beyond the remnants of the turkey coma after your Thanksgiving feast.
  +
  embrace the moment—be grateful for the moment. Be grateful for yourself.
• 22 Reminders of How to Be a More Grateful Person. (elephantjournal.com)
  There are ways to cultivate gratitude. Write down what you’re grateful for. Say it out loud. Remind yourself of the good things in life. This is not to say, “be a happy, positive person all the time.” Plastering a fake smile on your face isn’t really going to help.
• Gratitude Isn’t Always Easy For Me: My Top 5 List « Swim In The Adult Pool
• Does Thanksgiving have a place at work? | dp@large
• 4 Little Ways to Infuse Life with Gratitude
• The Magic of Thanksgiving: A Harvest from the Seeds of Gratitude
• 3 Good Things: How Gratitude Heals
• Giving Thanks | SWYM