How Practicing Gratitude Can Change Your Life
By Movieguide® Contributor
Practicing gratitude might change your life.
“Gratitude is the warmth you feel when you experience kindness or generosity or cherish and savor the good things you have,” Psychology Today reported. “It’s the sense of having something meaningful that connects you to others. Gratitude is recognizing that you’ve experienced a positive outcome and that it wasn’t entirely your own doing.”
One study found that keeping track of the things you’re grateful for positively changes your outlook on life and can help you physically and mentally.
READ MORE: HOW TO TEACH AND PRACTICE GRATITUDE WITH YOUR KIDS
“One group wrote about things they were grateful for that had occurred during the week,” Harvard reported. “A second group wrote about daily irritations or things that had displeased them, and the third wrote about events that had affected them (with no emphasis on them being positive or negative). After 10 weeks, those who wrote about gratitude were more optimistic and felt better about their lives. Surprisingly, they also exercised more and had fewer visits to physicians than those who focused on sources of aggravation.”
Practicing gratitude can also alleviate “anxiety and depression and boost emotional and social well-being,” per Psychology Today.
It plays a big role in relationships. When you express gratitude, oxytocin, the “love hormone,” is released, and this helps “strengthen the connection and bond between individuals.” When you’re grateful, Psychology Today explains, you’re more likely to:
- Notice and remember positive actions while naturally filtering out minor annoyances
- Attribute positive events to our partner’s good intentions rather than luck or circumstance
- Feel more comfortable being vulnerable, which deepens intimacy
- Experience capitalization, an amplification of positive events when shared with a grateful partner
“When we feel gratitude, it focuses our attention on what we love and appreciate about a partner or friend and motivates us to show it,” Evidence Based Living explained. “Hearing an expression of gratitude makes the recipient feel good about themselves and the relationship, which leads to all sorts of other benefits.”
This Thanksgiving, take time to express your gratitude to your friends, family and God.
READ MORE: HERE’S HOW YOU CAN THANK VETERANS THIS THANKSGIVING
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