Health is much more than the absence of disease, and must consider multiple aspects of what it means to be human. Today, Melissa Rodriguez, BJU's Patient Outreach and Education Manager, talks to us about why cultivating an attitude of gratitude is good for our health. This is the first article in a series about holistic health. These articles will focus on different perspectives of health and wellness, including the body, mind and spirit. Enjoy and stay tuned!

 

“When you are grateful, fear disappears and abundance appears.” – Tony Robbins

With the start of the New Year, we are inspired by new beginnings. The past few years have brought about many challenges and new opportunities for growth and collaboration on a global scale.

The pandemic has changed the way we look at mental health, how we work and how we travel. It’s easy to look back and think about the difficulties we’ve been through, maybe even dwell on them a little, but it’s better to look forward and think about everything we’ve learned and how we can make this year even better than the one before.

 

Being thankful is good for mental health

The quality of being thankful helps us focus on the things going well in our life. It’s not to say that we completely ignore the challenges; we just don’t make them a focal point.

Studies show that people who can be grateful in times of struggles have better mental (and physical) health. Gratitude impacts our self-esteem in a positive way. It decreases symptoms of depression and anxiety and aggressive behaviors, including self-harm. It benefits our relationships and impacts the way we think, feel and behave. 

Healthcare workers who were able to tap into the benefits of gratitude, mindfulness, and safe-care during the beginning of the pandemic experienced resilience and less negative stress outcomes such as burnout. 

Being thankful makes us less materialistic

Interestingly, another benefit of gratitude is helping us feel satisfied with what we have. It seems to make us less materialistic. 

 Advertising companies make sure we are constantly bombarded by messages of how much better our lives would be if we had the newest phone, the fastest car, or the smoothest skin. As a result of a regular gratitude practice, we can learn to block out the noise of feeling like we don’t have enough. 

 Think of gratitude as a tool in your wellness kit that helps you live a healthier life and confront challenges head-on.

Some exercises to cultivate attitude of gratitude

So how can we cultivate this attitude of gratitude? Here are a few exercises to get you started:

• Start the habit of expressing thanks to others for work well done or outstanding effort. It can be verbally, face-to-face, or through a hand-written note or email. Be sure to include specific words that show you noticed their strengths.

• Create a gratitude journal. Every day or once a week, write down a few things you are grateful for. It can be a person, a feeling, an action, or a thing. It can be as simple as waking up in the morning or as profound as knowing your purpose in life. Think about each thing you’ve listed and how it makes you feel. Try to capture that feeling in your writing. You can also do this as a one-time exercise and list 100 things you are grateful for.

 

• Find a small object that fits in your pocket. It can be a smooth stone, a special coin, or a figurine, something you can carry with you. Associate this item with gratitude, every time you see it or feel it, take a moment to think of something you are thankful for. Keep it close to you for one week. Put it on your night table in the evening, and take it with you again the next day. After 7 days, reflect on the experience.

• Make a gratitude jar. Decorate a jar and make it a beautiful reminder of all that’s good. Every time you experience something to be grateful for, anything that makes you feel like the universe is on your side, write it down on a small piece of paper and put it in the jar. When you’re having a difficult day, pull out a note to remind yourself of the special moments you’ve experienced in the past.

• During a meal with family or friends, go around the table and share something you’re grateful for. Don’t wait for Thanksgiving to do this!

 

Gratitude is something that should be tended to and cultivated. We can think of it as a skill that can be developed, and in children especially, it needs to be nurtured. 

 Small daily reminders to be thankful can help change our mindset and make it our default setting to look for the good. Amazingly enough, having that kind of attitude doesn’t just benefit us when we act on it, but it also influences the recipient of our gratitude. 

This year, make it a habit to share your appreciation of others and help make our world a better place, one heart at a time!

 

References & Good to Read

The association of gratitude with perceived stress among nurses in Korea during COVID-19 outbreak

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34861959/

Effects of gratitude meditation on neural network functional connectivity and brain-heart coupling

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28698643/

Efficacy of an internet and app-based gratitude intervention in reducing repetitive negative thinking and mechanisms of change in the intervention's effect on anxiety and depression: Results from a randomized controlled trial

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31202003/

 Gratitude and the brain: Trait gratitude mediates the association between structural variations in the medial prefrontal cortex and life satisfaction

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31192663/

 Gratitude is positively associated with quality of life in multiple sclerosis

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32804535/

 Do People Become More or Less Materialistic during Disasters? The Mediating Roles of Mortality Salience and Gratitude

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34444313/

 Stress and Resilience Among Healthcare Workers During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Consideration of Case Studies

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34469405/

 Perceived changes of specific attitudes, perceptions and behaviors during the Corona pandemic and their relation to wellbeing

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33256755/

 Systemic teletherapists' meaningful experiences during the first months of the coronavirus pandemic

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33774847/

 Ethnic variation in gratitude and well-being

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30869943/

 Self-Esteem and Depression as Mediators of the Effects of Gratitude on Suicidal Ideation Among Taiwanese College Students

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31847688/

 The role of hopelessness and gratitude in the association between brooding and Chinese college students' suicidal ideation: a moderated mediation model

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32730117/

Gratitude and suicide risk among college students: Substantiating the protective benefits of being thankful

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31944902/

 Gratitude, Social Cognition, and Well-Being in Emerging Adolescents

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30222076/

The Effects of Forgiveness, Gratitude, and Self-Control on Reactive and Proactive Aggression in Bullying

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32784946/