The benefits of gratitude are many and profound. Being grateful is shown to improve both physical and mental health, psychological wellbeing and attitude, and our relationships with others. Practicing gratitude has even been shown to rewire our brains for the better - it is a truly powerful life-changing tool.
Just this year, one study reports that a short, two-week daily gratitude writing intervention completed by 119 women that were either working or studying at University College London increased the women’s perceived wellbeing.
The enhanced wellbeing achieved from being grateful was associated with reductions in blood pressure and heart rate, as well as improved daily sleep quality.
In another study, a simple gratitude exercise, where 63 students were asked to write down five things they are grateful for per week for ten weeks, resulted in the students having fewer physical complaints (from acne breakouts to headaches) and they also reported spending 40 minutes more exercising.
Having greater energy and motivation to exercise is unsurprising considering two experiments, totalling 1,900 participants, reported a strong correlation between gratitude and vitality, i.e. feeling alive, energetic and enthusiastic.
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Category(s):Happiness
Source material from The Brain Blogger
