As a nation, we have dedicated a weekend holiday to focus on thanksgiving. While we will all enjoy the long weekend, we may be too busy cooking turkey or visiting relatives or just relaxing to have much time to actually reflect on gratitude.
Being grateful has significant benefit to our health and well-being. As previously discussed, stress bombards our lives today and is associated with up to 90% of doctor visits. The thing about stress is that it is not really related to what is going on in our lives, but more how we perceive what is going on. While we can’t usually control what happens around us, we have some measure of control over our reaction. By seeing everything in our life as a blessing and learning to become grateful – not only the good things that happen but also for the challenges that come our way, we will reduce the negative emotions attached to the challenges we face in stressful situations. Without the emotional reaction, we are able to respond to the situation more effectively and it takes less of a toll on our body. Being focused on gratitude will allow us to savour the positive things that are occurring in our lives, and reinterpret the “negative” aspects or life experiences, which will bolster our coping responses and resourceful thinking.
Evidence demonstrates a great benefit to one’s health by having a gratitude focus. A 2003 study by Emmons and McCullough showed that participants keeping a gratitude journal had 16% less physical symptoms, 19% spent more time exercising, 8% enjoyed more sleep and 25% experienced increased sleep quality. Seligman (et al) found in 2005 that expressing gratitude reduced depressive symptoms by 35%.
A sleep study of 400 adults in 2009 showed gratitude significantly improved sleep quality. Negative pre-sleep cognitions (thoughts) will impair your sleep. Gratitude focus before bed was demonstrated to inhibit these thoughts and protect sleep quality, also leading to less time required to fall asleep, and increased duration of sleep.
Not everyone is a fan of the focus on gratitude. Ken Page, a psychotherapist in New York, writes in Psychology Today, “The Healing Gift of Non-Gratitude”. He criticizes the gratitude “movement”, saying that forced gratitude clouds our judgement and mutates into self recrimination. He has seen clients stay in unhealthy relationships or jobs, or ignore health issues because they were trying to remain grateful.
I agree with Mr. Page that a gratitude focus does not replace our responsibility to act in our situation. However, a “gratitude focus” is not the same thing as simple “positive thinking”. We can be grateful for our challenges as they cause us to take steps that lead to future healing. I believe we will be more resourceful in our search for change if we welcome the pain that leads to our quest.
Gratitude focus will change our outlook on life. Anger and bitterness are destructive emotions that lead to adrenal depletion, stress and tension held through-out our bodies. Anger cannot coexist with gratitude. In his book, “The Gratitude Effect”, Dr. John Demartini recommends beginning and ending each day with a few moments focused in a gratitude journal, writing down and reviewing the things we are grateful for in our lives. Just a few moments a day can have a transformational effect on our lives.
As Helen Keller wrote, “Keep your face to the sunshine and you cannot see the shadows”. I encourage you to take some time and develop your own way to have a gratitude journal, not just on this “Thanksgiving” weekend, but for your life