Happy Thanksgiving from Wellness Made EC
Gratitude is a feeling of thankfulness and appreciation for the good things in life.
Gratitude can be felt for many things, including:
A place to live
Food
Clean water
Friends and family
A gift
A fortunate event
Nature
A divine entity
Gratitude can be experienced spontaneously, but it can also be cultivated consciously. Practicing gratitude can have mental health benefits. Some ways to practice gratitude include:
Focusing on the good things that have happened in your day
Noticing the sounds around you
Noticing the textures around you
Hugging someone or stroking a pet
Volunteering to help others
Practicing gratitude can be a game-changer. It has far-reaching effects, from improving our mental health to boosting our relationships with others. Living your life with gratitude helps you notice the little wins—like the bus showing up right on time, a stranger holding the door for you, or the sun shining through your window when you wake up. Each of these small moments strings together to create a web of well-being that, over time, strengthens your ability to notice the good.
Experiencing gratitude activates neurotransmitters like dopamine, which we associate with pleasure, and serotonin, which regulates our mood. It also causes the brain to release oxytocin, a hormone that induces feelings like trust and generosity, promoting social bonding and connection. In other words, the sense of happiness and contentment.
Grateful people have a unique ability to find the good around them. They do not deny the bad, turn a blind eye to suffering, or refuse to speak of sorrow. But during life's negative experiences, they actively seek the positive, identify it, celebrate it, and recount it for others to hear.
Just like physical fitness and nutrition, gratitude needs to be exercised.
Try this! Get in the practice of writing down three things that you are grateful for every day. See if it doesn't kick-start those gratitude muscles.
It is almost impossible to feel anxious if you are feeling gratitude simultaneously.
All material was gathered and researched through my amazing fellowship program, The Arizona Center for Integrative Medicine.
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