If You Want To Find Happiness, Find Gratitude

It turns out that when you start and end each day with conscious and mindful gratitude, the results are astounding.

Stronger immune system
less aches and pain
lower blood pressure
sleep longer and feel more refreshed upon waking
more positive
more alert
more joy
more happiness and optimism
more compassionate
more forgiving
more outgoing
less lonely and isolated

WHAT IS GRATITUDE

Gratitude isn’t just reserved for spontaneous reactions to a favorable circumstance, like your job promotion, but you can also be thankful for something simple like being able to hear the birds sing, or being able to see the sunrise, again. So from the tiniest things of beauty to the grandest of our blessings that’s what we need to always be mindful of.

According to Harvard Medical School, gratitude is:

“a thankful appreciation for what an individual receives, whether tangible or intangible. With gratitude, people acknowledge the goodness in their lives … As a result, gratitude also helps people connect to something larger than themselves as individuals – whether to other people, nature, or a higher power”

WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS OF PRACTICING GRATITUDE

The benefits of practicing gratitude are nearly endless. People who regularly practice gratitude by taking time to notice and reflect upon the things they’re thankful for experience more positive emotions and feel more alive.

UC Davis psychologist Robert Emmons, author of Thanks!: How the New Science of Gratitude Can Make You Happier, is perhaps the worlds leading expert on gratitude, his research shows that keeping a gratitude journal of regularly writing brief reflections on moments for which we’re thankful—can significantly increase well-being and life satisfaction in just 2 weeks. Thats amazing!

Here are a few key points I’ve discovered with research support of why you should start living with gratitude. These key points should help start your gratitude practice, and to maintain it for the long haul.

JOURNALING

Journaling is the most popular and simplest tool to practice gratitude. Getting into a good habit of writing in your journal every morning or evening can transform your life and open up incredible opportunities for love, joy, and success.

Even in the most challenging times, living gratefully makes us aware of and available to the opportunities that are always available.

Gratitude is a simple solution to complicated problems, the simple act of practicing gratitude can bring joy, hope and light to the darkest of times.

REWIRES THE BRAIN

Gratitude is a simple brain biohack to rewire your thinking, its crazy, but there are studies that show gratitude actually rewires your brain!

Rick Hanson, PhD and author of Hardwiring Happiness, explains that the human brain is wired to fixate on the negative instead of the positive. Because we learn more quickly from our bad experiences than our good ones, our brains are wired to consume negativity.

By practicing gratitude, you give yourself the opportunity to focus on the good things surrounding you. You allow your brain to relearn how to positively process information and reframe your point of focus.

National Institutes of Health (NIH) researchers examined blood flow in various brain regions while subjects thought up feelings of gratitude (Zahn et al,2009). They found that subjects who showed more gratitude overall had higher levels of activity in the hypothalamus. This is important because the hypothalamus controls functions, including eating, drinking and sleeping as well as your metabolism and stress levels. From this evidence on brain activity becomes clear how improvements in gratitude could have effects from increased exercise, and improved sleep to decreased depression and fewer aches and pains.

Another benefit of gratitude that research shows is that gratitude is addictive, in a good way. Acts of kindness and feelings of gratitude flood our brains with a chemical called dopamine. When we are truly grateful, our brain rewards us by giving us a natural high. Because this feeling is so good, we are motivated to feel it again and inclined to practice gratitude.

Emmons research on gratitude can actively reshape thought pathways in your brain. You can strengthen the parts of your brain that are associated with positive thinking. Emmons having spent over a decade studying the effects gratitude and its impact on our physical health and psychological well-being to him, gratitude breaks down into two components:

recognizing that one has obtained a positive outcome
recognizing that there is an external source for this positive outcome.

Gratitude walk in nature

Go for a walk in nature, in Japan it’s called Shinrin-yoku or forest bathing. There is no exercising involved, just paying close attention to everything you see and experience in the forest. Take notice of all its beauty, hear the birds, smells the flowers. It is simply being in nature, connecting with it through our senses of sight, hearing, taste, smell and touch. By opening our senses, it bridges the gap between us and the natural world. This will calm your mind and body. Focus on the feeling gratitude creates in your body, and enjoy it.

Happiness

Toepfer, Cichy, and Peters (2011) conducted a study where participants were asked to write and deliver letters to someone they were grateful for. The letters of gratitude study, particularly in the domains of happiness and life-satisfaction improved participants well-being and significantly decreased levels of depression.

In the pursuit of happiness and life satisfaction, gratitude is showing a direct and long-lasting effect thus the more gratitude we experience the happier our lives will be.