15 Remarkable Health Benefits of Gratitude that you May not Know About

by | Jul 12, 2022 | Life

15 Remarkable Health Benefits of Gratitude

Gratitude is a very important part of the human experience. It helps us become aware of the abundance in our lives and express appreciation for all we have.

This is why gratitude is one of the most powerful tools for healing and moving forward from difficult situations or negative emotions.

Gratitude has been shown to help improve physical health and mental well-being, as well as increase happiness, reduce stress, and improve relationships. Here are some of the most important health benefits of gratitude:

  1. Health benefits of Gratitude: Increases positivity
Health Benefits of Gratitude

Gratitude helps to reduce negative emotions like anger, anxiety, envy, and resentment. It increases happiness and improves overall well-being by making us feel more connected to others and life in general. People who practice gratitude tend to have higher levels of energy and enthusiasm than those who are ungrateful. They also experience less stress and burnout from work-related stressors like criticism from others or challenging co-workers.

  1. Health benefits of Gratitude: Makes you happier

Research has found that people who keep a gratitude journal report having more energy and enthusiasm for their lives than those who don’t. In one study, participants who kept a gratitude journal for just two weeks reported feeling happier, less stressed, more optimistic, and less depressed than before they started.

  1. Health benefits of Gratitude: Improves self-esteem

Gratitude improves self-esteem by helping you appreciate all you have instead of focusing on what you don’t have. It also helps you feel better about yourself because it allows you to recognize your achievements, which can boost your confidence in your abilities.

  1. Health benefits of Gratitude: Increases spiritualism

Gratitude is a powerful spiritual practice because it helps us transcend our ego and connect with something greater than ourselves. When we’re grateful for things like the sun rising every morning or for being able to walk without pain, we become more open to the divine.

  1. Health benefits of Gratitude: Improves relationships

When we’re grateful for someone else’s kindness or generosity, it allows us to connect with them on a deeper level because we see them as individuals rather than just people who did something nice for us.

  1. Makes you feel better about yourself.

Grateful people know not to compare themselves to others. They don’t focus on what they lack or don’t have — instead, they appreciate what they have now. As a result, grateful people feel more satisfied with themselves overall compared to those who aren’t grateful.

  1. Increases social support

Gratitude encourages compassion toward others by making people more willing to help others and less likely to judge them harshly. This is especially true when it comes to giving gifts or sharing resources with others.

  1. Decreases self-centredness

Gratitude helps us shift our focus from ourselves to the world around us. When we have an attitude of gratitude, we’re more likely to feel connected to others and less likely to be self-absorbed. This can lead to greater happiness and more meaningful relationships with others.

  1. Reduced materialism

Gratitude helps reduce materialism by reminding us that money can’t buy happiness; it only makes things more manageable (at times) but doesn’t make us happier overall. When we become less materialistic, we are less focused on keeping up with society’s standards or keeping up with our neighbours, which allows us to spend less time obsessing about finances and more time enjoying life!

  1. Improves decision-making

People who are grateful tend to make better decisions. Researchers at UC Berkeley found that people who wrote down things they were grateful for were more likely to make rational choices in their everyday lives.

  1. Reduces blood pressure

 In a study published in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association, researchers found that practicing gratitude helped lower blood pressure in people with hypertension (high blood pressure). Participants who recorded five things they were grateful for each week for three months had lower systolic blood pressure readings than those who didn’t keep a gratitude journal.

  1. Improves your sleep quality

People who regularly practice gratitude are more likely to get better sleep. This helps boost immune system function and protect against disease (including cancer). The reason? Gratitude helps reduce stress, which is known to disturb sleep. In fact, people who practice gratitude have lower levels of the stress hormone cortisol than those who don’t practice daily gratitude. 

  1. Helps in recovery from depression

Gratitude is a great way to fight depression. Research shows that gratitude can help people cope with stress and depression. Focusing on the positive things in your life can make you feel happier and more satisfied with your life, too.

  1. Helps to stay away and recover from substance abuse.

When we are grateful for life and all it has brought us, we no longer need to rely on drugs or alcohol to cope with life stressors. Instead, we can use our inner strength to overcome any obstacles that come our way.

  1. Helps to find meaning in your work

Gratitude can help increase workplace productivity by improving morale and increasing employee satisfaction. It also helps employees feel more connected to the company’s mission and goals.

If we all took a few minutes each day to appreciate the good in our lives, it could have dramatic, positive effects on our overall happiness. That is why we are so thankful for Joyscore, the app that encourages daily gratitude. We encourage you to try it and see just how good a few small gestures can do for your life.

The Health benefits of gratitude are clearly demonstrable, but it is important to make sure that your gratitude can be properly directed. Those who acknowledge their past may find themselves dwelling on the negative aspects of it, while those who look forward may end up blind to what they have going for them in the present. 
For the best results, you should continue to notice and appreciate the things that make you happy and be grateful for them. This will allow you to neutralize any thoughts about negative aspects of your life that deserve to be changed. It’s also possible to view gratitude as a system: as you notice one thing that brings you happiness and thank it, another might appear shortly after. The more you practice gratitude, the easier it will become a habitual way of thinking in your life!

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Dr. Bob Singhal

Professor Bhupendra 'Bob' Singhal, has taught creativity by joy and right-brain thinking, is a renowned international architect, won major design competitions, has over 70 awards, publications, and media mentions, and served as President of the American Institute of Architects South Bay. In 2011, in his book Joy in Health and Happiness: Your Optimal Path to Success, Professor Singhal wrote about the transformative power of joy and helped readers learn to enhance their daily experience of it.

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