With so much going on in my life - and in all of our lives - it has been hard to take a moment to appreciate this wonderful world we live in. I follow several other blogs and found a post the other day about being grateful (on a blog appropriately called: Operation Nice) and how it improves your health. I wanted to look into this some more and see if being grateful actually had an affect on wellness. It turns out there are several different studies that have proved that being grateful leads to a healthier and happier life. In fact, people who are grateful tend to live longer! "Research shows that simply focusing each day on three to five things for which you can be grateful will increase your health and happiness. Everyone has something to be grateful for."
Being grateful also allows people to defeat what psychologists call the "negativity bias"—the natural tendency to dwell on problems, annoyances and injustices rather than positive events. An article done in 2010 (Thank you. No, Thank You) discusses this in further detail and says that focusing on blessings from a young age can help ward off depression later on in life. The article also provides some cute graphics and even a "how grateful are you quiz" - I think that my new goal is to keep a "gratitude journal" and write a few things down each day that I am thankful for. It may provide a little bit of good energy when I'm feeling blue.
I hope you take a look at this article, or at least take a minute today to be grateful for something or someone! If you want, feel free to share them with me - I would love to hear them!
grateful for: a bed; air conditioning (sometimes); being able to breathe; showers; my boyfriend, friends and family; the grace of God; forgiveness; avocados; sweet potatoes; making friends with older people (people who are older than 30); resting...I love reminding myself of the things I am thankful for! my one friend used to (she still might) keep a mason jar and put little pieces of paper of what she was thankful for in it. she inspired me to do that and this makes me want to do that again :) also, I am thankful for friends blogs!! they inspire such creativity.
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