Welcome to the Simple Steps to Improved Health Challenge Day 20 Be Grateful
Reminder to choose 1 of the first two actions to work on this week starting today or whatever day you want the week to start on for you. See Day 1 for more information about the challenge.
How Does Being Grateful Improve Health
Being thankful is a powerful tool to improve your health.
You may already know that there are great mental health benefits to gratitude. These include increased happiness and improved self-esteem.
There are also many physical health benefits to being grateful. It boosts the immune system by lowering stress, reduces blood pressure, and improves sleep quality.
Next, it improves social health. It improves relationships and generally makes you more likable. In that way gratitude also gives us a stronger support system.
There are other areas of life that are improved by gratitude that also then improve health through less stress and more enjoyable life.
For example in your career, you will have more patience and improved decision-making skills. You may find it easier to see and comment on the good work of your employees. This may make you a more effective manager.
Likely, you will find it easier to find purpose in the work you do which may increase your effectiveness. You may become more optimistic and giving in your life. As well as become less concerned with materialism and resentful of others’ accomplishments.
How to Take Action to Be Grateful
There are many ways to show gratitude or start a gratitude practice.
Here is a list of a couple of options so that you can start a practice to get consistent.
Once you become consistent, then work on making the practice more your own.
Gratitude Journal
If you love to write down your thoughts then a gratitude journal would be a good place to start.
Make it your own by deciding how much to journal. Maybe you write an entire page or keep to one line a day. You could mix it up and on busy days only do a one-liner.
Also, consider when you will write in your gratitude journal. For some people, it is every morning and others right before bed. Maybe it is at lunchtime or right after brushing your teeth.
It is easier to make a habit if you connect it to another action you already do every day. You can use any journal you have available or you can find specific journals in bookstores or online to purchase.
Gratitude Board
If you are a visual person then this may work well for you. Add images of the things that you are thankful for. This one can be done on a large presentation board, corkboard, or even on an app like Pinterest.
You can add an image a day or 2 or 3. Maybe you create an image with a story or quote about what you are grateful for.
Gratitude App
If you are an all-digital person, there are gratitude apps.
Gratitude has a journal feature with affirmations. Whereas Day One Journal lets you include photos and audio. Look at the descriptions for the apps and decide which works best for how you want to practice gratitude. Many apps have free versions that you can start with to see if you like them. Some other apps are Live Happy and 365 Gratitude.
Gratitude Jar
My son had this last year in 1st grade. Find a pretty jar or large mason jar. Every day write what you are grateful for on a small slip of paper and add it to the jar.
Every week or once a month or once a year you can take out the slips of paper and remind yourself of all the wonderful things that have happened during that time.
Daily Meditation or Prayer Time
If you are a more auditory person, you may want to speak what you are grateful for during your meditation or prayer time. Adding gratitude to an already established habit of meditation or prayer allows more consistency.
Be Consistent to Get the Health Benefits
In a couple of studies, it was noticed that the gratitude practice does not necessarily provide an immediate health benefit. Over time the benefit seemed to get stronger. So stay consistent.
One study checked at 1 week, 4 weeks, and 12 weeks after a group was asked to write 3 letters of gratitude. The group that wrote the letters seemed to have improved thankfulness and higher scores on happiness as they reached 12 weeks.
Also, the biggest benefit was when there was a decrease in negative thoughts versus an increase in positive thoughts. So allow those positive thoughts to crowd out the negative ones especially about yourself.
Go Do it – Be Grateful
1. Decide if you want a gratitude practice.
2. Chose the gratitude practice you think will fit well in your lifestyle. Get your supplies or download the app.
3. Try it out for at least a month to see if it works for you.
4. If you don’t like it then try a different one.
Make it consistent and you will see your life change.
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