Gratitude has incredible benefits for those who practice it. Cultivating gratitude not only helps us cultivate emotional well-being and regulate stress, but it also has a positive impact on our physical health.
It is not too surprising that gratitude is beneficial for emotional health. What is a little more striking is that being grateful helps improve physical health, especially in the culture of healthy men’s healthy incorporate? It is a two-way street, as it also works the other way around: healthy body in a healthy mind.
The good news is that whatever method we use to give thanks, thanksgiving improves our health in some way. This is so thanks to the amazing neurological effects that gratitude has on us.
Numerous studies show that expressing and experiencing gratitude increases the satisfaction of the one who expresses it, as does vitality, hope, and optimism. In addition, it contributes to reducing the levels of depression, anxiety, envy, and stress-related to IT company Toronto work.
The good news is that gratitude is addictive, in a good way. Acts of kindness and gratitude release large amounts of dopamine, a natural reward that works as a stimulant to keep you motivated to cultivate your gratitude.
But this is not all. In addition, the results of research on the benefits of gratitude show that these neurological effects open the doors to many more benefits for physical and mental health.
Improves health and decreases levels of physical pain.
It can be hard to believe that something as simple as being grateful can ease physical pain. However, it is completely true; many studies support it. For example, according to a 2012 study published in Personality and Individual Differences, grateful people experience less pain and report feeling healthier than other people.
Not surprisingly, to the extent that gratitude promotes the release of dopamine, it can also help improve physical pain. This is so because dopamine is a neurotransmitter that plays an important role in pain processing and its analgesic effect is very important.
In addition, research in general has found that grateful people also have a greater interest in taking care of their health and exercise more. In fact, people who cultivate gratitude exercise more often and are more likely to have medical check-ups, which likely contributes to their longevity.
Improve sleep.
One of the reasons gratitude improves both emotional and physical well-being is because it greatly improves the quality of your sleep. Numerous scientific studies on gratitude have produced the same result: gratitude increases the quality of sleep; decreases the time it takes to fall asleep and lengthens the duration of it.
Relieve the stress.
Better sleep implies being more relaxed, which is not only good for our mental health, but also for our heart and nervous system, since it helps us to better manage stress.
Reduces anxiety and depression.
Numerous studies on the benefits of cultivating gratitude have shown that keeping a gratitude journal or writing and sending thank you notes can increase our long-term happiness by more than 10%. In this regard, a 2005 study also showed that keeping a gratitude journal decreased depression by more than 30% for the duration of the study.