Thanksgiving Day reminds us of the people, events, things and disposition that we should all be grateful for.
TIME reports being thankful has a lot of benefits to a person's health, too. According to various studies, expressing gratitude regularly brings good sleep, a healthy heart and motivation to improve our physical health.
In April, a study of 186 men and women with heart problems were rated on their levels of gratitude and spiritual well-being. Some participants were then asked to write down the things they were grateful for within a span of 8 weeks. According to results, those with higher gratitude scores were more likely to have great moods, better sleep and less heart inflammation.
"We found that those patients who kept gratitude journals for those eight weeks showed reductions in circulating levels of several important inflammatory biomarkers, as well as an increase in heart rate variability while they wrote," said author of the study Paul J. Mills, who is also a professor of family medicine and public health at the University of California, San Diego. "Improved heart rate variability is considered a measure of reduced cardiac risk," he explained.
Another study done in 2011 also revealed the benefits of gratitude to a person's sleep. For the study, college students who had troubles in falling asleep were asked to spend 15 minutes writing down a recent positive experience or an anticipated event. Researchers found out that those who went through gratitude intervention were able to "quiet their minds and sleep better."
Published in the journal Personality and Individual Differences, another analysis focused on nearly 1,000 Swiss adults found out that higher levels of gratitude is also linked to better physical health. According to the data, those who felt thankful about their disposition reported willingness to improve health behaviors and motivation to seek help for their health concerns.
In fact, those who are always grateful are more likely to get involved in physical activities, become more optimistic and gain more friends.
Happy Thanksgiving!
