“Never lose sight of all the good in your life. I hope you join me in cultivating your own gratitude practice even after Thanksgiving is over.”
-Rose Caiola
What are you grateful for?
Thanksgiving is here, but my goal is to be grateful every day – especially on the days when things aren’t going well. It’s easy to be happy when life is good. But it’s important to learn to embrace our negative emotions and experiences, so we can understand them and transform our lives into something better.
Researchers who study gratitude find that it is strongly and consistently associated with greater happiness. Won’t take my word for it? Here are the top research-based reasons for practicing gratitude:
- Gratitude makes us happy and boosts feelings of optimism, joy, pleasure, enthusiasm and more
- Gratitude reduces anxiety and depression
- Studies suggest that gratitude strengthens the immune system, lowers blood pressure, reduces symptoms of illness, aches and pains, and encourages us to exercise more
- Counting blessings instead of sheep makes us get more hours of sleep nightly and feel more refreshed upon awakening
- Gratitude increases resiliency and, according to data, helps people recover from trauma
- Gratitude strengthens relationships and can help partners who feel and express gratitude be more satisfied with their relationship
- Gratitude promotes forgiveness – even between ex-spouses after a divorce
- Gratitude helps kids gain greater life satisfaction, more positive emotion and more connection to community
- Gratitude is good for schools. Studies suggest it makes students feel better about their schools and helps teachers feel more satisfied and accomplished
Being grateful not only increases our happiness and sense of well-being, it helps us deal with adversity and build stronger personal relationships. It even improves our overall health. Practicing gratitude gives us more to be grateful for.
I’m not perfect, I’ll admit, and it’s taken me some time to learn to live in a state of gratitude. But I’m there now, and so much happier because of it. Gratitude is a natural state of bliss, so why not join me and embrace it? It’s a practice we need to engage in daily, and more importantly, learn how to express it.
So, start saying thank you! Then watch how it changes your life.
Rose Caiola
Inspired. Rewired.
