7 Health Benefits of Gratitude

For years, journaling wasn’t time well spent for me. Why focus on the stress that happened during my day? I had this wrong. It isn’t about focusing on the negative in my life. Since then I’ve learned there are 7 health benefits of gratitude that may just help you start your gratitude journey.

A few years back, I had been going through a stressful time. There were lots of work issues and instability with endless layoffs due to the economy, along with many personal feelings that I hadn’t resolved over the years.

I tend to compartmentalize issues and push them aside or down just to get through my day, week, month, year. Often these don’t get resolved until I’m overwhelmed. Then life tends to crash over something small because I didn’t take the time to process my feelings in a healthy way.

Sound familiar?

Anywho I decided that enough was enough, I needed to get past certain struggles that kept coming up over and over. I also needed to cut some of the negativity in my life because life just sucked when I focused on the negative all of the time.

I promised you the 7 health benefits of gratitude, so I’ll start there and then provide some insight into my own gratitude journey and what helped me.

According to Psychology Today there are 7 scientific health benefits to gratitude that I found quite interesting. This shouldn’t be a shocker that my geekiness loved the science facts, but I’ll give you the digest version.

1. Gratitude opens the door to more relationships – when learning to look for gratitude you will often give thanks to people for small and big contributions in your life. These may deepen your relationships with others and provide stronger and healthier connections in your life.

2. Gratitude improves physical health – when practicing gratitude you will tend to think more positively and start to take better care of your physical well-being. I personally started taking care of myself and wanting to take care of myself more.

3. Gratitude improves psychological health – studies show that when you practice gratitude you reduce the toxic emotions in your life. This helps reduce depression and improve happiness.

4. Gratitude strengthens growth mindset – studies have shown that when you practice gratitude you are less likely to act out in vengeance or retaliate against someone. I would say that practicing gratitude strengthens your growth mindset so that you can see the situation as a learning opportunity.

5. Grateful people sleep better – studies have shown that spending just 15 minutes a night writing in a gratitude journal helps improve sleep habits. I can see the connection between focusing on positive thoughts as a bedtime routine helping your overall sleep quality, by MyPillow also helped improve my sleep.

6. Gratitude improves self-esteem – studies have shown that the overall performance of people improves when gratitude is practiced regularly. They don’t compare themselves to others with resentment or jealousy either. Strengthening your growth mindset through gratitude will help with this improvement in your life. You are able to be happy for others, learn from them and focus on your own life goals too.

7. Gratitude increases mental strength – studies have proven for years that gratitude helps not only reduce your stress but also helps overcome trauma. These studies have proven that practicing gratitude helps you become more resilient, giving you the ability to overcome those tough times, even when life is overwhelming.

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My Gratitude Journey

I mentioned earlier that I started this journey during an emotionally tough season of my life. During this time, I was compelled to finally work through some emotional baggage and cut out toxic thoughts and emotions in my own life.

Part I: Finding My Authentic Self

I started my own journey using HeatherAsh Amara’s Warrior Goddess Training. This book helped me work through some old self-limiting beliefs and find my true authentic self. I grew so much working through this book and truly believe that it helped me find my path in life.

I learned to love myself and who I was becoming as a person. This was hard for me, due to some childhood issues while growing up but taking this journey with HeatherAsh’s help I was able to work through them and move past the emotional baggage that I had carried with me for so long.

If you are struggling with self-esteem or you suffer from constantly expecting more from yourself, then I highly recommend this book. It is raw, honest and so very helpful. It is empowering, and worth the read for any woman needing to find and love the uniqueness and beauty that she and only she can bring to this crazy world we live in.

Part II: Simple Abundance

The second part of my gratitude journey started when a friend revealed her year-long journey she has started. I was intrigued with the path she was taking and instantly downloaded the book, Simple Abundance: A Daybook of Comfort and Joy by Sarah Ban Breathnach.

Simple Abundance is simply a daily journal read that gives you thought-provoking and sometimes personal challenges to help bring more gratitude, comfort, and joy into your life.

I recommended this book before when talking about positive influences in your life because it truly was refreshing to include this in my self-care regime daily.

It was this book that helped me strip toxic negativity in my life and truly learn to practice gratitude. I’ll be honest and tell you that I don’t have a daily journal that I use for gratitude, but maybe I should.

I do mindfully check myself when I find that negative thoughts and complaints are often. In the year that I followed the simple abundance journey, I found myself more resilient to toxic events. I started taking better care of myself and making a diligent effort in self-care.

My simple life journey started years before my gratitude journey but it was this gratitude journey that helped define who I am today. Since my gratitude journey started I have found myself more resilient to life challenges. Life hasn’t always been easy but I’ve learned to have confidence that I’ll recover and grow stronger from it. I’ve personally experienced all 7 health benefits of gratitude and am so grateful for taking the steps to make that small change in my life.

Will you join me in a gratitude journey?