Benefits to Becoming More Thankful

Feeling down? Want a technique to immediately lift your mood? Think about something that you are thankful for!

Repeating this daily can permanently change and lift your mood. This will also have the potential to effect those closest to you. You have the potential to rewire your brain by continual grateful thoughts.

Focusing on your blessings instead of what you do not have can bring real health benefits. Thinking about all you do not have or lack can have the opposite effect, and it can produce negative health issues. There is always something that you can be thankful for. This can be a bit of a challenge if you have gone through many trials and heartaches. If you have formed a habit of thinking about all that is wrong in your life, it will take some time to form a new habit of choosing thankfulness.

Benefits to becoming more thankful:

1. An increase of good feelings. Grateful people tend to be optimistic, thus creating more feel good emotions.
2. Overall you will have a greater sense of well-being, contentment, relaxation, and calmness.
3. Happier memories. You can choose to be thankful for the good that was in your past and not reflect and dwell on all the negative components.
4. Less envious of others. Gratitude reduces a multitude of toxic emotions, such as envy, regret, frustration, and resentment. Gratitude has been linked to increased happiness and reduction of depression.
5. Healthier marriage. Being thankful for the little things your spouse does can make your relationship stronger, instead of pointing out the wrong that they do.
6. More friendships. Gratitude deepens friendships.
7. Improved sleep. Spending as little as 10-15 minutes daily reflecting on your blessings, especially before bedtime, can help you sleep better.
8. Get sick less often, and grateful people experience fewer aches and pains and feel overall healthier. Grateful people take better care of themselves.
9. Increased energy, empathy, and optimism.
10. Increase in self-esteem and value and appreciate the accomplishments of others.
11. More productive at work, as well as better time management and goal achievement.
12. Reduces stress and new research is showing that gratitude reduces trauma. Recognizing all that you have to be thankful for, especially during tough times can make you more resilient. Being grateful can help you cope with daily problems better.
13. Able to let go of controlling outcomes. You do the best that you can do and work towards the best possible outcome, but you are able to let-go and let the “chips” fall where they may. Being thankful for allowing your life to happen on God’s terms allows for greater peace.

Allow others to be a work in progress as well as yourself. If you’re in a continual state of being grateful for all progress that you and others make, in turn it will make you happier with yourself and others. Being able to accept yourself and others, creates harmony and peace.

Feeling sorry for yourself, having self-pity, or complaining will decrease your mental, spiritual, and physical health. Try exchanging self-pity with gratitude and see if you feel a difference. Change your focus from reflecting on what is lacking in your life, to what is good in your life. Being grateful redirects your focus from what is troubling or worrying you, to what is good. Gratitude separates our attitude from our circumstances so that our current reality does not drag us down.

Being grateful is not just a one day occurrence, it must be cultivated daily to reap the benefits. You can choose to say your blessings out loud or even write them out. Start your day off right, FIRST THING in the morning CHOOSE to say something you are grateful for. It will get your day started on a positive note.

This is the day the Lord has made, I will rejoice and be glad in it. Psalm 118:24

Giving thanks always for all things to God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Ephesians 5:20

Have a blessed Thanksgiving and remember to focus on what you have to be thankful for this holiday season.

What about you, what are you thankful for today? How has being thankful changed your outlook on life?