Being appreciative of things large and small can help you improve your physical health as much as your emotional well-being.

When experts discuss gratitude, they talk about much more than saying “thank you”. “Gratitude is affirming the goodness in one’s life and recognizing that its source lies outside the self,” says Robert Emmons, PhD, a professor at the University of California, Davis.

Emmons has been studying the gratitude connection for over 15 years. In one of his earlier studies, he asked the participants to record five things they were grateful for once each week. These could be simple things like “it was a sunny day today and I was able to be outside”. He had another group record small hassles for neutral daily events. At the end of the study, the grateful group reported feeling 25% happier and (bonus!)…this same group had spent 30% more time exercising and had fewer health complaints that the hassle/neutral recorders.

Since that time many other studies have been done confirming even more benefits. In a 2015 study, the Journal of Health Psychology found that participants who kept grateful journals for just two weeks slept better and had lower blood pressure readings. Another study found a 40% reduction in daily smoking rates after only two months. And yet another with participants who were older adults and in the early stages of heart failure had more consistent heart rates as well as lower levels of disease-causing inflammation.

This research really speaks to the powerful connection between our minds and our bodies. Keeping a regular gratitude journal may help us resist the lure of instant gratification, where so many of our worst habits lie. It can also cause people to feel grateful for their bodies and, as a result, take better care of themselves.

I had heard for decades that keeping a gratitude journal could help me create a happier, more contented life but it was just one of those things I never got around to doing. Recently, I've changed my mind and I am holding myself accountable to writing in my gratitude journal at least once each week. I’m finding I enjoy it! It’s not a burden like I thought it would be. You know, just another thing on my very long "good for you to-do list". I find myself smiling as I recall things and write them down. It’s almost like just by recalling the things I’ve been grateful for that week actually makes me feel happier. I invite you to give this experiment a try for at least two months. Be “in” the experience of writing in your gratitude journal, notice how you feel in those moments, and how you feel after, then evaluate how you’re doing at the end of two months.

Karen