Gratitude = Happiness, It’s science!
Gratitude = Happiness, It’s science!
We all know that having a positive mindset is helpful in life but did you know that being grateful can actually make you healthier?
This nifty graphic shows how being grateful results in certain character traits which results in actually feeling happy!
Gratitude impacts on mental and physical well-being. Positive psychology and mental health researchers in the past few decades have established an overwhelming connection between gratitude and good health. Keeping a gratitude journal causes less stress, improves the quality of sleep, and builds emotional awareness (Seligman, Steen, Park and Peterson, 2005).
Gratitude is positively correlated to more vitality, energy, and enthusiasm to work harder.
Neural mechanisms that are responsible for feelings of gratitude have grabbed attention (Wood et al, 2008). Studies have demonstrated that at the brain level, moral judgments involving feelings of gratefulness are evoked in the right anterior temporal cortex (Zahn et al. 2008).
In the same study, it was revealed that the reason why some of us are naturally more grateful than others, is the neurochemical differences at the Central Nervous System. People who express and feel gratitude have a higher volume of grey matter in the right inferior temporal gyrus (Zahn et al, 2014).
- Gratitude releases toxic emotions
- Gratitude reduces pain
- Gratitude improves sleep quality
- Gratitude aids in stress regulation
- Gratitude reduces anxiety and depression
Click here for more in depth details of the science behind this!
Starting a Gratitude Journal (mentioned above) is a great way to start being more intentional in incorporating gratitude into your daily life.
What ways do you enter into being grateful for things? We would love to hear about it.
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