To be thankful is to be healthy. As time passes by, more and more researchers are finding that gratitude is not just another way to describe a feeling of appreciation - but an actual healer of the soul as well. And of course, having a healed soul can affect our health colossally.As reported by Today's Health and Wellness, professor of psychology at University of California-Davis Robert A. Emmons said that clinical trials indicate that the practice of gratitude can have a dramatic and lasting effect on a person's life. He also added that it can lower blood pressure, improve immune function and facilitate more efficient sleep and that having a daily gratitude practice could reduce the effects of aging to the brain.
"Thousands of years of literature talk about the benefits of cultivating gratefulness as a virtue," says Emmons. According to his research on gratitude, the people who perceive gratitude as a permanent trait rather than just a state of mind have an edge when it comes to their health as compared to those who are less grateful. "Grateful people take better care of themselves and engage in more protective health behaviours like regular exercise, a healthy diet and regular physical examinations," Emmons tells WebMD.
Gratitude is linked with an optimistic attitude. Optimism promotes positive health impact on people. According to Lisa Aspinwall, PhD, a psychology professor in Utah, says that there are some very interesting studies connecting optimism to better immune function. Maintaining a positive attitude, according to one research, helps keep the quantity of blood cells intact, thus, protecting the immune system. In a separate study, patients preparing to undergo a surgery that were able to keep attitudes of optimism had better outcomes as compared to those who were a bit on the pessimistic side. We human beings crack our brain for ways to be healthy when one of the most effective ones really is based solely on how positively we react to life. Buy a journal and write the things that you are thankful for, that is said to be one way to boost up your health.
