Judd Matsunaga
Thanksgiving season can actually lift the spirits and make you healthier.
Gratitude is a thankful appreciation for what an individual receives, whether tangible or intangible. According to an article in Harvard Health Publishing (Aug. 14, 2021), “With gratitude, people acknowledge the goodness in their lives. In the process, people usually recognize that the source of that goodness lies at least partially outside themselves. As a result, being grateful also helps people connect to something larger than themselves as individuals — whether to other people, nature or a higher power.”
Research from the University of California, Los Angeles, shows that practicing gratitude just 15 minutes a day, five days a week for at least six weeks can enhance mental wellness and possibly promote a lasting change in perspective. Gratitude and its mental health benefits can also positively affect your physical health (source: www.uclahealth.org/news/article/health-benefits-gratitude, March 22, 2023).
Taking time to be thankful may:
(1) Reduce depression
A review of 70 studies that includes responses from more than 26,000 people found an association between higher levels of gratitude and lower levels of depression. But more research needs to be done to understand the association. Gratitude seems to reduce depression symptoms. But it’s also possible that depressed people are less likely to practice gratitude. Most likely, there’s a continuous relationship where gratitude lessens symptoms of depression.
(2) Lessen anxiety
Anxiety often involves worrying and negative thinking. Gratitude can be a coping tool for anxiety. Regularly practicing gratitude combats negative thinking patterns by keeping thoughts focused on the present. If you find yourself focusing on negative thoughts, challenge yourself to find something you are grateful for now. It will break the negative thought process and return you to the present.
(3) Support heart health
Many benefits of gratitude also support heart health. Improving depression symptoms, sleep, diet and exercise reduces the risk of heart disease. Several studies show that a grateful mindset positively affects biomarkers associated with the risk for heart disease. A 2021 review of research also finds that keeping a gratitude journal can cause a significant drop in diastolic blood pressure — the force your heart exerts between beats. Having grateful thoughts, even if you don’t write them down, also helps your heart by slowing and regulating your breathing to synchronize with your heartbeat.
(4) Relieve stress
Stress triggers a fight-or-flight response in your nervous system — your heart beats faster, muscles contract and adrenaline pumps. But gratitude can help calm the nervous system. Taking a moment to be thankful causes physiological changes in your body that initiate the parasympathetic nervous system — the part of your nervous system that helps you rest and digest. Gratitude and the response it causes help bring down your blood pressure, heart rate and breathing to aid with overall relaxation.
(5) Improve sleep
People with an attitude of gratitude tend to pursue goals that keep them feeling good — a positive attitude promotes positive action. They engage in activities that support healthy sleep, such as eating well and exercising regularly. Practicing gratitude also makes you less likely to be stressed, anxious or depressed — three factors that affect sleep quality and duration.
But what you do during the day isn’t the only factor in sleeping well. Thinking positive thoughts before falling asleep promotes better sleep — and there’s evidence that gratitude causes people to have positive thoughts about their life, social support and social situations.
American talk show host Oprah Winfrey says in a YouTube video “The Power of Being GRATEFUL” (www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bmzk8t_8Wmc): “I practice being grateful. I live in that space every day because I know that being grateful changes your personal vibration. Wherever you are, whatever place or space in your life, practice being grateful. A lot of people say ‘Oh Oprah, that’s easy for you because you got everything.’ I got everything because I practiced being grateful.”
You might ask, “But how do I practice being grateful?” Oprah shares, “Every night, list five things that happened this day in days to come that you are grateful for. What it will begin to do is to change your perspective of your day and your life. I believe that if you can learn to focus on what you have, you will always see that the universe is abundant, and you will have more. If, however, you concentrate and focus on what you don’t have, you will never have enough.”
Winfrey continues, “Be grateful — keep a journal. I started to write down three things every day that I was grateful for. I’ve been doing that for years because when you wake up in the morning looking at the world for what you’re going to write down or what you’re going to state to yourself by the end of the day that you’re grateful for, you have a different outlook on life. I have journals and journals and journals and journals filled with three to five things a day.”
I watched some of her YouTube videos and truly believe that she wants to help others by sharing some of her secrets to success. Oprah says, “Researchers have shown that if you can just for 17 seconds a day — 17 seconds a day — bring yourself into the space of presence and gratitude, you literally change your vibration. If you can’t give yourself 17 seconds, then you don’t deserve a good life.”
She challenges her viewers with the following gratitude exercise, “If you don’t believe me, just for a moment do this:
- Close your eyes and put your thumb to your middle finger and feel the vibration and pulse of your personal energy — just feel the vibration energy blood pulsating through your body through you.
- Take three deep breaths — inhale (hold for five seconds) and exhale.
- As you exhale, open your heart and quietly to yourself say the only prayer that’s ever needed — “Thank you, Thank you, Thank you.”
- Let whatever you’re most grateful for in your heart in this moment just rise to the surface.
- You’re still here, and you get another chance this day to do better, and be better. Another chance to become more of who you were created to be and fulfill.
- Deep breath, open your eyes — don’t you feel better?
HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!
Judd Matsunaga is the founding attorney of Elder Law Services of California, a law firm that specializes in Medi-Cal Planning, Estate Planning and Probate. He can be contacted at (310) 348-2995 or. The opinions expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect the view of the Pacific Citizen or constitute legal or tax advice and should not be treated as such.
