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Want to know how to Manage Stress? Bust your Stress QUICKLY & EASILY by Switching your Attitude to Gratitude!

Scientific evidence now proves that Gratitude produces Health Benefits.  Change your life by changing your ATTITUDE…

HINT ~Switch your internal dialogue to Gratitude 

Become aware of your “self-talk.” When our inner dialogue with ourselves is negative, our mood is usually low. Research shows we change our mood when we change the way we speak to ourselves internally. Witness your dialogue first, and then slowly begin to filter in more graitude and watch your Attitude and life adjust accordingly.

 

HINT ~ Count your Blessings by Keeping a Daily Gratitude Journal

Set aside time daily to record things you are grateful for. (Typically, people list three to five.) You can write when you get up or at the end of the day. Pick a consistent time to write. Use a book, Journal or notebook. Writing  it out helps you to see life events going on around you and helps you to create meaning in your life, based on your attitude about the events.”

HINT ~ Use Visual Reminders

Sometimes we FORGET what we have to be GRATEFUL for or we simply bury it in our busyness so we lose our AWARENESS of the wonderful things in our life. Counter this by creating visual cues that trigger thoughts of gratitude. Put “Post-It” notes listing your blessings in many places, including your refrigerator, mirrors, steering wheel. bedside table. Or set a pager, computer or PDA to signal you at random times during the day and to use the signal to pause and count your blessings.

HINT ~ Find a Gratitude Buddy

Begin to mix with others who share your enthusiasm for Gratitude… like an exercise companion to encourage you with exercise – find a buddy, partner, companion to  encourage each of you with your Gratitude practice. You become like those you mix with – find a grateful person and spend more time with him or her.

EVIDENCE:-

Robert Emmons Book – “Thanks!: How the New Science of Gratitude Can Make You Happier”   Emmons and his colleagues at the University of California at Davis are pioneering researchers in gratitude, part of a larger movement called Positive Psychology.

Positive psychology – Focuses health-promoting behavior and the pleasurable parts of life rather than illness and emotional problems. 

Emmons’ book reports on several studies. In the first, he and his colleagues divided participants into three groups, each of which made weekly entries in a journal. One group wrote five things they were grateful for. Another group described five daily hassles and a control group listed five events that had affected them in some way. Those in the gratitude group felt better about their lives overall, were more optimistic about the future, and reported fewer health problems than the other participants. Results from a second study suggested that daily writing led to a greater increase in gratitude than weekly practice.

A third study reproduced the results among a group of people suffering from various neuromuscular diseases, including post-polio syndrome, which has symptoms similar to those in CFS. People using daily gratitude journals reported more satisfaction with their lives and were more optimistic about the future than the control group. Interestingly, the gratitude group also reported getting more sleep, spending less time awake before falling asleep and feeling more refreshed in the morning.
In a related study, researchers at the University of Connecticut found that gratitude can have a protective effect against heart attacks. Studying people who had experienced one heart attack, the researchers found that those patients who saw benefits and gains from their heart attack, such as becoming more appreciative of life, experienced a lower risk of having another heart attack.
The research on gratitude challenges the idea of a “set point” for happiness, a belief that, just as our body has a set point for weight, each person may have a genetically-determined level of happiness. The set point concept is supported by research that shows that people return to a characteristic level of happiness a short time after both unusually good and unusually bad events.

But the research on gratitude suggests that people can move their set point upward to some degree, enough to have a measurable effect on both their outlook and their health.
Summarizing the findings from studies to date, Emmons says that those who practice grateful thinking “reap emotional, physical and interpersonal benefits.”

People who regularly keep a gratitude journal report fewer illness symptoms, feel better about their lives as a whole, and are more optimistic about the future. Emmons conclusion is that gratitude is a choice, one possible response to our life experiences.

 

Wishing you a great week,

Lyza Saint Ambrosena