The Thanksgiving holiday is fast upon us! Everybody is scurrying to get all of the details of their house and meal in order before the big day. On the day of celebration we will gather together to give thanks for the gift of our country, our family, and the good food set before us. In my family it is a tradition to go around the table and have each family member express gratitude for something that they are thankful for. While this activity of giving thanks may seem rather cliche or even corny to some, there is actually mounting scientific evidence that shows that practices of giving thanks by expressing gratitude and positive thinking are good for you not just mentally, but physically as well.
In an age where mental health awareness is heightened, it is not uncommon for us to associate the benefits of gratitude and positive thinking with having good mental health. Counting your blessings, sharing the highs and lows of your day, finding the silver lining in the storm clouds, positive affirmations, and keeping a gratitude journal are just a few of the ways that people engage in cultivating and strengthening their mental health. The amazing thing is that these practices are also beneficial for your physical health in so many ways! Today I’m choosing to focus in on just two of the wonderful ways that gratitude impacts physical health and these are that it enhances digestion and helps to maintain healthy blood flow to and from the heart by releasing the positive hormones dopamine, serotonin, and oxytocin which help mediate our bodies responses to pain.
Gratitude helps to regulate and enhance our digestion by allowing that process to take place uninhibited. When we express gratitude we put our bodies into a parasympathetic state, also called a state of, “rest and digest.” When we are actively engaged in a parasympathetic state our digestion functions well, we are able to break down our food as needed, secrete the proper stomach acids, we can absorb the nutrients from our foods, and our gut is able to thrive. When our body is in a fight or flight mode or a sympathetic state, the processes of digestion get disturbed and our food does not get broken down. Nutrients are less likely to be absorbed, our guts as a result struggle and our overall health and well-being is affected. No matter how healthy the food, or how potent the supplement, if our body is not in a sympathetic state we will not be able to reap all of the benefits of our healthy food or supplements. The prescription for this problem; express gratitude to reap the benefits of healthy digestion.
Another way in which gratitude impacts our physical well-being is by regulating the blood flow to and from the heart. If we are anxious and hyper focusing on negative aspects of our lives our heart rate can speed up, which signals that our body is in a state of fight or flight, panic, and danger. When we engage with our anxiety and negative thinking and begin to panic the blood flow to our hearts actually becomes restricted. Blood flow to the heart can also be impacted by other cardiac conditions, but it is noteworthy that while anxiety disorders and cardiovascular diseases are separate, those with higher anxiety levels are at a higher risk for heart attacks. Obviously both anxiety and cardiovascular disease can and should be addressed using multiple healing modalities. Still it is noteworthy that the power of gratitude impacts our hearts, blood flow and bodies so positively that keeping a gratitude journal and giving thanks are practices that might be suggested to these patients as a way to aid in whole person healing.
Gratitude is one of those practices that you can never overdose on. While it is possible to over exercise or overeat, gratitude is something we have a tendency to run short on. In a world where we face much pain, brokenness, chaos, and disorder we seem to never run out of things that can add to our sadness and feelings of hopelessness. This happens when we look at our world through a human lens apart from the reality that we have an all knowing, all loving, compassionate God who loves us. When we come to the knowledge that God loves us, cares for us, sent His son to die for us and that He is an abundant God out to bless us we will never run out of things to thank God for. So take a moment today to thank God for the gift of your life, the gift of your family, and for the gift of your body and the powerful effect that gratitude has in bringing it into greater physical well-being.
Anna received her education and certification in functional nutrition counseling from the accredited Functional Nutrition Alliance Program and is a part of the American Association of Drugless Practitioners. In addition to her certificate in nutrition counseling, Anna also has a B.A. in Pastoral Theology and a certificate in ESL. An interest that has been a common thread in all of her academic pursuits has been to empower others to become the best version of themselves in God and to live their lives to the fullest.
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