It is a known fact that gratitude leads to health benefits. \u00a0Better sleep. \u00a0Less depression. \u00a0It even leads to a better immune system and less inflammation. \u00a0As the book of Proverbs says, “A joyful heart is good medicine.” \u00a0Inspite of the benefits of gratitude, however, it is not something well practiced. \u00a0We are not very good at saying thank you, or even thinking it. \u00a0Less than half of men and only slightly more than half of women regularly express any gratefulness on a regular basis. \u00a0According to Janice Kaplan, the\u00a0 author of “The Gratitude Diaries”, the least grateful are those between the ages of 18-24. \u00a0But though hopefully one grows more grateful as one gets older, overall we are an ungrateful society, no matter our age.<\/p>\n
A few years ago, in an effort to battle some depression, I read a book that encouraged me to begin a list of items for which I was thankful. \u00a0I have forgotten the name of the book, but as I remember I was to start with a basic list of a few items and add to it each day. \u00a0After the first few days when I listed the most obvious choices, I had to really think about what I could add. \u00a0It really was therapeutically amazing!! \u00a0I came up with so many things. \u00a0I was so blessed. \u00a0What I remember the most, was that many of the things I was thankful for were things I had been taking for granted. \u00a0The colors in a sunset or a warm breeze. \u00a0The beauty of a flower. \u00a0The song of a bird. \u00a0Once I started looking for things, I found them. \u00a0I had just been missing them even though they had been there all along.<\/p>\n
I have never forgotten the lesson that book taught me. \u00a0Even today, I find it is fun to sit and see what I can come up with. \u00a0Take for instance the ability to smell or taste food. \u00a0Often we just breeze through a meal and in a few hours have forgotten what we have eaten. \u00a0But in slowing down and savoring you notice so much more. \u00a0Can you sort out the different spices in a good chili or appreciate the \u00a0texture of a really smooth custard? \u00a0Think of the genius that designed us. \u00a0How can we distinguish such differences.? \u00a0It is amazing to think that we can differentiate between tens of thousands of different smells, sometimes detecting a compound, in wine for instance, at a single part per trillion! \u00a0Of course we should be thankful for such ability. \u00a0Instead of being grateful, however, I find that I am much more likely to complain over the smell of sweaty socks than I am to appreciate the lavender in the wash that makes them smell fresh.<\/p>\n
It is a known fact that gratitude leads to health benefits. \u00a0Better sleep. \u00a0Less depression. \u00a0It even leads to a better immune system and less inflammation. \u00a0As the book of Proverbs says, “A joyful heart is good medicine.” \u00a0Inspite of the benefits of gratitude, however, it is not something well practiced. \u00a0We are not very […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-443","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5WySj-79","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.doctormomx4.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/443","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.doctormomx4.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.doctormomx4.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.doctormomx4.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.doctormomx4.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=443"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.doctormomx4.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/443\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":458,"href":"https:\/\/www.doctormomx4.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/443\/revisions\/458"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.doctormomx4.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=443"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.doctormomx4.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=443"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.doctormomx4.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=443"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}