Smart Living: Benefits of expressing gratitude
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Thanksgiving and National Gratitude Month in November is packed with opportunities to express your thanks to family and friends.
New research suggests expressing gratitude to others can improve your overall mood. It's the month we all take a moment to be thankful for what we have.
Practicing gratitude releases serotonin and dopamine, the feel-good chemicals, but it goes much deeper than that. Training the brain to focus on gratitude can lead to other benefits.
"Recognizing that you have these things in your life that are so meaningful and expressing it, that meaning helps you to recognize it and enhances your life," counselor Clark Canine said.
Researchers at the University of California, Davis found that practicing gratitude can help you live longer by reducing the biomarkers of inflammation by seven percent.
Science also shows it may help prevent diabetes. Practicing gratitude can lower levels of hemoglobin A-1C, one marker of diabetes.
Grateful individuals have been reported to have their hemoglobin A-1C levels decrease by nine to 13 percent, and people with hypertension who practice gratitude at least once a week experience a significant decrease in blood pressure.
Being grateful also helps your mental health. One study found that a single act of gratitude can increase happiness by 10 percent and reduce depressive symptoms by 35 percent.
"Focusing on the healthy, positive things, it's going to guide you toward feeling better, feeling stronger. So when challenging things come along, you're already in a better place," Canine said.
So whatever or whoever you're grateful for this Thanksgiving, take some time to think about it, your body and your mind may thank you for it!
Research also shows that practicing gratitude 15 minutes a day, five days a week, for at least six weeks can enhance mental wellness and it also improves your resiliency.
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