Food for Thought - “Those who thank God much are the truly wealthy. So our inner happiness depends not on what we experience but on the degree of our gratitude to God, whatever the experience.” - Albert Schweitzer (1875-1965)
Expressing gratitude can positively change your brain. Dopamine and serotonin are boosted when you express gratitude. These neurotransmitters improve your mood immediately and give you positive feelings of pleasure, happiness, and well-being.
The brain cannot respond to anxiety and gratitude at the same time. This means it is either one or the other. We can feel anxious and all the negative emotions that go with the anxiety or we can feel grateful and all the positive emotions that are associated with it. Choose to be grateful.
Gratitude also increases self esteem. When you intentionally notice the ways other people are good to you, you develop a stronger sense of your own value. Research shows that people who are more grateful also tend to have higher self-esteem.
The simplest and most effective way to improve your mental strength, says Amy Morin, a psychotherapist and author, is to practice gratitude on a daily basis. Practicing gratitude will change your mindset by increasing your resilience, bolstering your self-esteem, and helping you see the positive side of any situation.
Showing appreciation can open the door to making new friends. Focusing on what makes us feel grateful allows us to develop better habits of expressing appreciation for the people that matter most in our lives.
Gratitude improves your physical health. Studies have shown the feeling thankful can improve sleep, mood and immunity. Gratitude can also decrease depression, anxiety, risk of disease and difficulties with chronic pain. Grateful people sleep better. Writing down a few things you are grateful for before going to bed, helps you sleep better and longer. Grateful people experience fewer aches and pains.
Gratitude improves your psychological health. Gratitude reduces many toxic emotions such as envy, resentment, frustration and regret. Gratitude enhances empathy and reduces aggression. Grateful people are ‘nicer’ people. Gratitude improves self-esteem by reducing the tendency to compare and compete with others.
Cultivate a grateful mindset. It will make you feel happier, more positive, and more compassionate with yourself and others.
Albert Schweitzer (1875-1965), a Nobel peace prize winner, was a brilliant theologian, organist, musicologist, writer, philosopher, and physician. He left a successful, comfortable life in Europe to go to work as a physician in Gabon, Africa. Through concerts and other fund-raising, he raised money to equip a small hospital.
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