My friend and I were discussing the benefits of writing gratitude.
My explanation was because writing reaches the subconscious.
The act of putting words to paper (in my opinion) makes you focus more on what you are writing. Plus, as you write it you feel it more.
Okay, that’s my theory.
I had heard it when I first started out on my positive mindset shift.
The act of writing what I was grateful for then turned into writing lists of ‘positive aspects’; suggested by Abraham Hicks.
I have been writing down what I am grateful for every morning for over a year, so I decided to test this theory and go back for a week to making lists in my head.
I noticed I wasn’t in my usual high vibe during that period.
When I went back to my morning gratitude routine, my smiles were more frequent.
Harvard actually did a study on this.
This is a quick sneak peak of that article:
‘Two psychologists, Dr. Robert A. Emmons of the University of California, Davis, and Dr. Michael E. McCullough of the University of Miami have done much of the research on gratitude. In one study, they asked all participants to write a few sentences each week, focusing on particular topics.
One group wrote about things they were grateful for that had occurred during the week. A second group wrote about daily irritations or things that had displeased them, and the third wrote about events that had affected them (with no emphasis on them being positive or negative). After 10 weeks, those who wrote about gratitude were more optimistic and felt better about their lives. Surprisingly, they also exercised more and had fewer visits to physicians than those who focused on sources of aggravation.
Another leading researcher in this field, Dr. Martin E. P. Seligman, a psychologist at the University of Pennsylvania, tested the impact of various positive psychology interventions on 411 people, each compared with a control assignment of writing about early memories. When their week’s assignment was to write and personally deliver a letter of gratitude to someone who had never been properly thanked for his or her kindness, participants immediately exhibited a huge increase in happiness scores. This impact was greater than that from any other intervention, with benefits lasting for a month.
Of course, studies such as this one cannot prove cause and effect. But most of the studies published on this topic support an association between gratitude and an individual’s well-being.’
(I left a link the article below.)
The takeaway.
Gratitude is good for your well-being.
Writing down what you are grateful for enhances the feeling.
So, ask yourself:
Is 5 minutes a day worth your well-being?
Thank you for letting me share.
Be kind. Be well. Smile.
https://www.health.harvard.edu/healthbeat/giving-thanks-can-make-you-happier
Be kind. Be well. Smile!!! 