Welcome back my grateful humans to another episode on living gratefully, elevating your mindset, and becoming aware of your own bullshit that might be holding you back! As I’ve mentioned on this site, I believe that most of us are walking through this life asleep. Blindly led by society. Lacking self-awareness (or ANY awareness). No perspective. Depressed. Numb. Acting out of a belief system that’s most likely not even ours, that may in fact have been handed to us by someone else or something else. But I digress for now and will get back to the specifics of this post–The Science Behind Gratitude
As stated in my previous blog post, practicing gratitude consistently has more benefits than just providing perspective and an improved mindset (although those ALONE are worth incorporating it). We live in a world where E-V-E-R-Y-T-H-I-N-G is studied, analyzed, poked, prodded, and then made into some kind of scientifically published case study and/or statistic. That said, there is no shortage on the amount of medical and scientific findings out there surrounding the health benefits attributed to gratitude.
ALL THE GRATITUDE FUN FACTS
When I first stumbled onto the power of gratitude, it honestly didn’t take me long to come across all sorts of resources, doctors, articles, and studies pointing to the health benefits gratitude can bring. You see, I’m of the mind that if you’ve researched the shit outta something, and you keep coming across a bunch of information all saying the same thing, especially from a scientific and medical stance, there’s probably something to it. Calm your jibs though!!! NOT saying that’s a blanket statement but, the information is out there for the finding if you do the leg work. With gratitude however, you won’t have to because I’m bout to break that down for you. Below is a SLEW of things gratitude can improve:
- Reduces Depression – Studies have shown that people have associated lower levels of depression with higher levels of gratitude.
- Lessens Anxiety – Anxiety is associated with worrying and negative thinking, two things gratitude is known for combating.
- Supports Heart Health – Several studies show that a grateful mindset positively affects biomarkers associated with the risk for heart disease.
- Relieves Stress – Stress triggers fight-or-flight responses in the nervous system. The heart beats faster, muscles contract and adrenaline pumps. Gratitude helps calm the nervous system.
- Improves Sleep Health – Sleep studies have shown that focusing on feelings of gratitude have beneficial healing effects on the body and sleep patterns.
- Better Focus – Gratitude can purge your mind of stress and anxiety leaving your mind in a clearer state to better focus on daily tasks.
- Improves Physical Health – Many studies on gratitude say that subjects who consciously practiced gratitude daily, reported fewer aches and pains.
- Improves Psychological Health – Studies have shown an improvement to emotional, cognitive, and behavioral health when subjects focus on gratitude daily.
DEMYSTIFYING THE SPIRITUAL SIDE OF THINGS
I consider myself a spiritual person. I believe in the Laws of the Universe. That we’re governed by something higher than us whether you wanna refer to it as God, the Universe, Source Energy, or some flavor of that. In my eyes, we’re all saying the same thing which is, we believe we were put here by a higher power. However, I completely understand that there are some who much prefer being grounded in the tangible facts, like my wife…open to the possibilities of something beyond us, but MUUUUCH more assured of her reality when the logical facts are present.
You see, people tend to be less skeptical when you put a little science back into the mix. And if there was ANYONE in the game of self-help who has the ability to ground the power of gratitude (and many other, more spiritual experiences) in science and factual based evidence, it would be Dr. Joe Dispenza. If you’ve dabbled or have completely dove into this world of self-improvement, you’ve undoubtedly heard mention of him. I first came across Dr. Joe on an episode of the School of Greatness and he BLEW ME AWAY!
When it comes to more of the scientific side of things we’d usually refer to as more of a spiritual experience OR, as some skeptics may refer to it as…complete and utter bullshit, Dr. Joe has built a lot of his career on the science behind the power of the mind over the body. Specifically, he explores the science behind spontaneous remissions and how people heal themselves of chronic conditions and even terminal diseases. Over the years, Dr. Joe has assembled a team of scientist who focus on brain mapping with electroencephalograms (EEGs) and individual energy field testing with a gas discharge visualization (GDV) machine, as well as measuring both heart coherence with HeartMath monitors and the energy present. In lames terms, they measure changes in the body during states of mediation, mindfulness, awareness, AAAAAAND…YUP!!! Gratitudes effect on the mind and body.
WHAT THE RESEARCH REVEALS
The concept behind our own ability to make ourselves ill by thought alone isn’t anything new at this point. At least it shouldn’t be. There is a plethora of documentation out there which proves our mindset, outlook, thoughts, have the ability to run down our immune system. Turn on cancer receptors. Drain our central nervous system. Studies and evidence that will show when you live in constant states of stress, or fear, or worry, or anxiety or ANY combination of this list, you’re much more prone to becoming sick, experiencing poor sleep, getting cancer, being depressed, causing your body to ache etc.
At one point in time, it was medically believed that a persons likelihood of inheriting a genetic illness was solely, or mostly based on simply being born into it. NOW, it’s being proven that the percentage of this is much less than originally thought and that it’s actually much more dependent on lifestyle choices (exercise, clean nutritional habits, low stress environments). But it’s not just lifestyle choices alone that are being proven to keep you healthy. It is your thoughts.
Cortisol as most know is the bodies stress hormone. If a person lives in a near constant state of stress, fear, worry, anxiety, ALWAYS in fight-or-flight mode, it is being shown medically and scientifically that the chances for serious illness vastly increases in a person. So the argument that can be made then is this…if our thoughts have the ability to run our immune systems down and cause sickness, couldn’t the truth be said about the opposite? What if we lived in a consistent state of gratitude? Avoided high stress environments? Didn’t live a life chalked FULL of fear and worry? Could our minds keep us well? Or heal certain ailments? Well…the research is showing this is already happening and has been for a long time. And THAT is what Dr. Joe Dispenza’s work is dedicated to doing.
I get it…if you haven’t been exposed to concepts such as these, it may very well sound like witchcraft. Something out of a movie perhaps. But there is too much supporting evidence that exists at this point. I myself have consistently practiced gratitude, meditation, mindfulness and many other things that assist in keeping the human mind and body healthy and I can’t stress enough how much these things help support a healthy life. And for me, they all start with a grateful mindset.
Of course, I also exercise regularly and am very health conscious about what food goes into my body. These are important obviously. But think about it. Almost all of us know that one person that is ALWAYS sick or coming down with something. That one we’re so quick to accept as “they just have a poor immune system”. But I would ask you to seriously reflect on that persons thoughts, actions, and words. I can almost guarantee you that many of these people (not all, I’m aware there are always special circumstances) are STEADY talking about how sick they are, how sick they stay, how they always get sick, or some version of this. And they are probably fairly negative people in general aren’t they?
C’MON!!! Be honest. I too know the types. Of course they’re always sick. They do nothing but talk about it. Stay present with it. Identify with it. Have nothing but poor thoughts around it. What’s the saying?…if you sit around expecting the worst, it typically doesn’t disappoint and will show up for you.
STAYING PRESENT WITH YOUR THOUGHTS
Whether you wanna believe in it or not, there are proven effects to the things we choose to think about each day. The mindsets we adopt, positive or negative. The daily habits we choose to formulate or excuses we make for why we can’t. All I’m saying is if you aren’t feeling your best, if you want to introduce some positive change, if you want to test the theory on whether or not you actually have “bad luck” (something I personally don’t believe in), why not try and build some consistent days based around gratitude and better thoughts and JUST SEE WHAT HAPPENS!
Literally, what have you got to lose? The times going to pass any way and I promise, it takes much less energy to be this way than it does to be negative and bitter. Lemme warn you though, if you start noticing stringing together some better days, things seem to keep falling into place for you, you’re worrying less, and just seem happier overall, I promise…I won’t tell anyone!
That’s it for this one people! I’ll post some links below of where you can read up and listen on some of what I’ve talked about in this one. Let me know your thoughts below! Love to hear about your personal experiences with gratitude and focusing on the power of your thoughts. Catch you in the next one fam! Stay grateful!
- https://drjoedispenza.com
- https://drjoedispenza.com/stories-of-transformation/healing-covid-complications-through-gratitude-and-love
- https://drjoedispenza.com/dr-joes-blog/the-power-of-gratitude
- https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/what-mentally-strong-people-dont-do/201504/7-scientifically-proven-benefits-of-gratitude
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OjS25E_1vnA
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JUg2dVATUVg
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