All the unfortunate events, news and energies we take in and absorb everyday can affect our health and well-being in a negative way.
Thankfully, new research has found that spending a few minutes each day in gratitude can dramatically help change our physical and mental states. Being thankful of the good things life has to offer can bet stress, strengthen immunity and fight off disease, and can possible reverse aging as well, according to the study.
Science confirms that a grateful heart is good for us. Slowing down and taking time to appreciate the bright side of life, whatever it may be for each of us, radically alters processes in our physiology. Rather than complaining and always voicing out dissatisfaction, an act as simple as gratitude has been found to balance heart rhythms and the nervous system. This builds up immunity and brings equilibrium to the hormones. It also increases the production of DHEA, an anti-aging compound.
Being grateful also eases stress, anxiety, depression, and insomnia. As stress contributes greatly to the development of a spectrum of diseases, from cardiovascular problems to mental illness and many more, reducing it and learning ways to cope with it is astoundingly beneficial to the health.
Sponsored by the Institute of HeartMath and the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School in California, the study discovered how a new emotional self-management program significantly lowered the production of cortisol, the stress hormone, remarkable reducing anxiety and tension.
The study involved forty-five healthy participants, whose salivary DHEA/DHEAS and cortisol levels were measured. Their autonomic nervous system was also assessed using heart rate variability evaluation. The participants answered psychological questionnaires and were evaluated before and after four weeks of training under an emotional self-management program, where participants carried out practices of appreciation and gratitude.
The researchers found marked increases in the positive affect scales of Caring and Vigor and distinct decreases in the negative affect scales of Hostility, Burnout, Anxiety, Guilt, and Stress Effects.
