"Why You Should Be Grateful Everyday" by Lazolia Buzuzi
For centuries cultures around the world have linked the mind-body connection
with mental well-being and spiritual insight. It's often associated with
religious practices and emotional healing. Eastern societies have dominated
a holistic approach to maintaining internal balance and psychological
health. However we seem to have lost these
aspects of earlier human tradition in our fast-paced modern Western
civilization. Mental disorders in the United States and Canada are treated by
quick fixes. Be it prescription SSRIs labels that excuse irrational behavior
or passive therapies. These aren't necessarily bad without a doubt. Millions
of people have benefited from scientific research and breakthroughs.
Psychological study however focusing solely on the technical aspects of
mental illness has ended up ignoring important details of the human being
that lies within the self simple practices like mindfulness, positive
affirmations, and meditative thought are believed to promote resilience and
reduce negative mentality. Lately there's been an increase in empirical scientific
evidence to back this up. Take gratitude, for example. Expressing and feeling
gratitude towards someone or something external has been shown to have
interpersonal benefits. In 2003 Emmons and Mccullough were the first to study
the effects of counting blessings on mental health. Adult participants were
randomly assigned tasks where they had to record on a daily or weekly basis
their hassles, expressions of gratitude or neutral affairs. At the end of the
study period, there was a correlation between the group that expressed
gratitude and the heightened sense of mental and physical well-being
that recorded their blessings on a regular basis reported a more positive
outlook on their livelihoods as well as decreased physical symptoms and coping
behaviors unlike the hassle listing and neutral groups.
A few years later the same experiment was done by Fro at all on school-aged
children. The results were parallel to their adult
counterparts the group of young adolescent children that recorded their
blessings on a regular basis were more optimistic and satisfied with their
lives in comparison to the students who reflected on their day to day hassles or
neutral events. The results of the study were particularly exciting not only
because they warded off mental ailment symptoms, but because they showed a
relation between students gratitude and improved satisfaction with their school
experience. A possible link between gratitude and increased academic
performance. Although the results of these studies are favorable showing the
profound advantages of routinely expressing gratitude even over the
period of a few weeks, gratitude is a rather difficult term to define.
Especially when it comes to identifying how it benefits mental health gratitude
has been identified as an emotion habitual act and a virtue of morality.
Among other things one must remember too that simply talking or writing about
gratitude is not necessarily the same as feeling it or actively practicing it.
Even so when one reflects on the positive aspects of their lives, they
experience an improved mood pro-social behavior and a heightened status of
their mental well-being to illustrate this think of the fact
that for over 2,500 years Buddhist teachings have concentrated on treating
mental instability among Eastern culture and have helped to find states of mental
well-being to optimal functioning using strategies like regularly expressing
gratitude and mindfulness mental disorders although complex conditions
involving factors that contribute to the development of symptoms can be addressed
effectively by changing small daily habits that tackle one's mind brain body
and spirit by working on these aspects of one's being an individual seeking
assistance may improve the quality of his life psychological disorders can be
effectively treated if knowledge from generations of Eastern based traditions
are incorporated into Western scientific study. So what are you waiting for it.
Counting your blessings today and every other day is sure to benefit your
overall health.
Comment below to tell us how you've done so and what benefits you've
experienced doing so.