The Medicine of Gratitude

Imagine if there was a medicine that could improve your heart health and your sleep, help regulate your nervous system, and steady your hormones.

Even better, that medicine is free and easily accessible.

The medicine is gratitude.

Gratitude is one of the simplest, most profound, easily accessible forms of medicine available.

Research shows that practicing gratitude for at least 15 minutes per day, 5 days per week, for at least 6 weeks can enhance mental wellness and positively affect physical health.

Studies show that when practiced consistently, gratitude:

• improves mental health;
• improves adherence to healthy behaviors;
• improves sleep;
• reshapes the body’s stress response;
• reduces inflammation in the body;
• reduces depression and anxiety;
• relieves stress;
• steadies hormones, and
• helps regulate the nervous system.

Gratitude also improves biomarkers of cardiovascular disease risk, especially asymptomatic heart failure, cardiovascular function, and autonomic nervous system activity.

Keeping a gratitude journal can also cause a significant drop in diastolic blood pressure. And gratitude increases your Heart Rate Variability, which is a measure of your heart’s resilience to stress.

Reflecting on your gratitude, even if you don’t write it down, can also help your heart health by slowing and regulating your breathing to synchronize with your heartbeat.

Gratitude literally changes the cadence and rhythm of your breath. If you slow down to reflect on something you’re truly grateful for, you’ll notice that you start breathing differently: slower, deeper, more full inhales and longer exhales.

This medicine is available to us for free, at any time and any place.

You don’t need a day off or a big meal to celebrate it. Just a few moments of silence and reflection is all it takes to cultivate gratitude and feel into it.