How Intentional Gratitude Improves Overall Health
Gratitude can transform common days into thanksgiving, turn routine jobs into joy, and change ordinary opportunities into blessings. ~William Arthur Ward
Let’s review how intentional gratitude improves our overall health.
Intentional Gratitude:
- enhances coping skills for handling problems, criticism, and conflict.
- increases the bodies ability to relax.
- accentuates optimism and the ability to recall happy memories.
- encourages an attitude of hope.
- decreases feelings of materialism and envy.
- boosts quality of sleep.
- elevates energy levels.
- prolongs youthful attitudes.
- makes nutrition and health more important than appearances.
- improves relationships.
- increases kindness and compassion.
- cultivates stewardship.
In addition and most importantly intentional gratitude helps us realize:
- our need for a relationship with God.
- the importance of loving and helping others.
Let’s review of how to add intentional gratitude to our lives.
1. Keep a gratitude journal – write things for which you are thankful . . . nothing is too big or too small.
2. Hang out with other grateful people – sharing gratitude will make you accountable, keep you motivated, and grateful people are happier and more fun.
3. Be intentional about positive self-talk – don’t allow any personal thoughts that would offend you if someone else said them.
4. Spend time with God – start and end each day with prayer, read the Bible, and write down and memorize verses that encourage you.
5. Do something for someone else – helping others guarantees blessing counting and thankfulness.
Gratitude not only changes our attitudes it will change our lives.
Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; His love endures forever. 1 Chronicles 16:34
I will praise God’s name in song and glorify Him with thanksgiving. Psalm 69:30
For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—His eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse. For although they knew God, they neither glorified Him as God nor gave thanks to Him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. They exchanged the truth about God for a lie,and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen. Romans 1:20-21,25
