Research Shows Gratitude Practices Lower Inflammation
Researchers have uncovered the potential of a daily gratitude practice to heal the body and mind.
While research in the field of positive psychology has shown the clear benefits of positive attributes such as compassion and empathy, new studies suggest that gratitude may have the biggest effect of all.
Dr. Paul Mills has been studying the effects of gratitude as a professor at the University of California San Diego and as Director of Research at the Chopra Foundation.
“The way I define gratitude is, it’s a way of seeing the world with a sense of heartfulness; a sense of embracing-ness; a sense of appreciation for all that is being experienced. Typically people differentiate gratitude from thankfulness — it’s a response in exchange for something. Gratitude really, at its foundation, it’s more of a dispositional set where we walk around with gratitude for everything that’s going, just really the gift of life.”
Over the last several years, scientific studies into the psychological and physiological benefits of gratitude have grown exponentially.
“I think one of the main reasons that research on gratitude has taken off more than other areas that we typically could call positive psychology, is because the findings, the significance, in all the studies is so high and impactful. So many of the studies that have been looking at gratitude find more and more significant effects related to health and wellbeing.”
Some of the more recent studies on gratitude have focused on the physiological benefits to the heart.
“I’ve done a lot of research, with cardiac patients for example, and it was quite significant what we’ve been able to show that those patients who have more of a state of dispositional gratitude and sometimes it’s called ‘carrying around an attitude of gratitude,’ where we feel grateful for pretty much anything and everything going on — despite what it might be to other people’s eyes — that has a profound effect on these patients, they sleep better (and) they have more energy. And we found that those patients who had been doing gratitude journaling had a significant reduction in inflammatory markers in the blood. It was approximately a 23 percent reduction in five different biomarkers of reduction over a two-month period. This is a striking and amazing finding. You would never anticipate anything like that even with medication.”
Other recent studies have shown the important role gratitude plays in mental health.
“When we were studying people who have what’s called ‘Persistent Mental Disorder’ and specifically it was through their recovery process of getting better when they have a kind of acute breakdown. This included people who have depression, major anxiety, bipolar disorder, and schizophrenia, and what we found is that gratitude as well as compassion, as well as a sense of connectedness in the world, very much supported their recovery through this process of getting over their disease and getting back to a stable state.”
Just how does gratitude exert this powerful effect?
“It provides for us a sense of connection with not only ourselves but the world around us. And when we have more of a sense of connection, we feel more at home, we feel less stressed, we feel less depressed. There have been several EEG studies looking at the frequencies of the brainwaves, and there have been some fMRI studies looking at the structure of the brain — just the functional activity of the brain — and it’s very interesting, these studies have been showing, again and again, there are differences. So, gratitude does change the behavior and activity of parts of our brain, and structurally there’s evidence for that too.”
Mills suggests gratitude journaling as a great way to build a regular practice.
“The easiest route would be (to) buy yourself a journal and begin to spend some time every day just writing down things you’re grateful for. Overtime maybe you don’t get to your journal, but maybe just stop and reflect, and have that in your mind, ‘[W]hat am I grateful for?’ That will begin to change your life, I’m convinced of it. The evidence has again and again been shown, and in my own life it’s been very transformative.”
The Three Questions With Don Miguel Ruiz
Everything we do is connected to an agreement we have made. This is the premise proposed by Don Miguel Ruiz, best-selling author, and renowned spiritual teacher. Ruiz has spent decades guiding people to personal freedom through his profound insights regarding the nature of human reality.
In “The Three Questions with Don Miguel Ruiz,” we get a glimpse of how we shape our own lives, consciously and unconsciously, through our interactions with others and the promises we make to them and ourselves. This discussion gives us pause to think about what we really know versus what we have learned from others.
The youngest of 13 children, Don Miguel Ruiz was born in rural Mexico to parents who practiced ancient Toltec traditions and used their healing abilities to uplift others. After graduating from medical school in Mexico City, Ruiz began practicing neurosurgery with his older brother in Tijuana.
Not long after, however, a near-fatal car accident completely altered his life’s course, leading him to leave his career in medicine in search of a more essential truth about life. With his mother’s guidance, steeped in traditional native teachings, he soon discovered his own path to awareness that evolved into a deep understanding of the physical universe and the virtual world of the mind.
Ruiz’s self-discovery led him to publish a number of highly successful books, including “Toltec Wisdom Series,” “The Four Agreements,” “The Mastery of Love,” “The Voice of Knowledge,” “The Four Agreements Companion Book,” “The Circle of Fire,” and “The Fifth Agreement.” The Toltec Wisdom books have sold more than 12 million copies, and have been published in 46 languages worldwide.
Don Miguel Ruiz’s message is simple yet profound: Our lives are guided and affected by information that is passed along generationally — right or wrong. But instead of simply adhering to the ideas of others, we need to “let everything we do and say be an expression of the beauty of our heart, always based on love,” and this will lead us to happiness, fulfillment, and helping others.
