A thank you a day keeps the doctor away

As the calendar flips from November to December, there’s more in the air than a feeling of Christmas. I’m talking germs. ‘Tis the season for runny noses, coughing, and that stuffed up feeling. At times such as this, a flu shot is a good idea. However, as an article posted to the FastCompany blog tells us, an attitude of gratitude can be even better — and without the pinch.

According to clinical psychologist Erin Olivo, “there’s evidence that people who are more optimistic or have a grateful attitude have higher immune functioning.” Nor do the benefits of gratitude stop there. The FastCompany article reports that

. . . researchers have found that gratitude can enhance well-being and improve romantic relationships, among other benefits. A 2011 study published in the journal Heart International, found that acute cardiac patients who had positive psychological interventions actually had better outcomes than those who didn’t.

To ensure the long-term benefits of gratitude, the FastCompany piece suggests a daily regimen of the following:

• Look for reasons to say thank you. “Be mindful of the everyday things that you would miss if you didn’t have them. There’s always something for which to be grateful, even during difficult times.”
• Think on that for which you are grateful. “When you mentally savor the things for which you’re grateful, you can better understand them and use them as a point of connection and the act of giving thanks becomes more powerful.”
• Assign a gratitude time. “It might be when you first wake up or before you go to bed. Think of it like working out. When you do it at the same time every day, it’s going to become part of your routine.”
• Commit your thank you to paper. “By writing down the things for which you’re grateful on a regular basis, you begin to focus more on them.”
• Choose wisely. “I think that people need to understand that we have a choice over what mind-set we’re in. A lot of times people just think that the way I feel, it just happens to me, but it isn’t. It actually is something that we can choose,” Olivo says.

So take your daily dose of gratitude and then drop me a line to tell how you’re feeling.

Here’s to your health.