Before you start planning your Thanksgiving menu and stressing about the beginning of the holiday season, science has good news about the Thanksgiving holiday.  Expressing gratitude daily can improve your physical and mental health.

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How can writing or saying words of gratitude improve your physical health?

Researchers at UC Davis reported through clinical trials that expressing gratitude actually has the opposite effect of stress on or bodies.  While stress is linked to the stress hormone, cortisol, which impedes our physical health, gratitude allows our body to release the feel-good hormone known as oxytocin.  When you reduce the amount of cortisol in your body, you improve your blood pressure and immune system, both of which are often challenged during large family gatherings during the holiday season.  People that expressed gratitude more often also report a higher quality of sleep leaving you with enough energy to power through the holiday season.

How does gratitude effect your mental health?

While feelings of stress tend to leave us feeling isolated and depressed, expressing gratitude gives us a better sense of connection to our loved ones, and even strangers in our community.  The more often you practice gratitude consistently, the stronger your instinct to look for moments of gratitude becomes. Instead of focusing on everything that went wrong with your day, you might quickly find yourself searching out what went right so you create moments of gratitude.  Gratitude may be the perfect antidote to holiday stressors!

How can you get started with a gratitude practice?

Developing a gratitude practice couldn’t be easier. Start by writing down three things at the end of each day that you’re grateful for in a journal or a notebook. Reflecting on gratitude doesn’t require outlandish displays of affection or a stunning landscape.  The key is to search out even the smallest act of kindness or moment of beauty.  A pleasant breeze, a beautiful fall tree, or a small, random act of kindness can get you started on the path to recognizing moments for which you’re grateful. Researchers estimate that simply by keeping a daily gratitude journal, you can reduce the amount of cortisol in your body by up to twenty-three percent!

Expanding your gratitude practice to simply saying “thank you” or telling someone that you’re grateful for something they have done allows the healthy benefits of gratitude to become contagious.  Spending a few moments writing a thank you note to a loved one, or thanking a stranger for a small act of kindness, can change the course of a day for another person and you still get to keep all the healthy benefits of being grateful!

Instead of focusing solely on your decorations or Thanksgiving menu this year, this is the perfect time to start planning how you will incorporate your new gratitude practice into your Thanksgiving traditions. You might just improve the health of everyone that you share your holiday with!