Living a life full of gratitude can literally change your life. When you start practicing gratitude you will find it impacting every corner of your life; your body, your relationships, your career, and even your spirituality. Here are just a few of the big ways that gratitude can change your life.

7 Ways Gratitude Changes You

Helps You Get Better Sleep

Gratitude helps you get better sleep because it changes what is on your mind as you’re trying to fall asleep. This means you will get to sleep faster, have a better quality of sleep, and sleep longer. I won’t go so far as to say it cures insomnia, but it certainly can help with the symptoms. We all know how important it is to get a good night’s sleep. So if gratitude did just this one thing it would drastically change our lives. But of course, it does so much more!

Makes You Feel Happier

Gratitude makes you feel good about yourself, your life, and everything you have which in turn makes you feel happy. It can even make you have happier memories. You’re more likely to remember positive memories when we’re experiencing gratitude and gratitude can even make neutral or negative memories a little more positive.

Strengthens Your Faith

Gratitude helps you see that no matter what you’re going through you aren’t alone, which in turn strengthens your faith no matter what faith or religion you follow, even if you don’t follow any at all. You develop a deep appreciation for all things in your life, including your faith in the Lord.

Makes People Like You

Gratitude makes people nicer while also making us more social and more trusting. The result is that it helps us make more friends, improves marriages, and deepens the existing relationships we have. In this way, it also helps you with your career and makes you a better leader.

Makes You Healthier

Studies have found that living a life full of gratitude and keeping a ournal will improve your health in a number of ways, including the previously mentioned sleep. You will also have less physical pain, have fewer physical symptoms of illness, spend more time exercising, be more relaxed, decreased blood pressure, and generally have more vitality and energy to get through life.

Makes Us More Optimistic

There have been strong correlations found between gratitude and optimism, in fact, there have been studies done on this. One study found that keeping a weekly gratitude journal increases optimism by 5%. Another study found that if you kept a daily gratitude journal you would see a 15% increase in your optimism. This also appears to help you live a few years longer as it has been suggested that being optimistic and having generally positive emotions extends your life.

Reduces Materialism

There are two major sources for materialism in today’s society, insecurity and role models. The insecurity can come from lacking confidence, growing up poor, or having parents who weren’t supportive. Gratitude effectively combats that insecurity by allowing you to see the world as supportive rather than against you, giving you the boost your brain needs to get past those insecurities. It also helps us stop comparing ourselves to our wealthy role models so there is less keeping up with the Jones’ and more satisfaction with what you have.

I don’t know about you but after reading all of that I think I need to update my journal! Have you joined the 30-day Gratitude Challenge? If not, please take a look and join us!

© LaToyia Dennis ~ Motivated Mom

Original post found here.