It’s no surprise that gratitude can improve your mental health and overall outlook on life, but were you aware of the many benefits of thankfulness when it comes to your physical health? In this blog post, I’ll take you through six ways in which gratitude improves your health.  Plus, I’ll leave you with some simple, healthy breakfast recipes that are definitely worthy of thanksgiving. 

Gratitude activates key areas of your brain

When you express and practice gratitude, you activate an essential center of your brain known as the hypothalamus. The hypothalamus is responsible for numerous bodily functions, including regulating body temperature, metabolism, circadian rhythm, and releasing important hormones.

Researchers have determined that gratitude releases the “feel-good” chemical dopamine in our brains. As dopamine builds up, we literally give out more positive vibes and end up more inclined to be grateful.

Pain decreases as gratitude increases

Patients who practice gratitude report a decrease in their pain levels and more motivation to get up and go about their day, according to some studies. The patients reported that their symptoms got milder, and they felt more capable and inspired to move their bodies and get some exercise.

Sweeter and deeper sleep

Want to fall asleep quicker and improve your quality of sleep throughout the night? You guessed it: gratitude is a key component of good sleep.

Sleep is essential for our overall health, which means that gratitude’s effect on rest indirectly improves many other aspects of our well-being. Gratitude activates the hypothalamus, which is in charge of regulating your circadian rhythm. Your circadian rhythm tells your body when it’s time to fall asleep, and it also affects many other pathways that influence the quality of your sleep.

More thanks, less stress

Gratitude has clearly been shown to decrease stress, and improved quality (and quantity) of sleep definitely is one of the many factors that positively affect stress. When you’re well rested, you automatically feel more relaxed. Although this sounds like more of a mental health benefit, the impact of reduced stress on our physical health, especially on our hearts, cannot be overemphasized.

Studies have shown that heart disease patients who practiced gratitude, either by meditating or by writing in a gratitude journal, were able to improve their blood pressure significantly.

Improve your mood by expressing gratitude

As you might imagine, being able to stimulate the release of dopamine, that ‘feel-good’ chemical, could have tremendous benefits for individuals needing to boost their mood. Studies have linked gratitude with improvements in mood and increased positive behavior. Similarly, gratitude helps to alleviate anxiety, but studies conclude that this is most likely an indirect result of improvements in the quality of sleep.

Boost your energy level by being thankful

Individuals who practice gratitude report a considerable increase in their energy levels. That benefit could be due to better quality sleep, less stress, a healthier heart, and all the feel-good chemicals being released.

The hypothalamus plays a huge role in metabolism regulation, which is responsible for how food is digested, the absorption of nutrients, and burning up of calories for energy. Since gratitude activates this area of the brain–the hypothalamus–it shouldn’t be surprising that gratitude also improves our metabolism and energy levels.

Gratitude-worthy breakfast recipes

If you choose to journal in the mornings, that’s a great way to get your gratitude on before you really dive into your day. But check out these three recipes that I think will also provoke a grateful response, both from your taste buds and from your belly!

Protein Smoothie Bowl

Protein-packed green smoothies are a great way to start your day. You can use ingredients that you already have on hand, or create a variety of ingredients so you can have a different smoothie each morning. You’ll be less likely to grow tired of your breakfast if you switch it up regularly, and it’s certainly more fun to savor a new flavor each day of the week!

Here’s a suggestion regarding sizes in order to yield a large green smoothie:

• 1 cup nut milk of choice
• 2 large handfuls leafy greens of choice
• 1 cup fruit mixture of choice
• 1/4 cup seeds of choice
• 2 tablespoons nut butter of choice
• 1/2 scoop vegan protein powder of choice

Breakfast Salad

Let your creativity (and available veggies) direct the flow of a healthy salad that you’ll want to repeat.

For a vegetarian/vegan version of the salad, grab some leafy greens and some of your favorite non-leafy veggies (carrots, tomatoes, diced and roasted sweet potatoes, spaghetti squash, red onion, red cabbage. Throw some chia seeds, flax seeds, or hemp seeds on top. You can add a bit of fruit, too, especially berries. Get even fancier with some homemade salad dressing or maple syrup, unsweetened coconut flakes, or sesame seeds, and you’ll be good to go. Lemon vinaigrettes are great with breakfast salads, or you can use oil and vinegar.

However, if you’re a meat-eater, you can add some crumbled chicken sausage or turkey bacon, or simply top the salad with an over-easy egg. 

Homemade Granola

• 2 cups gluten-free rolled oats
• 1/4 cup almond butter
• 1/3 cup real maple syrup
• 1 tablespoon cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup of mixed nuts

Mix all ingredients and place them on a baking sheet. Bake at 325°F / 162°C for approximately 30 minutes. Remove and stir granola well about halfway through. Add any dried fruit you may like once it’s cooked.

Enjoy! And be grateful!

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I’m in January mode:  a bit mellow after the holidays but abuzz with dreams and hopes that I’m eager to see realized.  With those dreams and hopes comes a putting on of the “big girl pants”:  paying attention to and acting decisively on matters about which I’ve been lax or disinterested.  Like creating a will and an advanced health care directive.

Gulp.

The process makes you realize that few things on this earth are worthy of the level of importance that we give them.  As John Ortberg says:  “It all goes back in the box.”  We carry nothing with us to the grave.  

So as I pull my various ishes together, I begin reminiscing about relationships:  family, friends, school, college, work.  A theme of “not fitting in” starts to emerge.

I’ve always had a pervasive sense of not belonging.  Most people who know me would be surprised that I would think that way.  But for the longest while, I haven’t felt like I fit in, as much as I have wanted to.  The feeling of not fitting in was strong enough at times to push me into making less-than-wise choices.

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A few months ago in my quiet time, I raised the issue with God.  His response:  “You’re not supposed to fit in.”  

Huh?

But it makes sense.  Why would He make snowflakes unique and not human beings?  Why was I hankering after a sense of belonging among others that could only come via a relationship with Him?

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Most of us experience that desire to be part of the “in” crowd. To blend in.  To not be “other.”  The world would have us in lockstep on religion, politics, fashion, food, media–you name it–and the desire to conform is inculcated from early. So, breaking rank with the prevailing groupthink, and being comfortable in that decision, is challenging but very necessary.

I can’t say I’m totally free from wanting to fit in.  After all, it’s been part of my modus operandi for a quite a while.  But what I do see emerging is a growing unwillingness to be shackled to other people’s idea of what I should conform to.  Maturity might have a lot to do with it!  Thinking inside the box has its place, but it can become suffocating.

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So… I’m not fitting in.  And that’s okay.  In all of my hyphenated wonder (female-black-West Indian-professional-single-Christian-recovering people pleaser), I’m supposed to be different.  I’m called to be different. Even the Bible states that we Christians are a peculiar people.  Different, not deficient.

For all of you who have gone through or are going through the “not fitting in” blues, take heart.  As you choose to be the real you, the authentic you, your tribe will emerge.

Like-minded folk will be drawn to your uniqueness.  They will celebrate your joie de vivre, cosign on your whimsy, clink their champagne glasses to your je ne sais quoi, and revel in your randomness.  But they’ll never get a chance to do so if you meld into the vast sea of sameness that’s out there.  Been there; done that.  So not worth it!

Remember Scott Stratten’s advice:

Do you struggle with not fitting in? Or are you a rugged individualist?

These three things I know to be true.

There are others, but these are the primary ones right now.

I am loved, and I am the giver of love.

Even when everything in life seems to be saying the opposite,  you know that you know that you know that your love bucket can never run dry.

You are deeply loved.  By your Creator, Lord, and Savior.  By family and friends, partners and colleagues.  And by people you have yet to get to know thoroughly.

In turn, you pour love out to those who deserve it, and those who don’t.

You’re a walking love revolution!  That there is the gospel truth.

My purpose on earth is unfolding daily.

The cliche: “God’s not finished with me yet!”  The truth: at every turn, He’s using me to carry out His purpose and to fulfill my destiny here.  I’m a worshiper, intercessor, writer, editor, blogger, organizer…  Often imitated, never duplicated.  I don’t fit any preconceived mold.  Neither do you!

Work, family, friends, talents, vocation, avocation…  they’re all ingredients in this life-sized layer cake that is each person’s life calling.

Encouragement and motivation are my trump cards, showing themselves strong even when I want to be Grumpelstiltskin.

Every event in my life is meant not just to grow me up, but to affect and positively change others.  I can’t fight destiny!

You and I are connected for a reason.

It might not be crystal clear right now.  We may just be discovering each other via our blogs, comments, social media, or in person.  But the connection is real and true, and it will bring forth fruit.

I’m excited to see where it will all lead!  God’s in the midst of it all.  I wait on His timing to bring it all to fruition.  Trying to rush Him never works, does it?

What are your three things that you know to be true?  How are you living them to the fullest daily?

I once had a cat named Bella.  No, this is not a limerick.

Mischievous, demanding, playful.  And easily offended.  She knew how to keep a grudge and to exact revenge with precision.  The minute I was ready to leave for work, she’d reach for my ankles and deftly place a run in my pantyhose, then sprint away to an inaccessible place while I fumed.  Never underestimate the intelligence of animals.

Exhibit A.   Ms. Bella, doing what she did best: get into mischief!

I thought of her this week.  Sometimes my behavior mirrors hers when it comes to being offended.  No, I don’t put a run in anyone’s pantyhose or bite or scratch up their hands.    But I do catch feelings unnecessarily.  Feelings that do nothing to build me up, or the “offender.”

I say it to my shame.

You know things are out of whack when you see someone’s posts in your Facebook news feed and feel what I like to call a “grrrrr” in your spirit.  That difference of opinion, that spirited debate, those unsaid words or actions left undone–they churn something up on the inside that shows up on the outside as a grimace.  A squeezing or rolling of the eyes.  A tightness in the body.  An unspoken “Hiss!  Boo!”

The grrrrr.

I know some of you can relate; others of you might be too spiritual to have these fleshly fits. 

I went back to the book that helped me deal with offense and forgiveness, John Bevere’s “The Bait of Satan.”  These words hit me:  “It is not a question of opportunity to be offended, but what your response will be.”

Luke 17:1 gives Jesus’s definitive statement on the matter:  “It is impossible that no offenses should come.”

So, how do we avoid the destruction that follows being offended?

• Don’t let the grrrrr in your grudge grow.  Bevere notes that the Greek word for “offend” is “skandalon.”  It’s the part of a trap for animals on which the bait is positioned.  Recognize when a trap is being set.  Then, if you don’t take the bait, you can’t be trapped.  If you decide not to be offended, even if the person did you wrong, you’ve begun the journey to wholeness and healing.
• Choose the high road. The air is fresher and you’ll be in better shape.    I love Anita Matthias’s take on the high road:

“Overlook lots of things. Blow things away with the breath of kindness. When spoken to harshly, you don’t need to retort in kind.   Return a gentle answer or none at all when someone gets irrational through tiredness.”

•  Forgive and live; lie and die. You’re lying to yourself if you think harboring a grudge will do anything positive for you.  It’s a slow spiritual and emotional death. “Banish bitterness, rage and anger, shouting and slander, and any and all malicious thoughts—these are poison.” Ephesians 4:31
• Have great expectations of God, but limited expectations (or none at all!) of (wo)men.  Misconstrued expectations often lead to offenses being taken. “Be even-tempered, content with second place, quick to forgive an offense. Forgive as quickly and completely as the Master forgave you.”  Colossians 3:12
•  Do a Bible study on bitterness, resentment, and offense.  I did, and it got me clothed in my right mind.  “A person with discretion is not easily angered; he gains respect by overlooking an offense.” Proverbs 19:11.  Word!
• Decide to be thankful and to seek the good in the situation.  Bitterness and gratitude cannot coexist.

Do you get that “grrrrr” of resentment and offense often?  How do you handle it?

“Hi! How are you?”

“Fine, thank you.”

Nothing could be further from the truth!  And both speakers intuitively know it.

But who really wants to know how you’re doing?  Twenty-first century living doesn’t seem to lend itself to genuine disclosure.  It just takes up too much time, and it gets … complicated.  Or does it?

We make a tacit pact, apparently with ourselves, in which we agree to keep a mask on for a good part of our lives.  We keep our true feelings, even the most inane and mundane, expertly hidden.

The mask helps keep at bay prying eyes that would see who we really are, warts and all.

• It erects a barrier to true communication, to the comforting yet challenging cadence of sharing life authentically with others.

• It morphs into a retaining wall that buttresses distrust, fear, discomfort, and self-preservation.

• It nurtures selfishness and self-centeredness.

• It thrives under the guise of politeness but does its wearer a great disservice by creating a disconnect between the true you and the masked you.

• It creates a stumbling block to the pleroma, or fullness of life, that God wants us to enjoy.

Thing is, we are the ones who put on the mask.  No-one puts it on us.  And so the choice is ours to remove it.

• What if we shed the cuteness and the vacuousness that passes for conversation and decided to keep it one hundred?

• What if we chose to share our hurts and our joys, to be transparent about the things that mattered to us?

• What if, instead of air kisses and fake hugs, we cut the crap and took the time to look each other in the eye and genuinely do life together?

We might become healthier people, not just mentally, but spiritually, emotionally, and physically.

Our children might thank us for showing them what authenticity looks like.

We might barf up some ugly stuff, but it just might lead to a more beautiful life that really counts for something.

People might begin to believe that we truly are Christians by the genuine love we show to each other, and, by extension, to ourselves.