Gratitude by Christiane Northrup, MD

What You Need To Know
Research shows that heart-centered feelings associated with gratitude, appreciation, and caring are health enhancing. When you find one thing, however small, to be thankful for and you hold that feeling for as little as 15–20 seconds, many subtle and beneficial physiologic changes take place in your body:
Stress hormone levels of cortisol and norepinephrine decrease, creating a cascade of beneficial metabolic changes such as an enhanced immune system.
Coronary arteries relax, thus increasing the blood supply to your heart.
Heart rhythm becomes more harmonious, which positively affects your mood and all other bodily organs.
Breathing becomes deeper, thus increasing the oxygen level of your tissues.
Other scientific evidence that gratitude improves health comes from research accumulated by Robert A. Emmons, professor of psychology at the University of California, Davis. Emmons found that gratitude makes you healthier, smarter, and more energetic. He also showed that people practicing gratitude daily, for example, as writing in a gratitude journal, reported higher levels of alertness, enthusiasm, determination, attentiveness, and energy than those who didn’t.
If all of this happens when you focus for just 15–20 seconds on something that brings you pleasure, joy, or a feeling of gratitude, imagine what would happen to your health if you were able to cultivate thoughts of appreciation on a consistent and regularly basis.
What Causes This
The health benefits of gratitude (which is really the same thing as love) are an amazing example of how sturdy the bridge between the mind, body, and emotions really is and how simple it is to put this connection to work in your own life. But, as you well know, simple isn’t necessarily easy. Cultivating gratitude, like maintaining strong muscles and bones, takes discipline and will. That’s right. It takes practice to feel gratitude and reap its physical and emotional benefits.
There are valid physiologic reasons why focusing on gratitude isn’t easy. Physically, we humans evolved along with a nervous system wired to ensure our survival by keeping us alerted to possible danger from the occasional wild animal or violent storm—events that were relatively infrequent within a life span. Now fast-forward that same nervous system to our current era of mass media, when all of the possible dangerous events from the entire planet are beamed into our living rooms day and night. You can see why holding thoughts of appreciation is hard.
Spiritual and Holistic Options
Years ago, my father said to me, "Gratitude is the first thing forgot." Though this is often true, it doesn’t have to be. But it takes practice to turn it around—practice to notice what gratitude feels like in your body and to notice when you get off-track and into a downward spiral of fear, anger, or despair. It also takes diligence to stop that spiral by consciously deciding to focus on something that feels better.
Here’s how to use the power of appreciation and gratitude to enhance your health and your life on all levels.
Create Gratitude TouchstonesWrite your favorite memories or peak experiences on index cards and keep them close at hand as gratitude touchstones. Here are a few examples: your spouse, your sleeping child, a beautiful place in nature, a favorite pet, an exciting trip, a special moment with a friend.
Appreciate yourself for all that you are and all that you do.Take a moment right now to look back and acknowledge how far you’ve come since last year, six months ago, even three months ago. (Journaling is a great way to keep track of this kind of information and update your self-appreciation circuits regularly.) Because we are conditioned to focus so much on what we still have to do, we forget to acknowledge ourselves for all the things we’ve actually done—and all the ways in which our presence actually helps and supports others.
Take yourself right into your heart, right now. Imagine that you are now surrounded by everyone and everything you’ve ever loved and cared for. And each of them is telling you how much you’ve meant to them. Let each of them speak directly to your heart while you breathe fully, taking it all into your own heart.
Include yourself in the list of those to whom you give freely.The Golden Rule says to "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you." Let me give you that same rule in another form: "Do unto yourself as you would have others do unto you." If you want to have true prosperity—which I define as health, wealth, love, and happiness—you must learn to give freely. But you must also be able to receive with a full and grateful heart. Your health depends on it!
Understand the power of tithing.The general formula for prosperity is to tithe 10 percent of your income to the source of your inspiration. It keeps the circulation of prosperity going. What you give freely and generously comes back to you ten-fold because you can’t "out give" the universe. But it won’t come back unless you’ve developed your ability to receive it! You do this by opening your heart to yourself and your own innate goodness.And, given that prosperity is not just about money, it’s important to understand that you are also "tithing" when you give your happiness, love, and caring to others. It’s crucial that women really take into their hearts how much they already "tithe," even if not in the form of actual dollars. This helps enhance your sense of worth and worthiness. And as a result, improves your health.
Take care of your body and your health.Every time you take your vitamins, eat organically grown food, read articles on my Website, lift a dumbbell, or sit down to meditate, you are giving back to yourself. You are including yourself in the circle of gratitude and caring. You are filling your cup so that you can drink fully—and from that space, help others do the same!