Celebrating thanksgiving with friends and family is a joy at this time of year. Did you know its also excellent for our health!
How?
Thanksgiving changes our body chemistry. It releases neurotransmitters such as dopamine, serotonin, nor-epinephrine, and oxytocin. These neurotransmitters calm us.
Heart problems
Being calmer regulates our blood pressure. This obviously lessens the likelihood of heart attack and stroke. Statistics reveal many heart attacks happen on a Monday morning as people return to stressful paid work.
Depression
Thanksgiving also lifts depression! In the last few decades depression has proliferated. Many are depressed by what we see on mainstream media as well as work and home related problems.
Pain
Thanksgiving also lessens pain, as it lowers inflammatory cytokines.
Diabetes and pancreatic cancer
Gratitude actually helps diabetics as it regulates the pancreas. The pancreas has to deal with blood sugar. Easing the work on the pancreas helps prevent amputation and pancreatic cancer. Pancreatic cancer is one of the most deadly forms of cancer and now affects 1 in 65 of us.
Immune System
Gratitude improves our immune system. Whatever ails us, it is always the immune system that needs to be boosted. So whether its auto immune disease like MS, Parkinson’s, psoriasis, acne, or a broken bone, that’s good news literally for every man woman and child on earth!
Perspective on life
Gratitude also reduces materialism. It puts our lives back in perspective. Thankful children grow up appreciating what their parents have done for them. So they are less likely to rebel as they grow up. They are also more likely to be good parents as the generations move on. I love the Jewish tradition of blessing each child in the family every Friday night, showing the they are loved and extolling their good traits!
Happiness and life satisfaction
Gratitude encourages generosity. When we are generous we find happiness and life satisfaction.
We can also celebrate alone, deriving these health benefits every day!
I find that gratitude heals me in body mind and spirit every morning as I practice it alone in my quiet time with God.
Even when we are suffering, there is always something to be grateful for. That I can still breathe, see, hear, communicate! Thank you, God!
For intelligence makes it clear that there is an infinitely intelligent creator. Someone has thought out and planned our intelligently designed bodies! Who has provided fresh air, clean spring water and plants to eat and flowers for fragrance? Who hung the earth in the universe precisely in alignment with the sun? Closer and we would be fried! Further away and we would freeze! We know there is a higher power, and when we communicate and give thanks abundance will flow. This is nature’s law.
