Are you thankful for your family? For the way the rainwater sparkles on your skin in the sun? How about a friend? Are you feeling lucky to just be alive? It turns out feelings like these are extremely good for your health. In a time when medical costs seem to rise higher than the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, we can concentrate on feeling thankful without it costing us a single dime.
If you don’t believe gratitude can make you healthier and happier, consider this. It’s an important enough field of study that the Greater Good Science Center at the University of California, Berkeley—in collaboration with the University of California, Davis—has launched a $5.6 million, three-year project, called Expanding the Science and Practice of Gratitude. This is due in part to early scientific findings that show gratitude can:
- Improve your immune system
- Promote positive emotions in yourself and others, and
- Guard against loneliness and isolation
Dr. Robert Emmons, of the University of California, has also found after eight years of intensive research, that gratitude can utterly transform one’s health and life.
