The Healing Power of Gratitude: 5 Gratitude Practices to Help Relieve Pain and Inflammatio

Gratitude can be a powerful tool in your journey to wellness.  There is science backing this up.  Being a science-y girl, that means a lot to me!

How does gratitude, an emotion, help calm inflammation, a physical aspect of the body?  The connection of our physical body to our mental state is tangible and real.  Ever felt so nervous that you felt like you might have to run to the bathroom? That was your central nervous system in fight-or-flight mode.   This is called the sympathetic response.   

When the sympathetic response is activated, the mind and body direct all efforts to survival.  All energy is directed to keeping you safe from the perceived threat.  This means that energy is NOT directed towards digestion.  When digestion slows down the gut can get into a state of dysbiosis, or an improper balance of bacteria, causing or perpetuating leaky gut and keeping the immune system on high alert and causing inflammation.  Read my post about leaky gut here. 

We know that this is not a good state, so how do we get out of it?

Feeling gratitude can help.  This is because when we feel the emotion of gratitude, we are telling our mind that all is good. There is nothing to worry about.  Nothing bad to see here. The central nervous system goes into rest-and-digest mode and all body functions carry on as they should.  Being in this state more often helps keep the gut bacteria balanced properly, restores gut health and clams the inflammatory response.  

Gratitude actually turns off fear on a cellular level.  Deepak Chopra says: “Messenger molecules transmit every thought, feeling, or sensation to the body’s 100 trillion cells."

Besides, gratitude just FEELS GOOD!  When you are in a state of gratitude, you naturally feel less pain because your mind is focused on what is good in your life rather than what hurts. Sometimes, our thoughts about the pain can make the pain worse.  Nobody wants that!

The more space we can create for gratitude, the more we can help our mind and body relax, and the less pain and inflammation.  I don’t know about you, but that is something I would like more of in my life!  Feeling gratitude can take you out of your story of self-pity, help you sleep better, improve self-esteem, and enhance relationships. So many benefits!

How can we create more gratitude?  Here are 5 gratitude practices to help relieve pain and inflammation that you can begin to implement in your life today:

1. Upon waking in the morning, think of 3 things for which you are grateful. Starting your day with gratitude sets you up for a positive day.

2. Keep a continuous gratitude journal. This makes you feel good when you write it AND whenever you read it over.

3. Go on a 5-minute gratitude rampage.  Look around you, and for 5 minutes, feel gratitude for everything you see … that you CAN see!

4. Express gratitude to someone.  Maybe this is a phone call, email, comment, or text to someone you know or perhaps writing a positive review for a product you like or a book you read.  

5. End your day by thinking of 3 things that happened in your day or people for which you are grateful.

I hope you enjoy trying these practices.  Try to make gratitude a daily habit … it’s great for overall well-being!  

Comment below if you have tried any of these and if you have felt a physical benefit from filling your mind with the healing power of gratitude.  

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