Hey there, Jen here, and this is a happy bit.

On our episode earlier this week, Nicole Crawford talked about how mindful presence and gratitude

helped her to heal from past hurts and just live in the moment with happiness.

And so I want to talk a little bit in this happy bit about gratitude.

New research is starting to explore how

gratitude improves our mental health. And this is the perfect topic for the month of Thanksgiving.

I know many of you in the past have participated in 30-day gratitude challenges throughout the month

of November. And if that floats your boat, totally do that.

But maybe you just start with starting your own gratitude practice, maybe using an app or an actual

physical journal. But the goal is to change your brain and your thoughts and your mood. So in

research, gratitude is strongly and consistently related to greater happiness. And gratitude

helps you feel more positive emotions, improves your health, helps you cope with struggles and

difficult situations, helps you be resilient. It helps you to build strong relationships. and it helps you to relish the good things that are happening in your life more.

Two psychologists, Dr. Robert A. Emmons and Dr. Michael E. McCullough from the University of California at Davis and the University of Miami, have done a lot of the research on gratitude.

And in one study, they had their participants write a few sentences every week, focusing on particular topics.

One group wrote about things they were grateful for, and the other group wrote about things that irritated them or annoyed them. And then a third group wrote about anything they wanted,

things that had affected them that week. No emphasis on positive or negative. So we have

positive group, negative group, and neutral group. Guess what? After 10 weeks, the groups who

wrote about gratitude and positivity were more optimistic and felt better about their lives.

Also, what's surprising is they were exercising more. They had visited the doctor less often

than those who were negative or neutral. Crazy, right? So how would that relate to you?

Well, you could start a gratitude practice where you write down the things you're grateful for, knowing that it's going to change how you view your life. It's going to make you happier and probably even motivate you to do other things that make you happy, like exercising. Plus, it might help you to have fewer doctor visits. So it's essentially like you take your morning vitamins, you write in your

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