The benefits of gratitude – Why giving thanks is important for fitness, health, and life.

With Thanksgiving approaching, it occurred to me that one of the themes underlying many of my previous blog posts has been gratitude.  At its core, Legally Fit is about my appreciation for this life that has been transformed and saved and giving thanks to those who support my journey along the way.  Being grateful motivates me to share my story with the hopes of paying it forward to anyone who might benefit from my experience.  Approaching this holiday week, it also made me think about gratitude in another way – specifically, the benefits of being grateful.

Some benefits are obvious.  When we give thanks, it is a sign of happiness.  It also makes us feel good when we receive it.  There’s a place for this in every aspect of life.  Whether work, fitness, family, or friends, gratitude brings us closer to those we appreciate.  When I show appreciation for the mentoring I receive, not only is that relationship strengthened, but it also fosters even more mentoring over time.  When I appreciate the mentoring that is sought from me, it does the same.  In short, gratitude – both given and received – benefits everyone in the relationship.

In my life, I’ve been lucky to have had many examples of gratitude to learn from, but none have been more powerful than my Bubbie and Zadie (that means grandmother and grandfather in Yiddish) – both survivors of the Holocaust who taught me that gratitude is simply a matter of perspective.  I wrote about Bubbie in an earlier post about overcoming setbacks.  As for Zadie, the unimaginable torture he experienced in life didn’t end after the concentration camps.  Long after the war he spent years away from his family while wrongfully imprisoned and tortured in Romania.  Yet, throughout his life, he was always known for his smile.  He told me stories about being beaten and told his family gave up on him only to respond to it all with a smile after Bubbie secretly got word to him that she and their children were well and were waiting for him to come home.  He never let the torture shake his gratitude for the support he had from his family, and he used it to endure it all. 

Shortly before Zadie passed, we all gathered for a family photo.  While, physically, he was only a shell of himself, his smile was nowhere close to disappearing.  Even as he was dying, he had the biggest smile of anyone in the photo as he exuded gratitude.

Zadie’s approach to life taught me that, no matter what the circumstance, we can find gratitude and use it to get through anything.

Benefits of gratitude

But beyond just the stories of gratitude that we use to inspire us to do the same, there’s also science that shows benefits of thankfulness – some of which may even be surprising.  Being grateful and expressing it have been found to positively impact health in many ways.

Mental health

Science shows that gratitude has sustained effects on mental health.  A 2020 randomized controlled trial found that participating in a 6-week gratitude intervention was effective in enhancing mental well-being with a suggestion that increased doses of gratitude have a greater impact and result in long-term effects.

Another study in 2003 demonstrated that thankfulness is associated with significant decreases in depression, anxiety, eating disorders, substance abuse and other psychiatric issues.

All of this may come as no surprise given that expressing gratitude is a sign of feeling good, and feeling good is a sign of mental health.  But the lesson from this research is that gratitude does not have to come naturally from one’s instincts, but rather, it can be practiced as a behavior to improve mental well-being.

Physical health

Perhaps more surprising is the positive impact that gratitude can have on physical health.  In 2017, researchers published a randomized trial showing that gratitude, defined as the practice of appreciating positive life features, leads to better heart health by reducing inflammation and increasing the parasympathetic heart rate variance response.  So, as it turns out, when you act from the heart, you have a healthier heart.

Further science also shows that gratitude leads to a healthier lifestyle.  A 2016 study found that gratitude had significant positive effects on physical health, engaging in healthy activities, and an overall willingness to use health care.  Clearly, a simple “thank you” from time to time does the body good.

Success

But gratitude has even more positive effects beyond health.  In 2010, researchers at conducted a randomized study showing that people who practiced gratitude demonstrated greater patience and better decision making.  Specifically, the participants in the study who showed the most gratitude in their behaviors were the ones who made better long-term economic choices rather than simply reaching for a short-term fix that was of lower value.  In short, gratitude breeds success.

Gratitude and my journey 

Gratitude has played a key part throughout my journey.  Early on, even as I got fitter and stronger, my progress with losing weight was slow.  Sure, the trend was going in the right direction, but by my calculations, I was on target to reach a normal BMI by the time I was somewhere in my 60’s or even 70’s.  My doctor – who knew I was working hard at the physical fitness – asked if I was interested in weight-loss surgery.  I told him I was not, and his response was, “Good.  As long as you are happy with yourself, there’s no reason you need it.”  After that appointment, I thought long and hard about his comment.  Was I happy?  I always thought I was, but I realized that I ignored thinking about happiness in terms of my body.  While I realized that I was unhappy with my body, for me, it was not a reason have the surgery.  Rather, it was a revelation that I needed to find happiness with the body I had.  Finding gratitude in that led to better choices – in both my fitness and eating lifestyle – not driven by a desire to change, but rather a desire to treat this body I was learning to love in a better way.  With that, not only did my weight loss and fitness gains come faster, but the appreciation I had for myself led to all the things I discussed above – better mental health, better physical health, and better decision making.

As an added benefit, my gratitude, and the behaviors that it set into place, has given me even more to be thankful for.  Not only do I appreciate my body, but there’s more that I can do with it now, and as those of you who follow the blog know, I am doing my best to take advantage of it.

Just some of the ways that I express gratitude for my body.

It turns out gratitude is like an invisible muscle.  The more we work it, the stronger we get.  And the stronger we get, the healthier we are.  So, the bottom line for this holiday is not to just spend Thursday giving thanks, but rather to treat every day as if it is Thanksgiving – without the stuffing and pumpkin pie, of course!  It’s part of winning the day!

Happy Thanksgiving to all, and thank you from the bottom of my heart for the support!

Aaron