Health Benefits Of Being Grateful

By Dr. Philip Cordova

November 3, 2014


Does your attitude really matter? Can you improve your stress levels, your mood, and even your immune system by being grateful? Researchers are now confirming this is true, and that’s good news for you!

Even though I regularly find spinal misalignments that are affecting someone’s health, I still think the most powerful change someone can make is in their attitude. The developers of Chiropractic believed that trauma to the spine could be physical, chemical, or mental. When patients ask, “How did I get this way?” it can be any of those things.

One of the side effects of a chiropractic adjustment is an endorphin boost. That endorphin boost can elevate mood, for sure. When you’re feeling better, you tend to be less grumpy, stressed or depressed. Focusing on what you’re grateful for can have a similar effect, and you can do it anytime.

Changing your attitude can happen quickly, but that doesn’t mean it’s an easy thing to do. Sometimes, we get stuck focusing on our problems and it can quickly start to sour everything around us. “Trying to be positive” often is a band-aid over our poor attitude.

When I find that I’m really struggling finding anything to be positive about, I know I’m in trouble and the fastest way to snap out of it is to start thinking of things I’m grateful for.

The list can start small and simple. You don’t always have to start with “I’m grateful for my family and that I have a job,” but you can. Sometimes your mood may be so bad that you have to start with, “Well, I guess I’m grateful I’m alive today.”

A Simple Exercise To Become More Grateful

A simple exercise is to take something that you would normally take for granted and really start to appreciate everything that goes along with it. There’s so much intricate work and past history that goes into our every day conveniences, it’s staggering how much we don’t appreciate.

How about electricity? Are you grateful for that? I know I am. Do you take it for granted? I know I do.

You need to see something, so you stroll over to flip a switch and the light turns on. But there’s so much more to it.

How about being grateful that Ben Franklin did his work with electricity? Then Thomas Edison worked on a light bulb to bring light into our homes? Or the electrician that wired up your home? The electric company working behind the scenes to monitor the grid to make sure it’s all working smoothly? The repair crews that come out within hours to repair damage to electric lines following a bad storm? The job that you go to that allows to get paid enough to pay your electric bill on time so the light will work? Your legs that let you walk over to the switch?

You can go on and on about something as simple as electricity. I’d bet you could fill pages just being grateful for everything that you could brainstorm about this simple thing.

What about your health?

In most cases, we have way more good going on with our health than bad. The patients we see are still mobile and able to tell us what’s wrong. There’s gratitude to be found just in that. As frustrating as it may be to have headaches, neck pain or whatever else might be going on… most things can be improved and changed.

What are you grateful for?

For more information: Check out this article

Dr. Philip Cordova

About the author

Dr. Philip Cordova is a chiropractor in Houston, Texas. He grew up in Phoenix, Arizona and decided to become a chiropractor after hurting his back as a teenager and getting help from chiropractic care. He is speaker on health & posture. Click Here To Read His Full Bio

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