Can You Practice Your Way to a Happier, Healthier Life?

As you may know, this month's theme is GRATITUDE, and each yoga session includes a gratitude exercise. So, I wanted to share this research and video to highlight some science-backed benefits of practicing Santosha (gratitude) in encouraging healthy change. Explore the original article, Counting Blessings VS Burdens: An Experimental Investigation of Gratitude and Subjective Wellbeing in Daily Life, here.

Here's What Researchers Say About Gratitude:

Researchers aimed to experimentally test the widely held belief that intentionally focusing on gratitude—or "counting one's blessings"—positively influences psychological and physical well-being. Across 3 studies involving college students and adults, participants were randomly assigned to groups that either regularly listed things they were grateful for, listed daily hassles (complaints), or social comparisons.

The results consistently showed that the groups cultivating a grateful outlook experienced heightened well-being across several measures compared to the comparison groups. The most striking benefit demonstrated was a significant increase in positive emotions. Furthermore, participants in the gratitude condition were more likely to report offering emotional support or helping someone with a problem. They also reported feeling more satisfied with their lives as a whole and more optimistic about the future. These benefits were even noticed by others close to them, as spouses of participants in the gratitude group noticed their partners had higher spirits and life satisfaction!

Takeaways

Santosha (gratitude) is a foundational yoga principle that guides our behaviors. Santosha is part of the Niyamas (values), and suggests that we practice yoga off the mat when we view our lives through a lens of contentment. We are enough; what we have is enough, even our imperfections. Gratitude is personal--don’t be up in people's business with your jealousies and comparisons! Focus the energy of your thoughts on what you have going on in your life, and give thanks.