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Gratitude 1We are often told about the benefits of practicing gratitude. With study after study showing the impact that gratitude has on both physical and emotional wellbeing, implementing a gratitude practice could be in our best interest. 

While practicing gratitude has many benefits, at times it can feel like we are just being asked to “look on the bright side”. In truth, gratitude must be held in tension with the reality of life. It is crucial to lean into moments of both gratefulness and suffering. 

This week we will look at the importance of gratitude and how to cultivate it. But stay tuned, next week we will explore authentic gratitude in difficult seasons. 

(Special Note: If you are in a difficult season and the thought of starting a gratitude practice makes you want to scream, you may want to read next weeks blog first! You can always come back for the details on the benefits of gratitude and how to start a gratitude practice after considering how to honor your suffering in the process.)

 

The Benefits of Gratitude

Feelings of gratitude are good for our brains, activating the hypothalamus and flooding our brains with the feel-good hormone dopamine. Some studies have found it to decrease the prominent stress hormone cortisol and blood pressure, while increasing heart rate variability.

Robert Emmons, the world’s leading scientific expert on gratitude, found that people who consistently practice gratitude report many physical, psychological and social benefits such as:

Physical

  • Stronger immune systems
  • Less bothered by aches and pains
  • Lower blood pressure
  • Exercise more and take better care of their health
  • Sleep longer and feel more refreshed upon waking

Psychological

  • Higher levels of positive emotions
  • More alert, alive, and awake
  • More joy and pleasure
  • More optimism and happiness

Social

  • More helpful, generous, and compassionate
  • More forgiving
  • More outgoing
  • Feel less lonely and isolated.

 

Brene Brown On Joy & Gratitude

Researcher Brene Brown has stated that “there is no joy without gratitude”. Listen as she discusses what her research taught her about the importance of establishing a gratitude practice. (Hint: she expected to find that joy led to gratitude, but found it was the other way around!)

  

 

How to Cultivate a Gratitude Practice

There are many things that you can do to create a practice of gratitude. The key is to establish habits that help you focus on something you are thankful for on a regular basis. It is important that these habits feel both fresh and authentic. 

While it may not feel natural at first, it’s important to focus on being genuine. This means being completely honest with ourselves. We get more benefit from focusing on small things we are truly thankful for than from pretending we are grateful for larger things that we think we should be thankful for.

We receive the most benefit from practices that are fresh and have not grown mundane. If we start to feel like we are doing our gratitude practice to check it off our to-do-list, it may be time to switch up our gratitude practice. And with so many ways to explore gratitude, there is no reason to get stuck in a rut. 

  • Create a gratitude journal.
  • Write thank you cards or letters of affirmation to people in your life.
  • Meditate on things you are grateful for each morning for 5 minutes.
  • Help someone that doesn’t have all the advantages that you do.
  • Find something to look forward to each week.
  • Think about someone who has influenced your life and write them a letter.
  • Pray to express thankfulness for the good things in your life.
  • Choose one word that brings up feelings of gratitude (hope, life, family, friends, health, etc.) each day. Write the word down and think about it throughout the day.
  • Listen to a song you enjoy and take time to really appreciate it.
  • Practice mindful eating to really appreciate the gift of food.
  • For more ideas check out 40 Simple Ways To Practice Gratitude.

 

If you are ready to jump into a gratitude practice that it great! But if you are in a difficult season and can’t imagine how to develop such a practice, be kind to yourself this week. Next week we will look at how to be open to gratefulness in authentic ways during difficult seasons!

 

Dr. Jamie

back to school 2019A recent survey found that 74 percent of mothers are already looking forward to their kids going back to school less than a month into the summer break. While these moms love their kids, the summer can be an overwhelming time, making the school bus a welcome sight. But going back to school can also be stressful for parents! 

It’s a lot of work to make sure that the kids have everything they need to start the year off right. The links below are some resources that can help your family during this exciting, but often stressful time of year. 

A Proper Fitting Backpack

Boosting Your Child’s Immune System

Healthy School Lunches

Creating a Routine

Ordering School Supplies

  • Target's School List Assist - Get all your kids school supplies without any hassle. Simply choose if you want your items delivered to your home or picked up at the store, enter the child’s class information (school and grade), and the supply list will be put in your online shopping cart. (You can remove any items you already have.)

 

I hope this is a great year for you and your family! 

Dr. Jamie

breakfast ideas

 It’s been said that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Choose a healthy breakfast can get your day started on the track, setting you up for a day of healthy eating and steady energy!

 

To make sure that your breakfast is giving you what you need, it is a good idea to make sure it includes both enough protein and healthy fat. Below you will find some breakfast recipes that are not only delicious, but healthy as well!

 

The 3-Ingredient Banana Pancakes topped with Fried Apples would make a lovely start to your day. The simple ingredients make it a wholesome option that is complete with protein and healthy fat.

 

The oatmeal topped with fruit is both pleasing to the eye and the taste buds. Since the recipe includes protein and fat, it will boost your energy and sustain you until lunch.

 

3-Ingredient Banana Pancakes

banana pancakes

 

 

 

 

 

Ingredients:

  • 1 Banana
  • 2 Eggs
  • Coconut oil, or butter for cooking (optional)

Gel WaterGina Bria was an anthropologist studying how desert cultures survived with very little water when she got a call from her mother’s care facility. She was dismayed to hear that her mother was suffering from chronic dehydration. Bria decided to delve into her research to see if there was anything that she could learn from the desert cultures to help her mom. 

Bria learned from her research that the Tarahumara people of Mexico used chia seeds to aid in hydration. Deciding to adapt this practice for her mother, she used her coffee grinder to turn some chia seeds into powder and instructed the caregiver to add it to her mom’s orange juice each morning. That did the trick and her mom did not have any more issues with chronic dehydration!



What Is Gel Water?

In their book Quench, authors Cohen and Bria describe gel water, or living water, as a “newly identified phase of water that’s not quite liquid, vapor, or ice. (It is) identified by an extra hydrogen and oxygen atom, so the molecular structure is H3O2.” Gel water exists in plants and can be found in fruits, vegetables, & seeds. 

The Aztecs and Incas are thought to have often subsisted on only chia and cacti, actually going weeks without water. The fact that these plants products are full of gel water is probably the reason they could survive in this way! 

diabetesWhen people come into my office for their first visit, we discuss their current health concerns as well as their medical history. After sharing a list of symptoms which may include body aches, inflammation, skin irritation, digestive issues, or the like, they often explain that they have a certain condition or believe that they have a genetic predisposition towards these symptoms.

While a clear diagnosis can be helpful to understand symptoms and develop a treatment plan, often times these labels lead people to believe that there is little they can do to improve their situation. The same is true when people believe that a symptom “runs in their family.” 

There is a certain level of resolution built into these beliefs - like an underlying conviction that there is nothing they can do about the situation. This is especially true when it comes to conditions like diabetes.



What Is Diabetes?

Diabetes is a disease in which the body does not produce or respond to insulin properly, resulting in elevated glucose levels. Instability in blood sugar increases the risk of heart disease, high blood pressure, kidney disease, vision problems, neuropathy, infections, and inflammation.  

Diabetes has long been thought of as a chronic, progressive, incurable disease that simply needs to be managed. As Dr. Sarah Hallberg notes, “You get this disease, and there's nothing you can do about it. There’s no going back...that paralyzes people. It takes away their hope, and it takes away their control.” 

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