Gratitude

Hubby and I went to a Parkinson's lecture on "The brain and resiliency." It was part of an occasional series sponsored by Parkinson's Resources of Oregon, a terrific support and advocacy group we are thankful to have benefited from during these 15 years since his diagnosis.

I had one significant take-away, and I am committed to trying one thing: keep a gratitude journal. Now don't get all excited, dear readers, because I plan to keep the record on my separate non-public blogspot. Perhaps I will be inspired to share as I become confident in this new journey.

Here's the background. Research at UC Davis looked at gratitude and well-being.  Participants were placed in three groups and assigned to journal life events. One group was to asked to list positive events, another group was random events, and another was to list problems or hassles. 

The gratituders, if I may coin a term, had huge benefits! Among them:

• More regular exercise,
• fewer physical symptoms
• felt better about their lives as a whole
• more optimistic about the upcoming week
• personal growth attainment (academic, interpersonal and health-based

There is a reference to "daily gratitude intervention (self-guided exercises)" for which I am dying to get more information. With this exercise, they reported young adults had higher positive states of alertness, enthusiasm, determination, attentiveness and energy compared to a focus on hassles or a downward social comparison (ways in which participants thought they were better off than others). And for adults with neuromuscular disease (yes, that includes Parkinson's), they had great amounts of high energy positive moods, a greater sense of feeling connected to others, more optimistic ratings of one’s life, and better sleep duration and sleep quality. 

So off I go to blog, and then research the "intervention" exercises.  Then I look forward to sharing with all of you. (I think there might be three...?!?)