Wellness For Wolverines – The Importance of Being Thankful
On today’s episode, Natalie talks all about gratitude and being thankful and the impact they have on your overall wellness. Have a wonderful Thanksgiving Wolverines.
Transcript
What’s up, Wolverines, and welcome back to Wellness For You. My name is Natalie, and with tomorrow being Thanksgiving, I wanted to talk about being thankful. It’s just me today, and I wanted to share my thoughts and what I found in my research, as well as what others have found in their lives around being thankful.
We’ll start off by the definition of thankful, and a word that goes hand in hand with it, gratitude. So Right off the bat, the definition of thankful is expressing gratitude and relief. So gratitude is right in the definition. And if you go to the definition of gratitude, it’s the quality of being thankful.
So they truly are hand in hand. Second for that definition of gratitude is readiness to show appreciation for and to [00:01:00] return kindness. So it’s a lot of giving and being appreciative towards all of these things, all of the above. And I know we, most of us, associate Thanksgiving with that awkward circle of scrambling to find something you’re grateful for and finding different ways to compliment the people you’re with or, or your family.
And sometimes it can just be really awkward, especially when you’re thinking of like, basic answers like, I’m grateful that I can breathe, I’m grateful that I’m alive today, and all those, those may seem menial, they are very important, and they’re okay. If those are the things you’re thinking of to be grateful for, the more power to you.
The smaller you go, that’s what I say, the smaller you can go about being thankful for is the better. Sometimes That becomes a war between the siblings and I, [00:02:00] and we go into being grateful for atoms and for the elements of the earth. But that’s just small competition, what my siblings have. Um, specifically I wanted to talk about is the benefits of being thankful.
Oddly enough, Studies upon studies have shown that a person that has more gratitude, more time that they spend being thankful, everything else in their wellness tends to improve. Now, there is very much a scientifical explanation for this. And then there’s also the Explanation of you know, just the universe working together and maybe to others common sense So first of all, I want to talk about being thankful in building relationships if you as [00:03:00] a person are saying thanks and you are thankful and you’re focusing on those positive things, you are more likely to continue more healthy relationships and to gain more relationships with people as we as humans are more drawn to positive people and with your positive thinking you are creating those pathways to become a positive person, as you are seeing more good than the things that are bad within your day.
And that can be hard, especially during this day and age where anything and everything is thrown at us, especially through social media, through everyday life, through the news. Every other minute we’re either getting positive or negative and more often than not a lot of negative because that’s what catches our attention right off the bat.[00:04:00]
And so it’s getting increasingly harder to find ways to think of those things that you are thankful for, which is why when I’m saying you have to start kind of small, like it makes it a lot easier to see how much you can be thankful for because you’re going so small. Because When you go big, you can say, I’m thankful for the earth.
And that’s a great answer, honestly. But then you kind of go down the list. Like what makes you grateful for the earth? Is it that food can be provided for you? Is it the friends that you have? Are you grateful for your local Rancheritos giving you burritos at 1am when you’re starving in the middle of the night?
Um, that’s one of mine. And that is a guilty pleasure of mine, but I am grateful they are open 24 hours for that reason anyways moving on from those relationships that you’re able to build based off of your [00:05:00] thankfulness and your positive those last longer because The people that you are thankful for are more likely to help you back and that can happen throughout your entire life.
If you treat somebody well or you show your gratitude towards them, they are more likely or wanting to show that gratitude back to you. And then that becomes that ecosystem cycle of living in that co relationship with somebody Um, being able to not depend on each other, but gain more from life by getting something and giving something to another person in your life and then it kind of goes from there and and we do also have a lot of struggles with some people where we show gratitude and we give that to them and they do not [00:06:00] reciprocate and That’s where relationships can fall apart. And as you grow older you learn that those relationships Need to be put aside and less effort, you know And that is a really hard decision.
It’s a decision for me that I still struggle with a lot. I tend to put everything into a relationship only to kind of realize over time that they are not putting that back on me and it just causes you to become burnt out. And that’s where you need to seek other people who are willing to follow that path of that gratitude and being positive and stuff like that.
And, um, That’s not to say that you have to be happy go lucky every single second of the day because we do have hard days and that’s where we relate to people as well, is if we show that vulnerability of our hardships and our sadness and that relationship still needs to be maintained. So it’s not something where you get rid of all of your [00:07:00] depression and anxiety and you’re happy.
And, that’s not, that’s not what I mean. Hopefully the message that I’m trying to give you. It just helps. It’s something that I’ve noticed that helps. That research has shown that it helps. That it kind of takes you away from focusing on that and continuing to dig that hole of, this is going wrong, this is going wrong, you know, my life is falling apart.
Like digging that hole and you’re just in the ground and can’t. But as soon as you kind of start to see those little things, you’re like, okay, I can do this small thing. I can do this. I can get up in the morning. And brush my teeth, you know, very, very small things. You have to focus on those. And as soon as you start seeing those small things that you’re grateful for, like, okay, I am breathing, you know, let’s go back to that one.
The like, I am breathing and I’m not focused on your breath. And that is, [00:08:00] as I did do an episode a while ago where, you know, doing those breathing and meditation exercises can help with that anxiety and depression that I was just talking about. So focusing on the fact that, okay. Well, I’m grateful that I can breathe.
I’m grateful that I lived through today, how horrible it was. I did it. And just seeing those gives that body, that positive reinforcement to continue to go on and honestly be more fulfilled in your everyday life. Now, back to these studies that I was talking about, if you even look up the impact that thankfulness has on you.
Most of them have proven that somehow being thankful improves your physical health, which is kind of crazy. It’s kind of like a weird coincidence thing, but once you’re not focusing on those things that I [00:09:00] was talking about, like you’re taking your attention away from what is hurting. And you’re looking towards a positive, you have more of a want to actually take care of your body and your body is kind of with you on making you healthier and like taking care of yourself.
So once you’re like grateful for. focusing on like, okay, you know, I may have this issue in my body. Like I’m personally, like I have some issues with some of my legs, my, my shin splints and just typical issues that I’ve gained from years of Not taking care of my body while doing hardcore sports, then I can kind of focus on, well, I can still walk.
I can still like hike with my family and my friends. It’s hard, but like, I can still do it. And as soon as I focus on that, I’m not keeping myself from [00:10:00] going on those hikes. I’m not using it as an excuse anymore. I’m more able to Keep that momentum to becoming better and even bettering myself in my physical health.
And I’m just kind of going on this ramble about being thankful, thankful, thankful. Um, but it does show in yourself. And so I do encourage you guys to go and Try, try it out a few times in your life and start to like notice throughout your day. I mean, it’s typical to sit at the end of the day and be like, wow, that sucked.
Like this went wrong and this went wrong and this went wrong, but I do encourage you to also In those times to capture what went right because too often we’ll have something amazing happen And by the next day, it’s already been shelved like take that time to be appreciative towards those things And a big thing for me is to either list them in my head or write [00:11:00] them down in a list At the end of the day or at the beginning of the day, whichever You have more time for it or whichever you find better.
A lot of people say, starting your day with that gets you kind of moving and being like, okay, like I can do this sitting down while you’re eating breakfast or while you’re getting ready, just in your head, kind of being like, wow, I’m really grateful for this. I’m grateful that I woke up today. I was able to get out of bed and, you know, maybe I was late to class, but I did make it and I’m okay.
I made it safely. Kind of going through. It’s, it really does sound menial and stupid, honestly. It, like, it doesn’t sound like it will make a difference because you’re like, oh, well, I mean, I get that every day, so why should I be grateful for it? And I’m going to say these things every day, but when you switch that mindset from that [00:12:00] scientific biological explanation, you are physically rerouting your brain to come to more positive solutions.
And that’s what really helps you to start climbing that ladder out of some depressive episodes or anxiety, I’m not saying that it’s gonna solve it, but it will start to let yourself see that there is a way out of some of these holes that we are in. And so when you’re starting to wake up in the morning and you’re listing these things that you’re grateful for, these paths in your brain are starting to get rewired to being like, wake up, wake up, We are positive, and so we’re going to start the day positive, so it’s easier to keep the rest of the day positive.
And same thing at night, like, oh, this was a good day, and not thinking about those positives, you will see [00:13:00] more often than not, maybe some better days. Depending on, no matter what happens in those days, you are now seeing that there is a bright side. Now, that’s not to say that you can’t have a horrible bad day, like, that is entirely possible, or many in a row.
But it’s important to step back up and start seeing those positive things again in a different day. And, you know, there’s, there’s some days when I started doing this, I, I was listing them in my head in the morning and writing some down at night. And there was some days where, like, so many things went wrong.
In my day, I had a huge issue with one of my school projects. I missed an assignment, so I was going to get a zero on a really important grade. And, those are all school related, but I was having other issues with some of my friends. And, just big mental stress. And I sat down at the end of the day. And I [00:14:00] really was like, okay, I could list that I’m like grateful that I’m breathing, but like, I’m so upset about my day that like, I just cannot do this.
And so I didn’t write it down and I said, I will try again tomorrow. And so, like I said, like, it’s totally fine to admit that today was not a good day, but. Try again another day. Like that’s the most important thing that you are getting up and you are trying to have that better attitude and it just makes things so much easier.
It, it makes that overthinking kind of go away of all the negative, all the things that you have to do. It kind of lets your head be a little bit more clear to see those steps that you need to finish your big assignment, your big essay that you need to write for the end of the year. That said, Wolverines, thank you for letting me kind of ramble on about being thankful.
It is a interesting topic to tackle, but just know that if you add any ounce of gratitude [00:15:00] and thankfulness into your life, it makes it just that much easier to be here on this planet, living whatever life we are living. And, Especially with school. It just makes it that much easier to get through the semester.
I wish you all the best Thanksgiving, whatever you do. Make sure you stuff your face tomorrow with some good food or go hang out with friends. Give yourself a little break as we are in break for school. And get ready to come back and hit those final few weeks strong. I wish you the best of luck with all the finals and make sure to go check out our other podcasts that UVU review.
We just started our sports podcast that gives you updates and we do have the cultured Wolverines and that gives all different kinds of. Art events that are going on and stuff about concerts. And lastly, we do have our buzz that’s up [00:16:00] on YouTube and they are giving you wonderful updates about everything going on at UVU as well as news.
So make sure to go check those out as well. And I will catch you next week, Wolverines. Have a good one.