Hello, and welcome to lecture two of the gift of gratitude. In this lecture, we're going to cover the scientific benefits of gratitude. I believe that if you can see that gratitude has scientific benefits in terms of our health, in terms of different areas of our lives, that it gives more credibility to the overall discussion into the overall course that we're doing, and the actual practices of gratitude that we're going to do as well. Some of the scientific practices of gratitude include that there's an emerging body of research that gratitude increases the quality of different areas of our lives. Additionally, there's a body of research that proves that gratitude improves our health as well. Berkeley has a lot of research on this for example, and according to Berkeley, it helps to give us a stronger immune system and lower blood pressure.

Gratitude gives us higher levels of positive emotions, gratitude gives us more joy, more optimism, and more happiness and acting with more generosity and compassion is another result of gratitude in this study. And so keep in mind that these are empirical scientific studies that have shown these quantifiable and qualifiable qualities in terms of gratitude, other proofs that gratitude works. Those are not the only benefits of gratitude according to Forbes magazine. Scientifically proven benefits include the following gratitude opens the door to more relationships. According to a publish studied in emotion A study published in emotion, gratitude improves physical health, grateful people experience fewer aches and pains for example, according to a 2012 study, published in personality and individual differences, and also gratitude improve psychological health, according to Dr. Robert Emmons, who is a leading gratitude researcher with a PhD and his multiple studies studies have proven this as well that happiness reduces depression and increases happiness.

Gratitude also enhances empathy and reduces aggression. According to the University of Kentucky. Grateful people also sleep better. And so writing in a gratitude journal for example, according to a 2011 study published by Applied Psychology, in well being also shows that it helps you to have a better sleep cycle. If you do this right before you go to sleep, for example, gratitude also improve self esteem according to a 2014 study. And gratitude increases mental strength and helps reduce stress.

For example, when there were two major studies done one on 911 victims and 911 in the US, and another one with post traumatic stress disorder victims that were soldiers both had reductions in their stress levels when they did gratitude practices. That's the source of some of those comes from Amy Morin seven scientifically proven benefits of gratitude and I will include Some of those in a PDF so you can see some of those resources and look those up for yourself if you would like. Some other benefits of gratitude include experiential proof, and other things that I'm going to show you later on in the course in another lecture or two. But Lastly, according to hundreds of scientific studies, gratitude also positively impacts your brain functions. It For example, flood your brain with reward chemicals like dopamine and serotonin, which make you feel better. Your anxiety and depression symptoms lessen your hypothalamus works better, which is important in a lot of the overall functions of your brain in your day to day life, you're more resistant to stress, you fall asleep more easily.

Like I said earlier, this is a corroborating study that shows that this is true in many other studies, and you experience more positive experiences overall and this is according to bustle magazine, that did a list of the benefits of gratitude and if you look that up, you can find hundreds of articles that just make long lists of those throughout. And I've seen lists of sources that just go on and on, that are both journalistic and scientific, and prove that gratitude really does help improve your life all around. And we'll talk about how that attracts more abundance. But if you're happier, if you feel better, if your brains functioning better, if you're more enthusiastic, if you're feeling better about your life, in general, your relationships are going to be better, and you're going to attract more abundance. And those are all benefits that you're looking for in this course.

And so in the next lecture, we'll talk about an experiential proof of gratitude and I'll share with you my experience because gratitude has made a big difference in my life as well. So let's go ahead and look at the next lecture and I'll see you there