#84 Episode: From Chaos to Calm: How Gratitude Heals the Mind and Body
🧠 Can being thankful actually boost your mood, lower stress, and improve sleep? Yes—and in this episode, I’m sharing how gratitude is more than just a nice idea. It’s a daily lifeline for me, and it can be for you too.
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Show Notes
Welcome and gratitude for the audience and God
Purpose of the podcast: holistic wellness beyond mainstream medicine
Main topic: Gratitude as a health and wellness tool
Definition of gratitude: Being thankful and showing appreciation
Personal stories and daily gratitude practices
Reference to Philippians 4:6-7 as a foundation
Example of being thankful even during difficult situations
The role of gratitude journaling
Science behind gratitude:
Activates dopamine and serotonin (feel-good neurotransmitters)
Linked to pleasure, happiness, motivation
Health benefits of gratitude:
Reduces stress (lowers cortisol)
Improves sleep
Boosts immune system
Reduces depression symptoms
Improves heart health
Increases life satisfaction
Encouragement to make gratitude a habit
Personalized wellness consultations offered to listeners
Special offer: 50% off for podcast listeners
New episodes every other Wednesday
Key Takeaways
Gratitude is more than a feeling—it's a lifestyle that can transform your mindset and physical health.
Daily gratitude practices like journaling or prayer activate feel-good chemicals in your brain.
Science confirms that gratitude can lower stress, improve sleep, and even boost immunity
Even in hardships, being thankful helps shift perspective and build emotional resilience.
Consistency and small daily steps in gratitude can lead to powerful, long-lasting changes in wellness.
Transcript
Hello, everyone. Welcome back to Better Than A Pill. And I'm really glad that you guys are here with me today. And before we get started, I just want to say thank you to God for making the better than a pill podcast possible. And it was born out of the belief that we want to be proactive about taking the necessary steps for health and wellness and seeking solutions that are holistic.
In addition, To what mainstream medicine has to offer. So today we're going to be talking about one of those things that can really help our health and wellness. I know for me, this is a lifesaver and it's gratitude. And this is one important way. Okay, fix that, please. And this is one important thing we can do.
And it's making being thankful a habit, being grateful, practicing gratitude. So gratitude is the quality of being thankful, readiness to show appreciation. Fix that. Readiness to show appreciation for and return kindness. And for me, it is. an important part of my daily life. It's a lifestyle when we practice it.
The goal is for anything, like our movement or eating or sleeping for it to become a habit. One of my favorite verses that really helps me and I look at it daily is Philippians four, six through seven. And it's something I try to reflect on first thing in the day and it's do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, let me start that over.
Okay. Here we go again. Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation by prayer and petition with thanksgiving, present your request to God and the peace of God, which transcends all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Yes, I love this first, giving, waking up, I have a client of mine.
She says the first thing she does every day is thank you, God, first thing, first words out of her mouth. And she's a very grateful person and it's part of her lifestyle. And for me, it is a part of my routine as well in the morning, just giving thanks in prayer and not throughout the day. Personally, I do try to thank God for everything when I remember, and it helps me to also stay in the present and in communication with him, thanking him for the small things as well as the big things and everything, all blessings, and even thanking him through the hardships because I know we all experienced them.
I know myself. Going through the trials that we are personally experiencing, but also being grateful at the same time, it's both. And for me, and it's just helpful, the other day when we ended up at the doctor's office or urgent care, when the day was disruptive, that interruption could make our minds or ourselves go one way or fight it.
But instead, for me, I was just saying, thank you, thank you for taking care of me, taking care of us in this manner. So that's one thing. The other thing I do is keep a journal, a gratitude journal. And I list things I do daily, I have a big list as well, and that is really helpful just to write it down, to say it and it can change your mindset.
It's so powerful. So we're going to look at that. Let's look at the science and some of the health benefits behind being grateful and it can actually change structures in our brain and it has numerous physical and mental effects. Benefits. So feeling grateful activates the brainstem region that produces dopamine.
Dopamine is a key neurotransmitter in the human brain. Now you, a neurotransmitter is a chemical messenger that transmits signals in the brain. In other areas of the body, dopamine is often labeled the feelgood transmitter. So it's linked to feelings of pleasure, satisfaction, and motivation. So when you anticipate or experience something rewarding, dopamine levels typically increase.
Now there's also a link between gratitude and the feel good hormone serotonin. So we've got two going for us, right? Serotonin is also a neurotransmitter and is primarily found in the brain, in bowels and in blood platelets. It's often called the happiness chemical. Because it contributes to being and happiness.
Serotonin helps regulate mood, sleep, appetite, digestion, and bowel movements. There are a lot of health benefits that are also associated with feeling grateful. There have been a lot of studies done and they're continuing to be done. Here's just a synopsis. How can gratitude help?
It can lower stress levels. by reducing stress hormones, such as cortisol gratitude can actually improve our sleep. It can boost our immune system. It can reduce symptoms of depression. It can help our heart or cardiac health, and it can just increase our overall happiness and life satisfaction. And these are extremely.
health benefits. So if, gratitude, just to sum it up here, it's not just about saying thank you. It's really a lifestyle. It's a holistic approach and it can affect our mindsets profoundly. Science has shown that we just talked about that today. So I am encouraging you and. I encourage myself as I talk to continue to do this to make it a daily practice, whether through, starting off your day, reading scripture, thanking God, journaling, mindful reflection, it's going to have profound effects on your overall well being.
And so I encourage everyone to make it a daily practice. And I know because I'm living proof that this does work. So Thank you guys for coming on, listening today. Remember as you're doing this stuff, just to be patient and kind to yourself. Most importantly, just focus on progress, maybe starting off with one or two sentences in a journal, whatever works, it's just starting somewhere like anything and beginning to get consistent with it.
Also some of you guys that are listening today may be struggling in general with making your health and wellness a priority. And maybe it's low energy or maybe it's back pain or stiffness, or you just, you're ready to improve your health and enjoy living. And I'd love to help you so you can schedule a body consultation today.
And receive personalized insights and strategies. And all you have to do is click the link in this description or reach out to support a movement craft on, sorry, fix that and reach out to support a movement craft. com. And because you're a better listener than a podcast, you'll receive a 50 percent exclusive savings just for letting us know.
So we release new episodes every other week on Wednesday, and I truly look forward to having you join me then.
