This is one of a series of three posts on connections between faith and healing. The others are on Meditation and on Love. These three are not of course exclusive to the Christian faith, or even to faith at all, but they are integral to the Christian faith. And they all support healing.
You might well think “I’ve got cancer, what do I have to be grateful for?” Actually for quite a lot, probably including the cancer.
Gratitude is scientifically proven to have health benefits. Quoting from the Mayo Clinic website ” Expressing gratitude is associated with a host of mental and physical benefits. Studies have shown that feeling thankful can improve sleep, mood and immunity. Gratitude can decrease depression, anxiety, difficulties with chronic pain and risk of disease”. Who would have thought it?
This is yet another area in which healing parallels faith. The Holy Bible has a vast number of statements or exhortations concerning giving thanks to the Lord in both the Old and New Testaments. As a Christian, I am so fortunate in being able to thank God for the wonder and beauty of His creation and for all the blessings I have received in my life. When the cancer or its treatment gets on top of us, it may be hard to think of the things we have to be grateful for, but there is always something or someone to be grateful for.
I try to make it a habit at the end of each day to think of everything that I have to be thankful for that day and thank God for the things and people that have been a blessing to me. If you don’t believe in God and believe the universe created itself, your health will still benefit from gratitude for the good things and good people in your life. Gratitude is an overwhelmingly positive emotion that drives out the negative emotions that hinder healing.
And we must remember to thank people personally for the good things they do for us. When Jesus healed ten lepers, only one bothered to go back and thank him. We must make sure we are the one in ten. The person we thank invariably appreciates it too, so they benefit as well as ourselves.
What rather surprised me was that a number of people who specialise in treating cancer said that patients were grateful for their cancer. It forced them to take stock of their lives, reassess priorities and recognise what was most important to them. So yes, some people are even grateful for what their cancer has done for them. Certainly, however dire our situation, we need to be grateful for the good. Concentrating on the good generates more good.
One way of training ourselves in gratitude is to keep a “gratitude diary” in which we jot down things and people that we are grateful for at the time. Then when things are bad, we can look back and see that there is a lot to be grateful for. Training our mind to be positive through Meditation, Love and Gratitude can only improve our lives and our health.
One thought on “Gratitude”