Fall is the season of gratitude. This is a time of year dedicated to celebrating all good things in life: a bountiful harvest (read: a successful Costco run), our beautiful families, and the chance to unwind at home with the people we love.
Sure, Thanksgiving has come and gone, but that doesn’t mean that spirit of thankfulness needs to fade away. In fact, holding onto that gratitude can do a whole lot for your well-being—not to mention the fact that it’s the secret ingredient for an airtight Aging & End of Life Plan.
The health benefits of gratitude
After feasting on a decadent turkey dinner and stocking your fridge full of mashed potatoes and cranberry sauce, you may not be feeling like you’re in peak physical form. But we’ve got good news: sitting with your gratitude for a little bit is probably enough to counteract that heavy Thanksgiving meal. Why? Because being thankful makes you healthier and happier.
It sounds corny (no pun intended), but it’s true: there’s decades of psychological and medical research showing that giving thanks can actually boost your physical and mental health.
In one study by psychologists at UCLA, researchers asked participants to spend a few minutes each week journaling about their lives. The catch was that they were secretly split into two groups: one who were told to write about things they were grateful for this week, and another who were told to write about things that went wrong or bothered them this week. After ten weeks of keeping this up, the group that journaled about gratitude reported being happier and more optimistic about their lives. But that wasn’t all: they also exercised more and reported fewer doctors’ visits than the other group.
Focusing on the good things in life has been shown to work all kinds of wonders on our overall health. Here are just a few:
- Reducing depression and anxiety
- Lowering blood pressure
- Decreasing the chance of heart disease
- Decreased cellular inflammation
- Better sleep
- Greater life satisfaction
Gratitude and planning ahead
So, we’ve established that sitting with your gratitude is a good idea for everybody, all the time. But if you’re embarking on an Aging & End of Life Planning Journey—or if you’ve already got a Plan in place, but need to update it—gratitude is one of the best emotions you can bring to the table.
At Viive, we’re guilty of talking a lot about all the bad stuff that can happen when you don’t have an Aging & End of Life Plan. As our Founder & CEO Mallory can attest, when somebody dies without a solid Plan in place, it opens the floodgates to all kinds of problems. Preventing family conflict, avoiding unnecessary expenses, and minimizing stress—these are all excellent reasons to take Aging & End of Life Planning seriously.
But sometimes, focusing on the scary stuff feels, well, scary. When you’re spending all your time trying to anticipate things that could go wrong, it can be kind of a downer. And it can make Aging & End of Life Planning feel more daunting, more like a chore.
Here’s the thing: there are so many non-scary reasons to embrace Aging & End of Life Planning, and gratitude helps put you in touch with all of them. When you take a moment to really count your blessings, to think about all the people and things that make your life meaningful—that’s really the essence of Planning.
Aging & End of Life Planning is about protecting and nourishing the things you love. It’s about making sure your kids are set up to live the best possible life, even after you’re gone. It’s about preserving your Legacy and the things you achieved in life that you want other people to remember. It’s about channelling all that gratitude into something productive.
A quick gratitude exercise
If you’re looking for something to jumpstart your Aging & End of Life Planning process, gratitude journaling is a great place to start. Spend a few minutes right now jotting down some quick notes about the following prompts:
- What are you thankful for in your life?
- What parts of your life and Legacy do you hope will survive you after you’re gone?
- What do you want to pass on to the next generation?
Just a few quick moments spent marinating in gratitude can change your health—and your Plan—for the better. Give it a shot! You won’t be disappointed.
