I recently typed gratitude and health into an internet search engine and there were more than 200 million links to choose from. Over the past decade, this has been a popular topic to study. The New York Times even had a feature article about the relationship between gratitude and health just a couple of months ago.

The Mayo Clinic offers a few different series of virtual wellness programs. These include topics like kindness, gratitude and even slimming your screen time – all to improve your overall health and wellness. For the gratitude program, they encourage participants to write in a journal every day for 30 days. This is a common practice that has shown positive results in increasing our sense of well-being.

There are often suggestions to thank people in our lives either directly or through handwritten notes and letters. After a recent Sunday School lesson about praying through the Psalms, I also think it is important for believers to practice gratitude towards the Lord as we were created to do this.

A 2015 study, “The Role of Gratitude in Spiritual Well-Being in Asymptomatic Heart Failure Patients,” found that gratitude and spiritual wellbeing are related to better mood and sleep, less fatigue and more self-efficacy and that gratitude fully or partially mediates the beneficial effects of spiritual wellbeing on these endpoints.

Gratitude has also been shown to help people who are suffering with chronic pain. An article in Psychology Today highlighted a 2019 study that looked at gratitude’s effect on fear of movement, pain self-efficacy and pain anxiety in adults with arthritis. According to author Simran Datta, “A profound fear of movement can create a decreased sense of pain self-efficacy, creating more pain anxiety and the cycle repeats. Gratitude journaling shows promise to interrupt this chronic pain cycle.”

Gratitude can lessen anxiety, relieve stress, improve sleep, boost immunity and even support heart health. The Live Healthy Live Well team at OSU Extension created a “Gather Your Gratitude” six-week email wellness challenge for participants to learn more about a variety of wellness topics related to gratitude.

Participants will have access to optional resources available including the OSU Extension Live Healthy Live Well Blog, a free Wednesday wellness webinar series, and a tracking challenge bingo card. Pre-and post-challenge online surveys will be used to track participant progress and comments.

Session topics include:● Nov. 1- An Attitude of Gratitude● Nov. 8- Financial Benefits of Gratitude● Nov. 15- All the Little Things● Nov. 29- Teaching Gratitude to Children (and others)● Dec. 6- Gratitude through Movement

The email challenge connects participants with tips, research, and resources to share the ways gratitude can improve your health. Go to go.osu.edu/lhlwcoshocton and answer a few short questions to get registered. I will send participants one email per week, beginning this week through mid-December.

Regardless of whether you participate in the email challenge, you are invited to join in one or more webinars focused on different aspects of gratitude and wellness. These free sessions take place Wednesdays from noon to 12:30 p.m.​ beginning Nov. 1. Register for the links at go.osu.edu/lhlwwebinars. ​

Session topics include:Nov. 1 – An Attitude of Gratitude​Nov. 8 – Financial Benefits of Gratitude​Nov. 15 – All the Little Things​Nov. 29 – Teaching Gratitude to Children (and others)​Dec. 6 – Gratitude through Movement​

The email challenge and webinar series will allow you to explore a variety of ways you can celebrate gratitude in your own life and encourage it with others. And our hope is that it improves your health and wellness along the journey.

Today, I’ll leave you with these verses from Colossians 2:6-7: “So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.”

Emily Marrison is an OSU Extension Family & Consumer Sciences Educator and may be reached at 740-622-2265.