Erin O'Hara: naturopath and wellness expert on the health benefits of gratitude

This Sunday is World Gratitude Day - and it's prompted discussion about the surprising health benefits that come with being thankful.

Practicing gratitude offers significant physical and psychological health benefits, including lower blood pressure, improved immune function, better sleep, reduced stress, decreased anxiety and depression, and enhanced self-esteem.

Naturopath and wellness expert Erin O'Hara reveals the best ways to practice gratitude in your daily life.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Sunday Session podcast with Francesca Rudgin
from News talks'b.

Speaker 2 (00:13):
Join me now to talk wellness. Erin O'Hara, good morning,
Good morning.

Speaker 3 (00:17):
Is a world gratitude day to day? It is well
gratitude day. Time to be grateful. I'm very grazed around you.
You've turned up today. Thank you so much. I appreciate it.

Speaker 2 (00:27):
But seriously, I mean, we talk about gratitude a lot.
It's kind of become a sort of has it become
a little bit trendy a little bit? I don't think
that's more and.

Speaker 3 (00:38):
More research out there around gratitude. And I think sometimes
when we think about health, we can get so focused
on physical health, so what we're eating, how we're exercising,
how we're sleeping, and I think sometimes it actually gets missed,
is thinking even doing things like what are you grateful
for today? And having that positive mindset is actually huge

(00:58):
when it comes to your health. And when they did
some studies, they did the nurse's study group, and they
looked at gratitude for that group of study people and
they have a nine percent lower risk of dying when
they are more grateful. So there are a lot of
benefits from even just having the right positive mindset towards
life and being grateful for all the amazing things that

(01:19):
are around you. And it shows that improving physical health
that has the benefits of strengthening immune system, lowering blood pressure,
benefiting your heart and cardiovascular function. Also helpful for a
better night's sleep is being grateful a positive self esteem
and self worth, helping menage stress, anxiety, depression. Like, the

(01:40):
benefits are huge and it's something we can so easily
do and bring into our everyday life. Is actually being
more grateful and being more thankful and having a positive outlook.

Speaker 2 (01:52):
It's probably a very silly question, but how do we
practice gratitude in day to day life.

Speaker 3 (01:56):
Well, there's lots of different ways to cultivating gratitude, and
obviously the one that's probably the most put out there
in the community is journaling, which is not forever. I personally,
I'm not a journalist, don't like journaling, but you know what,
there's other things you can do. So it's about being
pacific of what are you grateful for rather than just
like hey, thanks for that. In staid, be like, thank

(02:17):
you so much for doing this for me, For these
reasons and actually putting more effort into being grateful and
even how you present that to the person you're thinking.

Speaker 2 (02:27):
Yeah, it's just a little aside. I've noticed recently, I've
had amazing customer service from people, whether it was the
lovely Electricians that fixed my heat pump or I was
in a shot buying something and people were hugely grateful
I was spending their money with them. But do you
know what, I really noticed it, and it rubs off
on you. You then go thank you for that, thank

(02:48):
you for that, and then you find yourself showing a
bit of gratitude just someone you know, like.

Speaker 3 (02:53):
And it's amazing how it can flow in that way.
Is actually being grateful for each other. And this is
a day really about reflection and this has been around
since the sixties as World Gratitude. Jay may have never
heard of it, but actually taking this day to be like, Okay,
what am I grateful for today? Grateful for yourself, maybe

(03:14):
sending out some grateful thoughts to other people, maybe voicing
it to someone. Also shifting your perspective and having that
positive mindset towards even when you're in a difficult time,
is okay, what can I be grateful for in this
sort of situation. The other sort of one that I
really love and that we probably don't do as much
as we used to is thank you cards. It's like,

(03:34):
how many people put out thank you cards after maybe
someone's done something nice to you and you send them
a lovely thank you card. They You've put some hard
and soul into it, of like, thank you so much
for doing that for me. But these things actually give
us feel good vibes and actually that is what actually
helps both our physical and mental health as well.

Speaker 2 (03:52):
Thank you so much erin appreciate it, very grateful you Here.

Speaker 1 (03:56):
Today for more from the Sunday Session with Francesca Rudken.
Listen live to News Talks it'd be from nine am Sunday,
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