In our Yoga classes before Christmas we focused on Gratitude. I could speak about the power of Gratitude for hours so will try to keep it short!!!! 🙂 Gratitude is a big part of my own personal Yoga Practice as I find on the mat is a perfect place to be grateful and to take some moments to pause and to truly be appreciative of all the amazing things in our lives rather than focus on the things we don’t have.
I am sure we can all agree that being grateful can only lead to positive changes in our lives but its nice to know that there is some scientific research to back up what we already know intuitively. Research has shown that Gratitude can:
- Save and protect your marriage!!!! Being appreciative of your partner rather than focusing on the things he/she may not do 🙂 and taking a moment to thank your partner for something they has done.
- Improve your heart health, improving your heart rate variability, reduces cardiac arrest
- Improve your mood, improve your sleep, reduces fatigue
- Boosts happiness and reduces depression
- Experience fewer aches and pains and they report feeling healthier than other people, according to a 2012 study published in Personality and Individual Differences
- Help us be more optimistic and more likely to help others
In our Gratitude classes before Christmas we opened our heart physically and energetically through our Yoga Asanas. We took pauses for a few moments throughout the class, placed our hands on our heart and thought of one of our many blessings.
The below video Hridaya Namaskar is a great heart opener, Chandra Namaskar is also a lovely one to practice.
Enjoy!
Namaste
