Are you a glass half full or half empty kind of person? Always seeing the bright side is simply about perspective. An optimistic view of everything, and one filled with gratitude, can have an overall positive impact on our health.

4 Ways Gratitude Has a Positive Impact on You

Gratitude improves your mood.

Let’s start with the most obvious because your mood determines how you see everything around you. In a bad mood – nothing will feel like it’s going right. In a good mood – you won’t sweat the small stuff.

Gratitude is often associated with joy. Not the type of joy that is as a result of things going right all of the time, but a joy that is derived from appreciating things large and small.

It’s an internal glow and let’s face it, it’s hard to talk negative or let stress pummel you when you are feeling joyful and upbeat.

Gratitude improves sleep.

When you are stressed over something (or a multitude of things), your mind tends to be consumed with thinking about it. Whether you are vying for solutions to a problem, just re-living unpleasant words or allowing your mind to tell you a narrative about a situation (which may have taken on new life in your thoughts), it’s hard to peacefully fall asleep when your mind just keeps running.

Gratitude helps us slow down those chaotic conversations in our heads throughout the day, making it easier to fall asleep at night. Having a mind in a more peaceful state also makes it easier to go into a deeper sleep without waking up so often throughout the night.

Gratitude improves your body physically.

Now that you know that gratitude improves both mood and sleep, it’s easy to understand how that affects us physically. A positive mood reduces feelings of stress, which means lower levels of Cortisol. Cortisol, in high amounts, leads to weight gain.

Improved sleep means the body has a chance to rest and repair. And complete rest means less aches and pains. This also means, when you physically feel good, there is a better likelihood that you will eat better and exercise as a result.

Gratitude improves your self-esteem.

How we view ourselves partially comes from a combination of points 1, 2, and 3. An upbeat mood, restful sleep and a healthy body all work together synergistically for favorable self-esteem.

Again, positivity lends a brighter perspective, and the viewpoint of how we feel about ourselves is more likely to be a positive one when we speak words of gratitude each day.

How can you start expressing gratitude each day?