I was reading Real Simple this month and came across a great article about gratitude. There is a lot more to being thankful than just saying thank you. I know we tend to focus more on the ideas of giving and feeling grateful as we inch closer to Thanksgiving, but I found this article to be really insightful and helpful for embracing the effects of practicing gratitude daily. Here are six reasons:

1 \\ You’ll feel happier . Just jotting down something you’re grateful for each day will encourage you to start looking at life from a different angle. You’ll notice when you feel grateful, when you feel happy, and you’ll document it. Practice writing it down physically to help you remember it mentally.

2 \\ You’ll boost your energy. You will learn to appreciate each day in life as something special, rather than just some drudgery and routine. In fact, even the most routine things will become something you work hard at as  you feel a heightened sense of vitality. This reminds me of a series in a yoga sequence that we call vitality, in which you really start to feel your body working and moving, you’re listening to your breath and your energy levels are at their highest. It’s the perfect time to center your mind on gratitude.

3 \\ You get healthier. Just like how “laughter is the best medicine”, so is recognizing something wonderful in your life and allowing those feelings of thankfulness to wash over you. This reduces your blood pressure, lowers your stress levels and naturally improves your kidney function. Just a change in attitude can do all this? Amazing.

4 \\ You’ll be more resilient. Once we start noticing kindness, blessings and gifts from others whether that’s tangible or spiritual, our brains wire themselves to start finding the positive in all situations. This makes us better at bouncing back from trauma of loss or illness. We start to see the blessings, not just the curses.

5 \\ You’ll improve your relationship. This makes sense, naturally couples and friends that are grateful for each other and feel appreciated by the other person are happier overall. We can learn to appreciate the things in our relationships that are going well, which allows us to work on the things that aren’t without feeling a sense of discouragement. Everybody wants to be loved. And being grateful for those in your life who do make you feel that way will only send you down a path to share those same feelings towards others too.

6 \\ You’ll be a nicer person. You can’t help but to pay gratitude forward. When you express appreciation, it triggers that feel-good hormone dopamine. That’s why we all feel generous and empathetic during the Thanksgiving and Christmas season. But don’t let it stop there! Start including the words “thank you” to anyone who offers you anything to make you feel appreciated or cared for. Those words alone will trigger the same feelings the other person and there ya go, paying it forward.