Hale Dwoskin, Featured Expert in the #1 Mega-Bestseller 'The Secret' Announces How Expressing Your Gratitude (Greatly) Improves Your Well-being as Well as Theirs

Sedona, AZ (PRWEB) November 21, 2007

Hale Dwoskin, founder of The Sedona Method and a featured teacher in the #1 blockbuster bestselling book and movie, "The Secret," explains how expressing gratitude greatly improves one's well-being.

"Religions and philosophies have long embraced gratitude as an indispensable manifestation of virtue, and an integral component of health, wholeness, and well-being," according to University of California Davis psychology professor Robert Emmons. Yet, these days, the simple act of giving thanks gets largely overlooked, with the exception of the one day a year devoted to the occasion. Inherently one may feel that expressing gratitude is a positive thing, but scientific studies are beginning to bear out just how incredibly positive giving thanks can be.

As it turns out, gratitude has been described as the "forgotten factor" in happiness research, according to Emmons, and learning how to harness this factor in one's daily life is a simple way to get a lot more out of life.

Being Grateful is Good for One's Mind and Body

Emmons and colleagues, in their gratitude research, have uncovered some startling (in a good way) findings about the power of giving thanks. Consider these amazing benefits:

• Greater Optimism and Physical Fitness: People who kept weekly gratitude journals exercised on a more regular basis, felt better physically and about their lives in general, and had a more optimistic attitude about the upcoming week than people who recorded negative or neutral things in a journal.
• Achieve Your Goals: Those who kept gratitude lists were closer to attaining their personal goals after a two-month period than those who did not.
• Stress Relief: Being grateful is also an effective way to release stress, according to Emmons. "Gratitude research is beginning to suggest that feelings of thankfulness have tremendous positive value in helping people cope with daily problems, especially stress," he said in a WebMD article.
• Greater Sense of Wellbeing and Positive Emotions: People who are grateful report higher levels of positive emotions, vitality and life satisfaction, and lower levels of depression and stress.
• Helps You Cope With Illness: Among people with a neuromuscular disease, Emmons found that a "21-day gratitude intervention" produced more "high-energy positive moods, a greater sense of feeling connected to others, more optimistic ratings of one's life, and better sleep duration and sleep quality, relative to a control group."

Of course, being grateful is also beneficial for others. Giving thanks helps other people feel recognized, which is a basic and fundamental need in all of us.

How to Give Thanks and be Grateful in Your Daily Life

When life is hard, expressing gratitude can be a challenge, but even when things are going well it's easy to take them for granted and forget to give thanks. Being grateful is something that most of us need to make a conscious effort to do, but once you get into the swing of it you'll find that gratitude melds easily with your daily life.

"If you are having trouble finding reasons to feel thankful, or if you're finding it difficult to fully appreciate the good in life," says Hale Dwsokin, CEO and director of training of Sedona Training Associates, "consider learning The Sedona Method."

"The Sedona Method will show a person how to let go of the negative emotions that are blocking one's gratitude," Dwoskin Continues, "Once you learn to let go, something you'll be able to do on-the-spot (even in difficult situations), you'll find that your outlook has brightened and you'll be able to accept, appreciate and express gratitude for all the positive things in your life."

In addition to practicing the Sedona Method, other practical ways one can express gratitude include:

1. Keep a gratitude journal that lists everything to be thankful for.

2. Write a thank-you note to a parent, a teacher, a mentor or anyone else in life who deserves a pat on the back.

3. Begin and end each day by thinking of five things to be grateful for.

4. Tell a significant other how much they are appreciated on a regular basis.

5. When things go in a good direction, smile and be thankful for them.

Right now everyone can get the free Insiders Guide to The Sedona Method email course sampler by inputting their name and email in the sidebar on the right at http://www.sedona.com/gratitude.aspx.

For more insights on the issue of gratitude and related topics, Hale Dwoskin, New York Times Best-Selling author of The Sedona Method, featured expert in the film and New York Times bestseller "The Secret," and CEO and Director of Training of Sedona Training Associates, is available for interviews. Sedona Training Associates is an organization that teaches courses based on the emotional releasing techniques originated by Hale Dwoskin's mentor, Lester Levenson. Dwoskin is an international speaker and featured faculty member at Esalen and the Omega Institute. For over a quarter century, he has regularly been teaching The Sedona Method techniques to individuals and corporations throughout the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom. Visit http://www.sedona.com.

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