If we experience loss or sadness, oftentimes it leads us to channel our thoughts inward and to be thankful for the things we have. This feeling of gratitude can be an incredibly powerful sentiment, so much so that researchers want to see if expressing feelings of thankfulness could have an impact on our physical and mental health. Interestingly, showing gratitude helped improve a number of different life aspects that had a positive impact on pain. We take a closer look at this gratitude-based treatment below.

Gratitude Journaling And Chronic Pain

For the study, a group of researchers had 151 patients with arthritis test their theory on gratitude expression as a way to manage physical pain. Patients completed four once-weekly programs that included animated guides, audio-guided mindfulness exercises and self-directed gratitude journaling. Researchers hypothesized that focusing on some of the positive aspects of life and finding ways to write about individual thankfulness could help to reduce the fear of movement, pain self-efficacy and pain anxiety. Patients also completed pain-related questionnaires prior to and at the conclusion of the study

After completing the gratitude journaling program, researchers found that participants showed significant improvements in all three aspects. Researchers also said that they believe these three problems can feed off of one another. For example, fear of movement can create a decreased sense of pain self-efficacy, which in turn leads to more anxiety about pain. However, the same factors can show interconnected improvement through gratitude journaling. Focusing on the good in life can help keep you active, which can increase your pain self-efficacy and reduce your pain anxiety.

Another study involving chronic pain patients asked them to journal about their day, and these journal entries were specifically screened for language that indicated gratitude. When these journal entries were compared to pain scores for the day, researchers found that when daily gratitude was lower than average, patients reported more feelings of pain and fatigue. Conversely, when journal entries conveyed more gratitude than average, patients reported lower pain levels and improved sleep scores.

So while it’s easier said than done to focus on the things in life that you should be thankful for when you’re in the midst of a chronic pain flareup, gratitude journaling has its roots in mindfulness training. There are things in this world that are out of our control, and if we spend too much time focusing on these uncontrollable aspects, worry, doubt and anxiety can creep in, which only tend to worsen our pain condition. Reframing how we think towards controllable aspects of our life, or in the case of gratitude journaling, the things that we have that we are thankful for, we can regain some semblance of control over our chronic pain condition.

So if you journal, or if you have a chronic pain condition and you want to see if gratitude journaling has a positive affect on your health, we encourage you to pursue this incredibly low-cost treatment option. While writing out some of the things you are thankful for should by no means be your only form of treatment, it certainly appears that it can provide some benefits for the right patient.

Focus on the controllable and the positive things in life, and chronic pain may not seem as burdensome. To connect with someone who can help you manage all the physical, mental and emotional aspects of your chronic pain condition, reach out to Dr. Cohn and his team today at (952) 738-4580.