How letting go will help you to experience gratitude and love . . .

Traditionally, Thanksgiving Day marks a celebration and expression of gratitude.  Gratitude and acknowledgement for all of the positive aspects in your life during which you acknowledge your basic needs being met (e.g., a roof over your head to sleep, clean water, food), the material goods in your life, friends, family and loved ones.

Many studies have found that when you cultivate gratitude, you are more likely to be happier, cope more adaptively and increase your relationships with the people who you love.^1,2,3 You are also less likely to get stressed or depressed and will engage in fewer negative coping behaviors, such as substance abuse.⁴

Acknowledging the positive aspects in your life may be challenging for you; particularly, when you focus or hold on to negative emotions like frustration, anger and resentment. Holding on to negative emotions towards situations and people in your life can exacerbate the painful conditions you are trying to avoid or change.

Fortunately, there are simple steps you can take to cultivate a grateful heart and reap its many psychological benefits. In order to have an attitude of appreciation, you must first release and let go of any negative emotions that you are holding on to in your life. Like any skill, you must also practice appreciation in order to cultivate an attitude of gratitude.

To help you release negative emotions, try the traditional Hawaiian practice of Hoʻoponopono. This traditional practice of forgiveness or reconciliation will help you to open your heart and mind to the many blessings in your life. It is defined in the Hawaiian Dictionary as a “mental cleansing: family conferences in which relationships were set right through prayer, discussion, confession, repentance, and mutual restitution and forgiveness.”

To practice, simply bring to your awareness to the difficult situation or person with whom you are holding on to a negative emotion. As you visualize the situation or person, repeat in your mind and affirm “I’m sorry,” “Please forgive me,” “Thank you” and “I love you.” Let go of the need to find blame, be gentle and refrain from judging yourself.  Continue the practice for 5 – 10 minutes. Do this every day for a few weeks and you will experience a shift in your heart and be more open and receptive to the good graces in your life.

As you let go of the negative emotions that are holding you back and cultivate gratitude, you will also want to keep a gratitude journal.  Start each morning reflecting on the people, situations or aspects of your life for which you are grateful. You can use The 5 Minute Gratitude Journal that has prompts for you to write down 2 aspects each morning. Gratitude journals have been found to help people experience more positive emotions and reduce painful feelings like depression in many psychological studies.⁵

In order to sustain and cherish the love in your life, it is simultaneously important to learn to notice, pay attention and forgive. We all commit errors, make mistakes and act in ways that only with the perspective of maturity and growth we later regret or feel contrite about in life.  As the English poet Alexandar Pope has eloquently stated “to err is human; to forgive, divine.”  

You cannot avoid the pain that invariable comes from acting in a manner that you or your loved one now would act in differently.  In seeking to minimize or avoid your pain, you also cut yourself off from experiencing human virtues like joy, love, appreciation and gratitude.  So in order to cultivate and nourish these “feel good” emotions, you must be willing to make room for them and hold them lightly.  So this week on Thanksgiving Day, learn to notice how you feel, allow and make room for all emotions and cultivate gratitude by releasing the painful emotions that hold you back and notice the abundance in your life.   

To your health,

Dr. Sandoval

To learn more about how working with a psychologist and holistic health coach can help you to enhance your health and well-being, call or email Dr. Sandoval to schedule a free consultation.  

1.      Algoe, Sara B.; Fredrickson, Barbara L.; Gable, Shelly L. “The social functions of the emotion of gratitude via expression.” Emotion, (2013) 13(4), 605-609.

2.    Emmons, R.A., McCullough, M.E. “Counting blessings versus burdens: An experimental investigation of gratitude and subjective well-being in daily life.”   Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. (2003) 84(2), 377-389.

3.    Gordon, A.M.; Impett, E.A.; Kogan, A.; Oveis, C.; Keltner, D. “To have and to hold: Gratitude promotes relationship maintenance in intimate bonds. “ Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (2012) 03(2) 257-274.

4.    Grant, A. M.; Gino, F. “A little thanks goes a long way: Explaining why gratitude expressions motivate prosocial behavior.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. (2010)  98(6), 946-955.

5.     Lyubomirsky, Sonja; Dickerhoof, Rene; Boehm, Julia K.; Sheldon, Kennon M. “Becoming happier takes both a will and a proper way: An experimental longitudinal intervention to boost well-being.” Emotion (2011)11(2), 391-402.

The information, published and/or made available through the www.drjosesandoval.com website, is not intended to replace the services of a physician, nor does it constitute a physician-patient relationship. This blog is for informational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional medical advice. You should not use the information in this post for diagnosing or treating a medical or health condition. You should consult a physician in all matters relating to your health, particularly in respect to any symptoms that may require diagnosis or medical attention.  Any action on the reader’s part in response to the information provided in this blog is at the reader’s discretion.

Falling forward to stay well this winter

If you are like many people, the shift in time and

“falling back" with our clocks the passing of day light savings time means a bonus hour of sleep and a progressive shift towards shorter and darker days as the sun sets earlier each night.  It also means that you likely experience changes in your mood (you may even experience the "winter blues," otherwise known as seasonal affective disorder), experience lethargy, a loss of motivation, and increased cravings for foods (particularly sweets).     

Your sleep and wake cycles are regulated by your circadian rhythm and the amount of day light you are exposed to each day.  Your circadian rhythm also affects your appetite and hunger, concentration, mood and desire for foods, particularly sweets that are rich in quickly digested carbohydrates.^1,2  Your desire for these foods that leads to more insulin being produced and gaining weight is an evolutionary mechanism to gain weight and "hibernate" for the winter. 

It is only because of the year round availability of these foods (e.g., tropical fruit, potatoes, rice) and the artificial changing of time (some states like Hawaii and most of Arizona and most countries in Africa and Asia do not participate in DST.   In South America most countries in the north of the continent near the equator do not observe DST, while Paraguay and southern parts of Brazil do.) that you may struggle with "cravings" and judge yourself harshly instead of embracing your body, changes in dietary cravings and feel "down."

So rather than reaching for that extra "cup of Joe," feeling guilty for wanting more foods that may lead to adding a few transient pounds for the winter or engaging in compensatory behaviors (e.g., over exercising and "punishing" your body or skipping meals), be gentle and kind with your body-mind and realign with the seasonal changes in day light, food and "fall forward" instead to stay well this winter.

Focus on spending as much as is feasible for you during the day outside and practice sensible sun light exposure while you avoid the unnecessary use of electronics like your smartphone, your computer or watching  T.V. after sunset as these devices emit blue spectrum light that interferes with your pineal gland's secretion of melatonin and keeps you awake at night.  Instead, spend time with your friends and family playing board games, read paper books and magazines, listen to music or develop a hobby like drawing.  In addition, make sure that you practice good sleep hygiene to help your sleep improve, reduce your cravings and make smarter choices that will satisfy your cravings for sweets while nourishing your body.  To help you, experiment with my suggestions below:

1. The most effective and simplest strategy to improve your quality of sleep is going to bed at the same time each evening and waking up at the same time every morning.
2. You also want to develop a night time ritual to help you transition into sleep. Try reading or meditating (e.g., Mindfulness Meditation or Loving Kindness Meditation) an hour before you go to bed. 
3. To help you sleep more easily, it is also important to avoid certain stimuli and avoid drinking or eating within 3 hours of your bed time.   Eating before you sleep can interfere with restful sleep as your body is still digesting food. 
4. As a rule of thumb, you also want to dim the lights in your room or house 2 hours before bed time to help your body produce more melatonin.  
5. Wear a sleep mask or install black out curtains in your bedroom to keep artificial lights from interfering with your sleep.  
6. If you must work and use a computer or your smartphone, use software like f.lux to reduce the interference of your computer and IPhone or EasyEyez for Android. Or wear orange or red tinted sunglasses like BluBlockers to protect you from blue spectrum lights. 
7. Set your smartphone on “airplane mode” and unplug your Wi-Fi router at home as you will not be using the internet during your sleep and the EMFs produced by your phone and Wi-Fi router may interfere with your sleep. 
8. Set the ambient temperature in your bedroom down to at least 68 degrees Fahrenheit or lower. Your core body temperature drops during sleep and setting your climate control higher can contribute to restless sleep.
9. Choose slower digesting foods that will satisfy your "sweet tooth" that are seasonal like cranberries, kiwi fruit, figs, pomegranates, and squashes and pumpkin. 

To your health,
Dr. Sandoval

To learn more about how working with a psychologist and holistic health coach can help you to enhance your health and well-being, call or email Dr. Sandoval to schedule a free consultation.

1. Ilardi, S. (2010). The Depression Cure: The 6-Step Program to Beat Depression without Drugs.
2. Wiley, TS & Formby, B. (2001). Lights Out: Sleep, Sugar, and Survival.

The information, published and/or made available through the www.fullofradiance.com website, is not intended to replace the services of a physician, nor does it constitute a physician-patient relationship. This blog is for informational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional medical advice. You should not use the information in this post for diagnosing or treating a medical or health condition. You should consult a physician in all matters relating to your health, particularly in respect to any symptoms that may require diagnosis or medical attention.  Any action on the reader’s part in response to the information provided in this blog is at the reader’s discretion.