Dr. Richard Gerhauser recommends practicing gratitude. He cites scientific studies showing greater gratitude scores were associated with: lower hemoglobin A1c blood levels, a marker of blood sugar control in diabetics; improvements in heart rate variability scores reflecting balance of the autonomic nervous system; and higher heart rate variability correlates with lower risk of cardiovascular disease and overall better health. Healthcare workers and teachers who practice gratitude have less burnout; gratitude increases mental well-being, which can help boost the immune system and help fend off illnesses; practicing gratitude has been shown to help reduce symptoms of anxiety and depression, while also improving mood; gratitude practices can boost optimism, which has been connected to factors consistent with healthy aging: less chronic disease, healthy cognitive function, and good physical function. Are the mechanisms causing these benefits from practicing gratitude purely physiologic or are other factors entering in, assuming these are valid findings?

As you know already, physiology is a surface reflection of the energetics of the body and its many layers of energy creating a complex interchange of visible and invisible influences of all kinds. Some people are naturally adept at self-healing through realigning their emotional makeup in a healthy way, to neutralize insults and injuries by reframing them in a way to let go of the emotional impact and bring their energy back into alignment, to once again achieve a higher vibrational state of being that is more in divine alignment as well. Such individuals are often able to do this as a consequence of holding faith in the Almighty, so having ongoing spiritual practices that keep a person focused on living according to divine principles helps keep them in the pink, so to speak, by not allowing discord to become chronic for long as they will seek outside help—that might well be done by levels of the mind even functioning during the dream state when the conscious level is shut down. There is much that happens in the deep subconscious that is good as well as bad for personal well-being. It is unfortunate that even the religious these days are so casual and unassuming about the personal power they hold in partnering with the divine. That is a consequence of the constant bombardment of criticism and negativity launched at people of faith and their beliefs. Many are clinging to their religion by force of habit because their beliefs still tell them it is valid and important, and so they might retreat from public view to practice their faith more in private but not give it up. This is almost unfortunate because the opposite could be the case, that those living in divine alignment could be shouting from the rooftops the joyousness they experience, and the benefits they live day by day, in seeing their life unfold many times for the better rather than worse. The writings of this physician are a good case in point. He himself is recommending purely mechanical recounting of positives as an end in itself as well as use of meditation that is completely undefined as to how to go about it. He mentions almost as an afterthought that he himself believes in God and includes prayer on his list of ways to show appreciation. That is not false modesty, but the reality that religious people themselves cannot be the best champions because proof of the divine is often lacking. It is the nature of the way things work, that we act behind the scenes, and this puts the religious at a disadvantage.