Ed4Career Blog | Category: Behavioral Health

Did you know that expressing gratitude can improve the quality of your health and even add years to your life expectancy? Robert Emmons a psychology professor at the University of California at Davis is a leading researcher in the field of “positive psychology”. His research supports the theory that those who develop an “attitude of gratitude” can experience a wide variety of health benefits.  

Emmons’ findings, along with those from other researchers such as Lisa Aspinwall, a professor at the University of Utah, and Dr. Lyubomirsky, from the University of California at Riverside, suggest that grateful people may be more likely to:

Over the past 10 years, since the inception of Facebook, the standard measure of time has not changed. A day still encompasses 24 hours, 1,440 minutes and 86,400 seconds. What has changed, at least for the 58 million Americans who self-identify as having the "social habit," a phenomenon categorized by social media usage five or more times a day, is individual interaction with time. Because of our internet driven lives, our society is inundated with information.  Social sharing has become an integral part of our day-to-day lives; news that would have previously taken days to access is available in seconds. Countrywide uprisings have sprung because of this; numerous benefits accompany social sharing, in many different facets of our lives, but, like anything, moderation is key.

In 2008, the U.S. House of Representatives in honor of Bebe Moore Campbell, designated July as National Minority Mental Health Awareness Month. Bebe Moore Campbell was an accomplished author, advocate and national spokesperson, who passed in November 2006. Campbell advocated for mental health education and support among individuals of diverse communities.  This month, we bring awareness to the disparity in mental health treatment and access to care among minority groups in the U.S. with the hope that increased public awareness could bring about positive changes for these communities.

Background

May is Mental Health Awareness Month.  According to the National Institute of Mental Health, each year over 60 million Americans experience some form of mental illness. That’s one in four adults; millions more are touched by mental illness in the lives of family, friends and loved ones.  Mental health awareness month serves to highlight the important issues: to improve access to treatment, to fight the stigma around mental health, to provide support, to educate the public and to advocate for equal care.