Worth Sharing This Week: The Science of It All

It's all well and good to be grateful in November for Thanksgiving, but it really ought to be a year round thing.   The Frugal Girl shared this article on her blog last week and I thought it worth sharing, too.   I love when we know something but then researchers and scientists study it and then we know why we know it.  I'm planning to mark the end of each day with what I'm grateful for this month.  I do believe it's key to good health, mental and physical health.

I know I'm providing links to the articles in each post but I've found from long ago posts that sometimes those links become dead ones.  And then the whole post is rather moot isn't it?  So I'm going to give a quick synopsis of what each article has to say.  

The Forbes article written by contributor Amy Morin states 7 scientific proven benefits of gratitude are:

1. Gratitude opens the door to more relationships. according to a 2014 study published in Emotion. The study found that thanking a new acquaintance makes them more likely to seek an ongoing relationship.

2. Improved physical health:  Grateful people experience fewer aches and pains and they report feeling healthier than other people, according to a 2012 study published in Personality and Individual Differences. Not surprisingly, grateful people are also more likely to take care of their health. 

3.  Improved psychological health:  Gratitude reduces a multitude of toxic emotions, ranging from envy and resentment to frustration and regret. Robert A. Emmons, Ph.D.  research confirms that gratitude effectively increases happiness and reduces depression.

4.Enhances empathy and reduces aggression:  according to a 2012 study by the University of Kentucky. Study participants who ranked higher on gratitude scales were less likely to retaliate against others, even when given negative feedback. 

5.  Better Sleep:  Writing in a gratitude journal improves sleep, according to a 2011 study published in Applied Psychology: Health and Well-Being. 

6.  Improved Self Esteem:  A 2014 study published in the Journal of Applied Sport Psychology found that gratitude increased athlete’s self-esteem, which is an essential component to optimal performance. 

7.  Increased Mental Strength:  A 2006 study published in Behavior Research and Therapy found that Vietnam War Veterans with higher levels of gratitude experienced lower rates of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.  A 2003 study published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology found that gratitude was a major contributor to resilience following the terrorist attacks on September 11. 

I did laundry on Sunday which was a gloriously sunny day and hot as well.  They were dried so quickly but gracious goodness the aroma is so awesome.  No matter how many 'fresh linen' sprays/candles/melts, etc. I sniff in the stores it never smells as good as the real thing.  And then this week I came across this article in Southern Living citing the work of a Copenhagen master degree student who did the research.  

Silvia Pugliese led research while she was a master’s student at the University of Copenhagen.  A group of environmental chemists endeavored to find out. They examined line-dried towels at the molecular level and shared their findings in a paper published this year in Environmental Chemistry.  They discovered that line-drying produced a number of aldehydes and ketones, carbon compounds found in plants and perfumes. These weren’t present in the towels dried inside.  "Many of these compounds have smells that are subjectively found to be pleasant,” researchers wrote.

When exposed to ultraviolet light, certain molecules “get excited” and form highly reactive compounds called radicals, Pugliese told the Times. Those radicals then join with other nearby molecules, which can lead to the creation of aldehydes and ketones like pentanal, which is found in cardamom, and octanal, which produces citrusy aromas.

In another post this week, I mention that our water is naturally soft which is not all that common it seems.  I was trying to find soft water options for homemade laundry detergents since my own experience with homemade detergent was that it built up in our clothes and turned them a very dingy color.  However, months of going with out and continuing to wash our clothes with a purchased detergent returned them to 'normal'.

It was my suspicion that I needed to use LESS detergent and possibly cut out the washing soda or borax entirely since that would seemingly increase the softness of the water still more.  I haven't really found a definitive answer just yet but it appears that my thoughts on the washing soda might be correct according to this article at Hunker.

It seems that the surrounding walls of the source of water is what makes it 'soft' or 'hard'. According to Wikipedia:  Soft water mostly comes from peat or igneous rock sources, such as granite but may also come from sandstone sources, since those sedimentary rocks are usually low in calcium and magnesium.

Oddly, it seems that hard water is better for your health as it contains natural calcium and magnesium.  If you happen to have naturally soft water you would  need to add these back into your diet with generous servings of calcium and magnesium rich foods and supplements.