In today’s hectic world, it is so easy to get caught up in our busy lives. The closer it gets to the end of the year, the busier we seem to get, and the easier it is to put gratitude on the back burner. With the holidays approaching, we can take a moment and ponder on what we may want to be thankful for. Additionally, it is important you remind yourself to be grateful for the blessings around you, not just around the holidays, but all year long.
Gratitude is a state of thankfulness and appreciation for what is meaningful to you personally. It is the ability to acknowledge the amazing aspects of life that bring you joy and a feeling of abundance. Gratitude also connects you to something larger than yourself and can thus give you a perspective on what is important and what is unimportant. It is cliche to say “begin focusing on what you have, rather than what you don’t have”. The power of this state is actually quite impressive as we see with neuroscience research. All of us know those individuals around us who may not have the same material luxuries that we have and they seem to exude a feeling of contentment, joy, and satisfaction with life.
How gratitude alters the mind and body
Many research studies have found that people who count their blessings often tend to be much happier and less depressed. They present themselves as positive and their overall well-being is greater. The majority of studies conducted on gratitude have been conducted on individuals who are well-functioning. In a study conducted by (Brown & Wong, 2017), they followed participants who have current mental health concerns.
Nearly 300 participants who were seeking mental health counseling at their University were selected to participate just before they began their first counseling session. These individuals reported on average clinically low levels of mental health. The participants were randomly assigned to three different groups.
1) “write one letter of gratitude to another person each week for three weeks”
2) “write about their deepest thoughts and feelings about negative experiences”
3) No writing activity was assigned.
Those who were tasked with writing gratitude letters reported significantly better mental health after their writing exercise ended. It seems that those who wrote gratitude letters on top of receiving psychological counseling carried greater benefits than counseling alone. Here are the four conclusions that were drawn on how gratitude affects the mind and body:
Those who used more positive emotions were not necessarily found to have better mental health. It was only when individuals used less negative emotions in their writing that it led to feelings of positivity.
Shifting your brain from toxic emotions on a regular basis makes it harder for you to ruminate on the negative aspects of life. This in turn leads to being mindful of the positive moments in life.
Only 23% of participants in the study actually decided to give their gratitude letters to whom they wrote them to. Increased mental health benefits are independent of whether you communicate feelings of gratitude to the individuals or not. The simple act of writing the letter allows you to appreciate the people in your life that matter to you most. Clearly, we are developing new neural pathways by just doing the exercise.
The results seen in the study did not emerge overnight, but rather gradually. Gratitude is not a one-step process. It takes time to cultivate and learn how to be present and thankful for your blessings. The exercise of changing your mode of thinking is not an easy task for the brain and the mind. Conscious cultivation of this new state is needed to achieve the benefits.
Three months later individuals who wrote gratitude letters were compared to those who didn’t do any writing. They were given a “pay it forward” task. On a regular basis, the “benefactor” gave a small amount of money to each individual. They were tasked with passing on the money and if that made them feel grateful. The participants were given the choice of how much money, if any, was passed on to charity. The goal was to differentiate whether they donated out of guilt or gratitude. With help from an FMRI machine, the brain activity for gratitude was distinct from those who did it out of guilt. The findings were that those who were more grateful showed “greater neural sensitivity in the medial prefrontal cortex” (Brown & Wong, 2017). In conclusion feelings of gratitude are linked to neural activation in the medial prefrontal cortex. We make lasting changes in the brain! This is very exciting for how a society can be changed.
In conclusion, practicing gratitude can lead to a happier state of life. It allows you to count your blessings, and be aware of how lucky you may be in your life. Whether you are facing mental health challenges or not, we still encourage you to write a letter of gratitude to a meaningful person in your life. Keep in mind you do not have to give it to them to derive the benefit from it. Not only may this make your day, and if you choose to give this letter, it can make their day very special too. This is called the positive contagion effect. The end of the year is approaching fast and the season of giving, love, and gratitude is all around us. Make sure to take time for yourself and those around you. Even in the midst of suffering there can be slivers of things we can be grateful for. Please be patient with yourself as you try new ways of rewiring your brain for better mental, emotional, physical, brain, and spiritual health.
At Healthy Within, we do not diagnose or medicate our patients but instead, curate individualized protocols for our patients. Contact us for more information about how we can help you get your mind and brain back to functioning at its calm, confident self.
Brown, J. B. J., & Wong, J. W. J. (2017, June 6). How gratitude changes you and your brain. Greater Good. Retrieved from
https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/how_gratitude_changes_you_and_your_brain
https://glampinghub.com/blog/show-gratitude-on-thanksgiving/
https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-gratitude-5206817
