What is gratitude?
As a concept “gratitude” can bring up many memories for people. We all have certain thoughts and feelings about gratitude. Some of us may have heard it being used in ways in which it could bring up positive or ambivalent feelings. Ultimately, it is the positive feeling of being grateful and appreciative for your life and loved ones. Research has shown that being consciously aware of your blessings in life leads to increased physical and brain health benefits. Gratitude is also a social emotion that signals our recognition of the things others have done for us (Emmons and McNamara, 2006). Gratitude is an emotion that increases levels of serotonin and dopamine in our brain.
How practicing gratitude decreases stress
Positive psychology focuses on how gratitude is the human way to acknowledge life. There are many psychological, physical, and social benefits to being present and acknowledging the good that is present in your life. Some psychological benefits this process brings are positive feelings, a better mood, and an overall calm alertness. In its normal resting stage, the brain of humans is programmed to look for danger. Anticipating danger is how human beings have been able to come to the top of the food chain. Humans are built with a negativity bias which is why when we teach our brain to focus on gratitude and blessings, it is a rewiring of the brain that is occurring and has significant health benefits. Physically, you may begin to feel improvements in your sleep, immune system, and overall health. Socially, you will begin to feel more empathetic towards others, form stronger communication habits, and increase involvement in interpersonal relationships. Emotionally, you will feel more connected in your community and with your loved ones.
Neuroscience of gratitude
Those who practice gratitude often demonstrate enhanced brain health. Studies have shown feelings of gratitude are primarily evoked in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (MPFC), and the anterior cingulate cortex. These are deep regions in the brain’s frontal lobes that play a role in our emotional responses, empathy, decision-making, and self-control. As you can see these are critical functions for healthy brain functioning for us to live harmoniously in society.
Fox et al., 2015 studied the neural pathways of gratitude and found them to be correlated with brain activity in the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) and medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC). The ACC is connected to the emotional limbic system and the cognitive prefrontal cortex (Francis et al. 2011). The MPFC is in charge of regulating cognition, emotions, and behavior (Xu et al., 2019). Their study looked at the impact of a gift that a person receives. In their study, the participants were immersed in surviving the Holocaust and what their reactions were when they were given the gift of receiving shelter, clothing, and freedom. A functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) machine was used to collect gratitude ratings through their brain activity.
The rating of gratitude was found to be correlated with the activity in the ACC and MPFC regions, which are linked to reward and cognitive processes such as morality. Both of these regions when activated provide the reward of relief by removing stressors (Fox et al., 2015). Philosophy and religion speak to gratitude as a way to balance morality, increase empathy and reduce stress.
Practicing gratitude can lead to improvements in brain health as it allows us to be more in tune with our empathic connections. The MPFC region of the brain plays a role in perspective taking hence when we practice gratitude we may be better able to relate to others’ experiences of distress and hence have empathic, compassionate responses which lead to a greater sense of connection with our community hence a feeling of well-being.
Ways in which you can practice gratitude
- Cultivate a daily gratitude practice: You can keep a gratitude journal and write in it each time you feel grateful. This will allow you to look back and read these memories of when you felt these positive feelings! We usually ask our clients here at Healthy Within to write 3 things they are grateful for every night before they go to bed. Even if it is the same 3 items for many nights it’s OK since you are creating new neural pathways in the brain.
- Say I love you always and often: Reminding yourself to say I love you to those who matter instills positive feelings in yourself and allows others to know you are grateful for them. Appreciating your loved ones on a regular basis increases oxytocin levels in our brains. The hormone Oxytocin is our “love hormone” and this hormone reduces anxiety, increases a feeling of belonging, and makes us feel gratitude and bonding.
- Write gratitude notes: Write meaningful messages on sticky notes and place them all around your house. The notes can say words such as, “ Be thankful for the little things”, “Don’t forget to say thank you”, “I am blessed”, and “There is a lot to be grateful for”. In your workplace, you could write gratitude notes for colleagues and co-workers, which can profoundly affect creating warmth and harmony in your workplace.
- Practice Self-Compassion: The seeds of gratitude will bear beautiful fruit if you lay the groundwork of self-compassion. When you are gentle with yourself and kind to yourself you are more likely to be able to access feelings of gratitude. Take a gratitude quiz and see where you stand: https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/quizzes/take_quiz/gratitude
Please keep in mind that the benefits of gratitude take time to be experienced and the good news is that they are long-lasting. Please be patient with yourself as you try new ways of rewiring your brain for better mental 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.
References
https://positivepsychology.com/neuroscience-of-gratitude/
https://www.lifehack.org/articles/communication/40-simple-ways-practice-gratitude.html
https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-gratitude-5206817
Fox, G. R., Kaplan, J., Damasio, H., & Damasio, A. (2015). Neural correlates of gratitude. Frontiers in psychology, 6, 1491. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.01491
Stevens, F. L., Hurley, R. A., & Taber, K. H. (2011). Anterior cingulate cortex: Unique role in cognition and Emotion. The Journal of Neuropsychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences, 23(2), 121–125. https://doi.org/10.1176/jnp.23.2.jnp121
Xu P, Chen A, Li Y, Xing X, Lu H. Medial prefrontal cortex in neurological diseases. Physiol Genomics. 2019 Sep 1;51(9):432-442. doi: 10.1152/physiolgenomics.00006.2019. Epub 2019 Aug 2. PMID: 31373533; PMCID: PMC6766703.
