Gratitude is a lot more than just a warm fuzzy feeling and a change in outlook.
A prolonged practice of gratitude has significant and tangible health benefits. This blog explores the science behind this and give some tips on how to incorporate gratitude into your daily thinking.
The Brain
When you express gratitude, it releases a little hit of dopamine, which is the neurotransmitter responsible for pleasure and can increase levels of serotonin in the body, which we all know leads to improved mood.
But it doesn't stop there. Gratitude also activates the brain's hypothalamus, which regulates things like stress and sleep. Therefore, when you're thankful, your brain dials down the stress response.
Emotional changes
Gratitude is all about shifting your perspective; it helps you reframe your experiences and focus on the positives, no matter how small they might be. It's like seeing life through a different, more optimistic lens.
So, when you start noticing the good things around you, even in the midst of challenges, your emotional well-being gets a serious boost. You become more resilient, and those old limiting beliefs start to loosen their grip.
And the effects are cumulative.
Physical Wellbeing
Because gratitude has an impact on emotional wellbeing, it also has an impact on physical wellbeing. Below are just a few of the benefits:
1. Reducing inflammation: Gratitude can act as a natural anti-inflammatory by helping the body produce fewer pro-inflammatory chemicals (such as prostaglandins and chemokines), which helps keep inflammation in check. It can also reduce the production of the stress hormone cortisol, which, when chronically high, causes inflammation. It's like an internal cool-down switch, protecting you from the long-term damage that chronic inflammation can cause.
2. Improved sleep: Gratitude has been shown to improve the quality and duration of your sleep as it reduces the tendency to lay awake worrying. This leads to more restful and restorative sleep, allowing your body to heal and rejuvenate.
3. Immune system: Gratitude can support your immune system. Research suggests that grateful individuals have higher levels of immunoglobulins, which are antibodies that help your immune system fight off infections. So, when you practice gratitude, you're arming your body with better protection.
4. Pain management: Gratitude can also influence how your body perceives pain by releasing endorphins, which are the body's natural pain relievers. This can help reduce your perception of pain, making it an excellent addition to pain management strategies.
5. Heart health: Studies have shown that gratitude can reduce blood pressure and promote better heart rhythm. When you experience less stress, thanks to your gratitude practice, your heart benefits and may be protected.
6. Longevity: It's not a stretch to say that practicing gratitude might even add years to your life. When your body is in a state of lower stress, reduced inflammation, and better overall health, you're setting the stage for a longer and more fulfilling life.
Practices
There are several ways you can work to implement more gratitude in your day-to-day life. The more you practice it, the more the neurons associated with gratitude fire and wire, making it easier for you to build the habit and the more the benefits accumulate.
Below are just a few of ideas on practical ways to implement gratitude. Where you can, write things down; not only does this create a record that you can look back at, the very act of writing also engages the prefrontal cortex which, in the moment, overrides the emotional portion of the brain, making it easier to be grateful.
1. Start each day by writing down at least one this you are grateful for. This gets all the good neurotransmitters firing early in the day and creates a positive perspective right from the get-go.
2. Try finding pockets of thing to be grateful for in each difficult scenario that comes up.
3. Take a gratitude walk: go outside and reflect, mindfully, on things you are grateful for. Being outside and moving compounds the feel-good chemicals associated with being grateful and provides you things to be thankful for: nature, being able to move…
4. Carry out acts of kindness. This makes it easier to cultivate a sense of gratitude as it leads to feel-good experiences. It also helps you to see a more positive side of humanity which is, in itself, something to be grateful for.
Just a word of warning: be careful not to invalidate yourself when practicing gratitude. Where you do, you don’t deal with the emotion, which leaves you vulnerable to becoming self-effacing and unable to deal with tougher emotions. You can mitigate this by doing both and by noting the way you feel in a situation: validating the emotion, and then noting what you are grateful for. This means you can deal with that emotion, but also affirm that there is a nugget of something to be grateful for.
So there you have it.
Gratitude is like a superpower you can cultivate, and it's backed by science. It's an amazing tool to rewrite your health story, starting from your mind and radiating out to your physical well-being. So, embrace the power of gratitude and watch your life transform for the better.
Remember, it's not about flipping a switch and magically feeling grateful all the time. It's about practicing, learning, and slowly rewiring your brain to see the beauty in the world, even when it's tough.