Your Brain on Gratitude

Do you practice gratitude regularly? A daily habit of simply writing down all the things that are going well in your life can have a significant impact on brain health...in more ways than you might think.

According to one study, practicing gratitude with psychotherapy can improve mental health, increase happiness and reduce stress levels more than with psychotherapy alone. This could be explained by the fact that gratitude affects the brain by increasing levels of dopamine and serotonin, two neurotransmitters that play a key role in mood regulation. When we experience gratitude, our brain releases these chemicals, leading to feelings of happiness and well-being.

Practicing gratitude consistently can lead to changes in the prefrontal cortex, the part of the brain responsible for decision-making, problem-solving and emotional regulation. This area of the brain becomes more active in people who regularly practice gratitude, which may lead to improvements in emotional intelligence because the practice shifts your attention away from lower frequency emotions that can affect your mental health.

Making this practice part of your daily life even for a short time can have long term effects. MRI results taken 3 months after the conclusion of another gratitude study showed that participants who were no longer part of the study still had greater activation in the medial prefrontal cortex than the control participants.

Probably the most significant benefit of a gratitude practice on the brain can be achieved during meditation. The action of brain/heart 'coupling', or coherence, may result in the growth of new neurons in the brain - something commonly thought to be impossible. This coherence can be achieved in theta level meditation by feeling gratitude for all things going well in your life, including the goals you set for yourself. Visualize these goals as if they have already been achieved while being grateful for all the related positive outcomes to initiate the coupling effect.

While there's still more research to do, the evidence suggests that by implementing a new habit of gratitude each day for just a few minutes, you may be not only forming new neural connections, but also growing a better brain!

Aren't you glad you found this article? ;)

Sources:

1. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10503307.2016.1169332?scroll=top&needAccess=true&journalCode=tpsr20

2. https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/how_gratitude_changes_you_and_your_brain

3. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5506019/

4. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/318432721_Effects_of_gratitude_meditation_on_neural_network_functional_connectivity_and_brain-heart_coupling

5. https://eocinstitute.org/meditation/the-neurogenesis-guide-how-meditation-changes-the-adult-brain/#:~:text=By%20boosting%20the%20neural%20thickness,the%20dark%20valley%20of%20depression