Exploring the Benefits of Gratitude
By Alicia Byelich, MS
We have entered the season of Thanksgiving; a time where people, historically, stop for a moment, enjoy each other’s company, good food, and think about all the various things for which they are thankful. Have you ever attended a Thanksgiving dinner where each person around the table shares something they are thankful for? If it was your turn, what would you say? Maybe you would reflect on your children, your spouse, your job, your health, the amazing vacation you took this past year, or something simple like the changing colors of the leaves….the list is endless and it may be hard to choose just one.
According to the Merriam – Webster dictionary gratitude is “the state of being grateful: THANKFULNESS” (Merriam-Webster.com, n.d.). Scientific studies have found that the state of being grateful has an association with mental and physical benefits. These benefits will be explored in this article. If you struggle with gratefulness, stay tuned to the end where some gratefulness tips will be given to help you learn how to be more intentional about gratitude.
In a Meta – Analysis of 33 articles that measured the effects of gratitude interventions found that those who intentionally practiced gratitude had:
Increased Overall Feelings of Gratitude
Greater Contentment with Life
Better Mental Health
Decreased Anxiety and Depression Symptoms
Increased Positive Mood
Increase in Positive Emotion
Decrease in Worry
Decrease in Psychological Pain
Greater Social Behaviors
A Greater Appreciation for Life
More Hopefulness
Less Mental Pain (Diniz, G., Korkes, L., Tristão, L. S., Pelegrini, R., Bellodi, P. L., & Bernardo, W. M., 2023).
Reading the benefits listed above motivates me to practice more gratitude in my own life; but the list doesn’t stop there. Look below at what physical benefits gratitude is associated with:
Improved Heart Health: According to research keeping a gratitude journal was found to help with a decrease in diastolic blood pressure; having grateful thoughts regulated breathing to keep in synch with the heart beating (uclahealth, 2023)
Calming of the nervous system as a whole (uclahealth, 2023); this improves the ability to relax
Improved sleep (uclaheath, 2023; Hartanto, A., Majeed, N.M., Lua, V.Y.Q. et al, 2022)
Lower levels of obesity (Hartanto, A., Majeed, N.M., Lua, V.Y.Q. et al, 2022)
Fewer headaches (Hartanto, A., Majeed, N.M., Lua, V.Y.Q. et al, 2022)
Fewer gastrointestinal problems (Hartanto, A., Majeed, N.M., Lua, V.Y.Q. et al, 2022)
Wouldn’t it be nice to have some of these improvements in your life? According to research conducted by UCLA Health, practicing gratitude for at least 15 minutes a day, 5 days a week for at least six weeks can impact better health and continuing change (2023). How does this happen? Through neuroplasticity! Our amazing brains change, adapt, and reorganize their structure, connections, and functions based on new information. Think of it as a map. For 20 years, you drive to work the same way each day creating a specific neural pathway in your brain. This neural pathway helps you get to work with what seems like, not even a thought, it is automatic. One day, a brand-new road opens that cuts your commute, one way, by 20 minutes. You start driving on this new road intentionally focusing on how to get to work, taking in the new landmarks along your way. You arrive at work and realize you will cut your daily commute by 40 minutes! You are filled with an overwhelming feeling of joy and excitement encouraging you to drive this way daily. At first, due to the old neural pathway being a habit, you must consciously tell yourself not to go the old way, but, before you know it, within a month or so, a new neural pathway has been created and you no longer need to intentionally focus on how to get to work using the new road – it’s automatic. Thanks to neuroplasticity a new neural pathway in your brain has been formed, and this new habit of driving, saves you 40 minutes a day in commute time!
Want to change your neural pathways to be more focused on gratitude? Here are some tips on how to intentionally add gratitude into your day:
Keep a gratitude journal: Each day make it a habit to pay attention to what you are grateful for throughout the day and record it in a journal.
When you are driving, or taking a walk, intentionally take in your surroundings, mindfully expressing gratitude for the changing colors of the leaves, the amazing sunrise or sunset, the animals that you see, the beauty of nature, architecture…..
Write a thank you note, or express gratitude, to someone in your life.
Intentionally reflect on each activity you do in a period of time: For example: the softness of the pillow on which you lay your head, the chair you are sitting in as your read this, the ability to be able to read thanks to your eyes, how your fingers are able to move over a keyboard as you type, nails that scratch that itch on your arm, the tissue that you have to blow your nose, a trash can to throw out that tissue– be grateful for the “little” things that you may miss or not think about in your daily life.
Intentionally take in something with your senses (touch/smell/taste/vision/hearing) and be grateful: TOUCH the flower and be grateful for its softness, SMELL the flower and be grateful for the scent (or, if it smells bad, be grateful you can smell that it smells bad), SEE the beauty of the colors, patterns and shape of the flower.
You can start today to “rewire” your brain to be full of gratitude. Why not have your own “science experiment” and see how, after intentionally practicing gratitude for six weeks what types of benefits you experience? If you start now, you could start 2024, with a new habit of thankfulness.
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References:
Diniz, G., Korkes, L., Tristão, L. S., Pelegrini, R., Bellodi, P. L., & Bernardo, W. M. (2023). The effects of gratitude interventions: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Einstein (Sao Paulo, Brazil), 21, eRW0371. https://doi.org/10.31744/einstein_journal/2023RW0371
Hartanto, A., Majeed, N.M., Lua, V.Y.Q. et al. Dispositional gratitude, health-related factors, and lipid profiles in midlife: a biomarker study. Sci Rep 12, 6034 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-09960-w
Merriam-Webster. (n.d.). Gratitude. In Merriam-Webster.com dictionary. Retrieved November 7, 2023, from https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/gratitude
Uclahealth. (2023, March). Health benefits of gratitude. UCLA Health. https://www.uclahealth.org/news/health-benefits-gratitude
