Gratitude Changes Everything: How a Thankful Mind Can Transform Your Health and Happiness
As I contemplated a subject for my November blog, gratitude naturally came to mind. Thanksgiving seems synonymous with gratitude. During my childhood, it was the time we would all sit around the table and share what we were thankful for that year. It was a day to feast and watch American football. As I grew, I discovered that the USA was the only country that celebrated this holiday. Surely gratitude is more than a day, as it is practiced in most cultures.
In our fast-paced world, pausing to appreciate life’s blessings might seem like a luxury reserved for when something great happens to us. Yet mounting scientific evidence suggests that cultivating gratitude isn’t just feel-good advice—it’s a powerful tool for enhancing physical health, mental wellbeing, and social connections.
Recent neuroscience research reveals that gratitude literally rewires our brains. A 2019 study published in NeuroImage found that practicing gratitude activates the hypothalamus, the part of the brain that regulates stress. Being grateful also increases dopamine production, one of our brains’ feel-good hormones. When participants wrote in gratitude journals for three weeks, brain scans showed lasting changes in the brain’s chemistry, particularly the medial prefrontal cortex, the area associated with decision-making and emotional regulation.
The physical health benefits are equally compelling. Dr. Robert Emmons from UC Davis, a leading gratitude researcher, found that people who kept gratitude journals for ten weeks reported 25% better sleep, exercised 33% more, and had 10% lower blood pressure than control groups. Another study in 2015 in the journal Spirituality in Clinical Practice found that heart patients who kept gratitude journals for eight weeks had reduced inflammation markers and improved heart rate variability—both indicators of cardiac health. So gratitude is good for your heart.
One of my favorite Resonate podcasts was with Dr. Randy Kamen on the Power of Gratitude. Dr. Kamen said humans are born with a negativity bias in our DNA. This served our ancestors, who were always on the lookout for danger; they had to prioritize avoiding harm over seeking pleasure. This is well documented in psychology and neuroscience. Our brains tend to give more weight to negative than positive experiences. Though we don’t have to run from wild animals or protect our homes from invaders these days, this bias shows up in different ways. We remember insults more than praise, tragedies more than triumphs, and respond more strongly to fear than to the notion that all will work out. When I studied journalism, one of our rules in reporting was if it bleeds it leads. We report the violent and the tragic while saving the uplifting stories for a kicker at the end of the broadcast. The “positivity ratio” proposed by psychologist Barbara Fredrickson suggests it takes three to five positive thoughts to counter one negative thought emotionally. The average person can have, on a conservative estimate, between 6,000 and 7,000 thoughts per day, and if 70-80% of those thoughts are negative or neutral, we need to make a conscious effort to look for the good.
I was once in a lecture, and the presenter said that negative thoughts stick like Velcro while positive thoughts slide off like Teflon. We can counter that by reflecting on or savoring the positive so it gets “stickier.” Thoughts of gratitude are always in the positive column and can become stickier with more attention.
Dr. Kamen shared some simple tools we can use to start increasing our gratitude thoughts and overall well-being. A very simple one that we can all fit into our lives is to think of three things that you are grateful for when you wake up each morning and then again when you crawl into bed at night think of three things that happened today that made you feel grateful.
Mindfulness is another way to tap into gratitude. Being mindful means being in the present moment; after all, it is the only moment we have. Living in the past can lead to depression and the “what-ifs” syndrome, while living in the future can create anxiety about things that haven’t happened. Pause, take a few deep breaths, and be grateful for the moment you are in and the oxygen you are receiving. Dr. Kamen also noted that we often are programmed to search for what is not going right instead of what is going in our favor. We can find both, so it’s a matter of where you put your focus.
Gratitude doesn’t require us to ignore difficulties or pretend everything is perfect. Instead, it invites us to acknowledge the good alongside the difficult, creating a more balanced and resilient perspective. Another suggestion that requires some practice is reframing situations or things that happen. Dr. Kamen means that you can find something positive in the situation. A month ago, I was driving to work, and the exhaust system in my car malfunctioned, and I was stranded. I was distraught and stranded at 5:30 am. After I had a conversation with myself, I was able to reframe the situation. It happened in the early morning, so traffic was light, I had Triple AAA so my car could be towed, and it turned out to be a relatively inexpensive repair. And I am still alive! I came up with four positive thoughts for that negative situation.
The science is clear: gratitude isn’t just a fleeting emotion but a practice that fundamentally enhances how we experience and engage with life. I have found that practicing gratitude makes me feel good, and don’t we all want to feel good?
It’s November, when we Americans reflect on a holiday that focuses on gratitude. So, November is a good month to start a practice that can enhance your life every day.
Tune into Resonate with Barry. Read Three Easy Tips to Journaling to help get you started.
