By Michele D. Baker
I am still a work in progress. Although I try year-round, it is usually in late November or early December when I (re)discover just how powerful gratitude is.
One of my favorite quotes is by Brother David Steindl-Rast: “In daily life we must see that it is not happiness that makes us grateful, but gratefulness that makes us happy.” This is a reminder to me that daily gratitude is both a good idea and a spiritual tool.
Similar sentiments exist in all major religions. For example, in Ephesians 5:20, Paul reminds us to be thankful every day: “Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.” This is a call to cultivate an attitude of gratitude in our lives. The Torah states in Deuteronomy 26:11: “Rejoice with all the good the Almighty has given you.” The Quran emphasizes the importance of gratitude, too: “And remember when your Lord proclaimed: If you are grateful, I will surely increase your favor; but if you deny, indeed, My punishment is severe.” (Quran 14:7)
For those who prefer a more scientific approach, gratitude has been found to impart both physical and psychological benefits as well. Dr. Joshua Brown and Dr. Joel Wong of University of California at Berkeley studied gratitude and published a paper entitled “How Gratitude Changes You and Your Brain: New Research Is Starting to Explore How Gratitude Works to Improve Our Mental Health.”
Related: Random Acts of Kindness Foundation
The research involved 300 adults (three groups of 100 participants each), mostly college students seeking mental health counseling for depression and anxiety. All groups received counseling. Group 1 wrote a letter of gratitude to another person each week. Group 2 was asked to write about their deepest thoughts and feelings about their negative experiences. Group 3 did not do a writing activity.
Related: Thanksgiving Is the “Superbowl” of Gratitude
Four key takeaways emerged from the intensive study:
1) Gratitude unshackles us from toxic emotions. By analyzing the words in each of the two writing groups, researchers discovered the mechanisms behind the mental health benefits of gratitude letter writing. Gratitude letter writing produced better mental health by shifting one’s attention away from toxic emotions such as resentment and envy. When participants wrote about how grateful they were to others and how much other people blessed their lives, it became considerably harder to ruminate on negative experiences.
2) Gratitude helps even if you don’t share it. Participants assigned to write gratitude letters weren’t required to send their letters. In fact, only 23% of participants who wrote gratitude letters sent them. But those who didn’t send their letters enjoyed the benefits of experiencing gratitude, nonetheless. This suggests that the mental health benefit of writing gratitude letters is not dependent on communicating that gratitude to another person.
Related: Start your day off right with the Good News Network
3) Gratitude’s benefits take time. The mental health benefits of gratitude writing did not emerge immediately but gradually accrued over time. Participants in the gratitude group reported better mental health four weeks after the writing activities, and the difference became even larger after 12 weeks.
4) Gratitude has lasting effects on the brain. Three months later, researchers compared some of the people who wrote gratitude letters with those who didn’t do any writing. Were their brains processing information differently? They used an fMRI scanner to measure brain activity while people from each group did a “pay it forward” task. Participants were regularly given a small amount of money by a “benefactor” who asked that they pass the money on to someone if they felt grateful. Participants decided how much of the money, if any, to pass on to a worthy cause.
Researchers wanted to distinguish donations motivated by gratitude from donations driven by other motivations (such as guilt or obligation). When people felt more grateful, their brain activity was distinct from brain activity related to guilt and the obligation to help a cause. When people who are generally more grateful gave more money to a cause, they showed greater neural sensitivity in the medial prefrontal cortex, a brain area associated with learning and decision making. This suggests that people who are more grateful are also more attentive to how they express gratitude.
When compared Group 3 (no writing), Group 1 showed greater activation in the medial prefrontal cortex when they experienced gratitude in the fMRI scanner. This is striking as this effect was found three months after the letter writing began. This indicates that simply expressing gratitude may have lasting effects on the brain and that practicing gratitude may help train the brain to be more sensitive to the experience of gratitude down the line, which could contribute to improved mental health.
Related: Continue your gratitude practice with a daily journal
So how can we put this into practice on a daily basis? Here are some easy ways to express gratitude:
- Bless the food and thank the farmers, truckers, store clerks, and the cook before eating.
- Each morning, take some time to say gratitudes and start the day off right: “I’m so grateful I woke up this morning.” “Thank you for my spouse.” “Thank you for my dog, Rex.” “I’m so grateful I have beautiful grandchildren, Bobby and Susie.” “I’m so grateful I have a warm, safe place to sleep each night.” “Thank you for this beautiful sunset.”
- Write a sincere thank you note to someone every day for the next 30 (or 365!) days and give it or send it to that person.
- Sit in a circle with friends and share verbal thanks and gratitude to every person in the circle.
No matter how you decide to express your thanks and gratitude, cultivating a daily practice will reap enormous rewards for you and the world you live in!
