The Power of Gratitude
As the holidays approach, I thought I would take some time and talk about gratitude. Having a regular gratitude practice can be an immensely powerful thing. It has been shown to have long lasting positive impacts on subjective well being, happiness, finding more meaning in life, more joy and all around positive impacts in all social relationships. We, as the human animal, were designed to be in social groups. We have actually found that social isolation has drastic negative impacts on our well being.
Gratitude is more than just a feeling, there are dedicated circuits in the brain for it. These circuits are called prosocial circuits and they enhance modes of thinking that allow us to be more effective in interactions, including interactions with oneself. These circuits have a “lean in” response which brings us closer to the things we like and that stimulate them and enhances the level of detail we extract from those things. The lean in effect can actually stimulate motivation to move towards one of those things, like going and sitting next to a person you like at a party. These pro social circuits are even designed to become more active, the more we activate them, meaning the more time you spend in pro social states, the more pro social states you will be in throughout your regular life.
If these circuits weren't cool enough as is, we are going to add one more layer of neurological coolness to them. These circuits are located in the brain in an area called the medial prefrontal cortex. While this name is not important, what this area of the brain does is. This part of the brain is designed for planning and deep thinking, and it sets the context and defines the meaning of experiences. This means that as your pro social circuits are more active, your brain will set more positive emotions to more of the experiences in your life. This is what helps those perpetual happy people always be happy, their brain is literally changing the context of their life to be perceived as better.
So all of that aside, how does one have a solid gratitude practice? Well, despite what most people think, a gratitude practice isn’t just writing a list of things you are grateful for and reciting it daily. The most effective gratitude practice has a few elements.
Think of a story where you received thanks. This is powerful since the brain is designed for story telling. If you don’t have a story from your personal life, think of a story of someone receiving thanks that you resonate with, it can be fiction or nonfiction.
Take some short notes on that story, what was the struggle, what was the help and how did it impact you emotionally.
Take 1-2 minutes, up to 5 minutes max and lean into that feeling going over it in your mind.
You can use this time to add in some exhale long breathing to enhance your brain state
Do this a few times per week
This protocol will help activate the pro social/gratitude circuits in the most effective way in the shortest amount of time. Give this a try in your own life and enjoy all the beauty life has to offer.
