This week I wanted to share with you some cool science I recently learned surrounding Gratitude! With it being Thanksgiving tomorrow - what a perfect opportunity to try to incorporate a new way to practice gratitude! I am currently taking courses working towards my certification as a Wellness Coach. One of my assignments included reading several different research studies that were conducted around how gratitude can impact the body, as well as listening to a podcast entitled "The Science of Gratitude & How to Build a Gratitude Practice" by Andrew Huberman. Much of the research was initially familiar to me... it talked about how incorporating a Gratitude practice has both physical and mental benefits. It can help reduce stress, build resilience, improve relationships, even help us feel more joy and happiness. Some of the studies talked about how practicing gratitude can lower inflammation markers, improve cardiovascular health, reduce anxiety and improve sleep. "And equally important is to understand that the neurochemical, the anti-inflammatory and neuro mechanisms that gratitude can evoke are equally on par with some of the effects of pharmacology of things like high intensity workouts and exercise and other things that we think of as more potent forms of self intervention" I found this to be fascinating! As a person who has a chronic illness whenever I can find something that is a holistic approach to helping me heal, improving my overall wellbeing...I'm all ears!
My previous personal gratitude practice looked like this: I would write down 5-10 things I was thankful for each week. This would include family, friends, health, opportunities in my career or educational paths, world events, to things like food on my families table and a roof over our heads. I would then lean into these things thinking about the emotions, significance, and really feel those "good" feelings. Goodness, my sign in my bathroom states "start each day with a grateful heart!" To my surprise after completing this assignment, and reading the research this type of practice, although beneficial, does not evoke the same response in the brain and within the body as we had thought.
So you might be asking what is the best way to reap the benefits of practicing gratitude? According to Dr. Huberman "The most potent form of gratitude practice is not a gratitude practice where you give gratitude or express gratitude but rather where you receive gratitude, where you receive thanks" Well alright! How about that! He talked about a study that was conducted where the frontal brain activity was monitored while a coworker listened to a letter of gratitude read out loud by a coworker face to face. The study of both participates revealed that there was a "robust effects on the prefrontal networks (think about dopamine, serotonin, GABA, and top-down regulation of thoughts, actions and emotion) in the participates that received the gratitude compared to the one giving the gratitude" Think about that... if we can be someone who is more prone to write a letter of gratitude or take the time to say things to our children, loved ones, even strangers, that are genuine expressions of gratitude, we can have within us a very potent form of shifting that persons neurology in a positive way!
So putting this into practice... a new Thanksgiving tradition ..You can write a gratitude letter to someone who has an impact on you! I know my family will go around the table and say something they are thankful for, perhaps this year we should give genuine appreciation for someone sitting at our table. That face to face exchange can be so impactful, allowing improved physical and mental health benefits for your loved one!
It's very clear that receiving gratitude is powerful but it is also clear that waiting around to receive that is an impractical approach. My next thought was how can I create that sense of receiving, that sense of gratitude for myself, and thereby derive the positive effects? Dr. Huberman "suggests thinking about when someone was thankful for something that you did and really start to think about how you felt in receiving that gratitude. Then make some bullet points notes about what the struggle was, what the help was, and something about how that impacts you emotionally. Read those notes out loud and think into the richness of the experience." You will use this same story over and over within your practice. Doing this creates a short cut and the gratitude process is able to be triggered by simply just reminding yourself of this narrative! This practice is short typically 1-5 minutes long and done 3 times a week whenever works best for you! Repeated Gratitude Practice changes the way your brain circuits work, and it also changes the way in which your heart and your brain interact. Incredible! I have been doing this new practice for about three weeks now! And I am excited to start this new tradition of sharing genuine appreciation for someone sitting around my family's table this Thanksgiving!
If Dr. Huberman's research interests you I highly suggest listening to his Podcast! He goes on to talk about how to establish a gratitude practice that taps into these new theories and goes much further into the Science behind this Gratitude Practice.
https://www.hubermanlab.com/episode/the-science-of-gratitude-and-how-to-build-a-gratitude-practice
Have a blessed Thanksgiving!
My love,
Katie RN, CPT
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