How Can Gratitude Rewire Your Brain?
Written by: Kamini Wood, Executive Contributor
Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise.
The list of things in our lives that conjure a feeling of gratitude is very long. However, we tend to take them for granted most of the time, forgetting to stop and appreciate the good health, successful career, and happy family life that we are blessed with.
A growing body of research shows that the benefits of practicing gratitude are nearly endless. Years of research by psychologist Robert Emmons Ph.D., the world’s leading gratitude researcher, prove that keeping a gratitude journal can significantly improve your well-being and life fulfillment.
Gratefulness can improve your mood and boost optimism, increase your productivity, help you express more kindness and empathy, and have thriving relationships. Research has shown that keeping a gratitude journal by writing down three of your blessings every day for three weeks can significantly increase your optimism. And studies show the effects can last up to six months.
How Gratitude Can Rewire Your Brain
How does gratitude work to improve our mental, emotional, and physical health? Research in the field of gratitude suggests that people who regularly practice gratefulness tend to be happier and healthier.
Scientific research shows that gratitude may reprogram the brain to be more sensitive to experiencing thankfulness. In short, expressing gratitude will make it easier to notice and count your blessings. One study demonstrated that when people feel more grateful, their brain shows greater neural sensitivity in the medial prefrontal cortex, which is the brain’s center responsible for learning and decision-making.
Moreover, study participants stated that gratitude creates a feeling of social bonding and helps them relax. What makes these results even more astonishing is the fact that the positive effects gratitude had on the brain were observed three months after the study.
How to Practice Gratitude?
There are a few things that you can do to reprogram your mind for gratefulness. Turn these strategies into your daily habits of practicing gratitude and you’ll attract positive outcomes in your life.
Write a gratitude journal. Start your mornings writing down three things you are grateful for. This will boost your optimism and enthusiasm and help you start your day with a positive thought.
Count your blessings before bedtime. Each night before you fall asleep, make sure you name three things that conjure a feeling of thankfulness in your life. Fall asleep feeding your subconscious mind with the thoughts of positivity and gratefulness.
Practice positive affirmations. Research shows that positive affirmations can reprogram your subconscious mind for success. Affirmations are positive self-thoughts that can boost your stress resilience and help you cope with anxious rumination. Additionally, positive affirmations can enhance your mood, and improve your interpersonal relationships. Theraddingefore, make sure to practice affirmations every day. You can do this by writing a list of the desired outcomes in your life and add positive statements for each of them. Postpositive affirmations within your eyesight and go back to them often.
Make gratitude your daily habit. Counting blessings shaped into a habit of being grateful can improve your emotional control, boost your optimism, and make your interpersonal relationships stronger. In summary, gratitude can considerably improve your health and happiness.
Kamini Wood, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine
Kamini Wood is the founder and CEO of Live Joy Your Way and the AuthenticMe® RiseUp program. An international best-selling author Kamini is driven to support people of all ages to heal their relationship with themselves and to stop outsourcing their self-worth. As a result, her clients become their own confident, resilient self-leader with healthier relationships. Kamini is a certified life coach, board-certified by the American Association of Drugless Practitioners, holds specialty certifications in Calling in the One®, Conscious Uncoupling®, NewMoney Story®, and teen life coaching. Also trained in conscious parenting, Kamini aims to meet her clients where they are, supporting and guiding them on their journey to where they want to be, both personally and professionally. Her mission: create space for each person to see the unique gifts they bring to this world.
