Gratitude: a powerful emotion
Hey guys! Welcome back to another blog post. This week’s topic has me ecstatic, as it is none other than…GRATITUDE! Personally, gratitude has been a major part of my life, and I have grown to love expressing gratitude in various ways. For example, I have been keeping a journal where I write about my day, things that went well (in addition to things that didn’t), and writing three to five kind adjectives about myself at the bottom of the entry. I have found this process to be extremely beneficial to my daily life, but I continued to wonder were this joy was coming from. What is the science behind gratitude? Why do we feel happy when we thank ourselves and others? Well this week, I took a deep dive into the workings of gratitude.
First, I started my research by defining gratitude. I found this definition from the oxford dictionary: “the quality or condition of being grateful [thankful]; the readiness to show appreciation for and return kindness.” Personally, I was really impressed with this definition, as I thought the second part encompassed many major themes of gratitude—kindness and appreciation for others. However, I thought the best way to define gratitude is to generate examples of how it is expressed in our daily lives. Here some of the ones I came up with:
- writing someone a nice note on their birthday
- celebrating minor accomplishments (ie. “Our track team did amazing at the meet” or “I had a great lunch today”)
- saying what you are thankful for before dinner
- thanking someone for holding the door for you
- acknowledging all the opportunities you have (ie. access to education, food, shelter, etc)
- So much more!
Gratitude is all over the place, and it is a part of our lives whether we realize it or not. Practicing gratitude also affects our brains in super interesting ways. I’ve learned that it strengthens positive recall. This means that those who practice gratitude are generally able to build up/acknowledge positive experiences, as well as block out negative thoughts. Additionally, practicing gratitude activates the parasympathetic nervous system (see a pattern here, haha). When our parasympathetic nervous system is activated, it counteracts our “fight or flight” response, calming us down and allowing us to be more optimistic. Finally, when we practice gratitude, our brains release serotonin and dopamine, both of which contribute to our feelings of joy! There are so, so many health and wellness benefits to practicing gratitude, many of which I’ve just begun to discover.
So, you may be asking yourself “so what?” Why learn about the science of gratitude? Well, my answer to that would be “so you can begin engaging with—or continue to engage with—gratitude in your everyday lives.” One of my favorite exercises to practice gratitude is to grab the nearest sheet of paper (anything from a sticky note to the back of an envelope) and write down three things you are grateful for. Whenever life feels tough, or you simply want a good boost of happiness, refer back to these three things. Maybe you can even write down three new things. Make this a habit. There are so many ways to engage with gratitude, but this a simple way to incorporate some gratefulness into your life.
I hope you enjoyed the blog post for this week. Stay tuned as I finalize the questions that will guide my exploration of the authentic connections survey results. As always, have an amazing day!