STORY BYAs we approach our national day of thanksgiving, it seems fitting to reflect on some of what science has to say about gratitude, which has been called the “forgotten factor” in happiness research.
Psychologists Robert Emmons at the University of California at Davis, and Michael McCullough, at the University of Miami, are foremost researchers in field of gratitude. What they have learned so far is that gratitude is good for you, really good for you.
In an experimental comparison, people who kept gratitude journals on a weekly basis exercised more regularly, reported fewer physical symptoms, felt better about their lives as a whole, and were more optimistic about the upcoming week compared to those who recorded hassles or neutral life events (Emmons & McCullough, 2003). It doesn’t end there.
Participants who kept gratitude lists were more likely to have made progress toward important personal goals (academic, interpersonal and health-based). And there’s more. Young adults who practice a daily gratitude intervention (self-guided exercises) had higher levels of alertness, enthusiasm, determination, attentiveness and energy compared to the group that focused on hassles or thinking of how they were better off than others. The researchers keep adding to the list benefits that come from practicing gratitude.
Given all the benefits, how interesting it is that we designate only one day to giving thanks.
Researchers have found that when we think about someone or something we really appreciate and experience the feeling that goes with the thought, the parasympathetic—calming-branch of the autonomic nervous system— is triggered. This pattern when repeated bestows a protective effect on the heart. The electromagnetic heart patterns of volunteers tested become more coherent and ordered when they activate feelings of appreciation.
There is evidence that when we practice bringing attention to what we appreciate in our lives, more positive emotions emerge, leading to beneficial alterations in heart rate variability. This may not only relieve hypertension but reduce the risk of sudden death from coronary artery disease.
The more we pause to appreciate and show caring and compassion, the more order and coherence we experience internally. When our hearts are in an "internal coherence state," studies suggest that we enjoy the capacity to be peaceful and calm yet retain the ability to respond appropriately to stressful circumstances. (A Different Kind of Health: Finding Well-Being Despite Illness, by Blair Justice, pp. 100-101.)
Neurobiologically, gratitude is nested within the social emotions, along with awe, wonder, "elevation" and pride. It can be both practiced and experienced.
I got out of bed on two strong legs.
It might have been otherwise.
I ate cereal, sweet milk, ripe,
flawless peach.
It might have been otherwise.
I took the dog uphill to the birch
wood.
All morning I did the work I love.At noon I lay down with my mate.
It might have been otherwise.
We ate dinner together at a table
with silver candlesticks.
It might have been otherwise.
I slept in a bed in a room with
paintings on the walls,
and planned another day just like
this day.
But one day, I know, it will be
otherwise.("Otherwise" by Jane Kenyon from
Otherwise: New and Selected
Poems , Graywolf Press)
An example of practicing gratitude is volunteering to help others in return for having been helped. As an experience, it is felt in the same frontal regions of the brain that are activated by awe, wonder and transcendence. From these cortical and limbic structures come dopamine and serotonin, the chemicals for feeling good inside.
Gratitude, then, can be a total body experience and beyond - meaning the deepest and widest gratitude comes from the soul and that part of the brain - the amygdala - that registers "soul" experiences.
So when we look at snow-capped peaks or golden swatches of changing aspen or the Milky Way at night from high in the Rockies, our souls sing and our bodies are suffused with streams of dopamine and serotonin, the gifts of gratitude. In short, feeling gratitude and appreciation on a regular basis helps heal us at every level of our being.
Sometimes the poets point the way to gratitude more than the scientists who can demonstrate its benefit. Jane Kenyon was a poet who understood appreciation. Much of her life, until she died of leukemia in 1998, she suffered from bipolar disease, with severe depression.
Her poem, Otherwise , reflects her wisdom in appreciating and giving thanks for the ordinariness of life that we often take for granted until it's taken from us. She must have been one of the exceptional healers this article describes.
UPDATED: 11-20-2005
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©2000-2006 Office of Institutional Advancement, UT-Houston
Dr. Blair Justice is professor emeritus of psychology at UT School of Public Health and the author of several books. His wife, Dr. Rita Justice is a psychologist in private practice in Houston.
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Make an appointment
with your stress—
and keep it!
Set aside a specified time of day, say 3:00 to 3:20 P.M. Keep this appointment with yourself—make it as important as a client or a child’s reading time.
Now, let the stress pour out of you, all the worry, guilt, what-ifs, if-onlys. Hold nothing back. Imagine every possible scenario that intrudes on you, day and night. Funnel it into that 20-minute period.
When the bell goes off, you are done, finished, until your next appointment with yourself.
When you’re tempted to let stressful thoughts crawl across your mind, remind yourself that you have 20 minutes to address them—tomorrow.
