The Science behind Gratitude

Psychologists have defined gratitude as a positive emotional response that we perceive on giving or receiving a benefit from someone 

Studies have demonstrated that at the brain level, moral judgments involving feelings of gratefulness are evoked in the right anterior temporal cortex. People who express and feel gratitude have a higher volume of grey matter in the right inferior temporal gyrus.

When we express gratitude and receive the same, our brain releases dopamine and serotonin, the two crucial neurotransmitters responsible for our emotions, and they make us feel ‘good’.

By consciously practicing gratitude every day, we can help these neural pathways to strengthen themselves and ultimately create a positive nature within ourselves. It also fosters cognitive restructuring by evoking positive thinking.

Emily Fletcher, the founder of a well-known meditation training site, labels gratitude as a ‘natural antidepressant’. This is not far from the truth because expressing gratitude reduces fear and anxiety by regulating the stress hormone.

At a neurobiological level, gratitude regulates the sympathetic nervous system that activates our anxiety responses, and at the psychological level, it conditions the brain to filter the negative ruminations and focus on the positive thoughts.

Studies have also shown that expressing gratitude activates the hypothalamus, and thereby regulates all bodily mechanisms controlled by the hypothalamus, out of which sleep is a vital one. A brain filled with kindness is more likely to sleep better and wake up feeling energetic.

The Mindfulness Awareness Research Center of UCLA stated that gratitude does change the neural structures in the brain, and makes us feel happier and more content. By activating the reward center of the brain, gratitude exchange alters the way we see the world and ourselves.

Gratitude exercises like keeping a gratitude journal, practicing gratitude meditation where you resonate your thoughts and feelings on people, and situations that you are truly grateful for, and writing gratitude notes to people make a positive difference in your mental state.

As Robin Sharma has beautifully put it:

“Gratitude drives happiness. Happiness boosts productivity. Productivity reveals mastery. And mastery inspires the world”.