The Science of Gratitude

The word gratitude is derived from the Latin word gratia, meaning grace, graciousness, or gratefulness. The feeling of gratitude encompasses all of these meanings. Gratitude is a thankful appreciation for what an individual receives, whether tangible or intangible. (3)

It is a way for us to appreciate what we have, instead of reaching for something new — in the hope it will create more happiness, or thinking satisfaction won’t come until every physical and material need is met. Gratitude refocused us on what we have instead of what we lack.

What exactly is happening inside us when we are grateful?

What makes us grateful is different from person to person, yet there are some common threads. We tend to feel a sense of gratitude when:

  • We achieve a big goal

  • Someone does something kind for us

  • Someone makes us feel appreciated

  • We witness something funny or lovely or beautiful

  • We have a moment to truly be free/ourselves

  • We recognize how meaningful someone or something is to you

  • Helps us connect to something larger than ourselves as individuals — whether other people, nature, or a higher power.


Here is a little experiment in somatic awareness (becoming aware of the sensations in the body).

Take a moment to ponder on the above list and notice how gratitude feels in your body. Do you feel any sensations? Where does it show up? Linger in it for a few moments while perhaps listening to the song below.

How did that feel? You just created that feel-good-feel from the inside and on command. Wow!

The sensation of gratitude is occurring due to neurotransmitters in the brain being released, simply at the thought of noticing and appreciating the good things in your life. There are two brain chemicals directly connected to gratitude: Dopamine and Serotonin. They are connected to our emotions and therefore contribute to feelings of pleasure, happiness and well-being. (1)

Now, if you didn’t quite get into a state of gratitude, know that this is a practice and therefore may take a few sessions to really tap into the literal sensations of gratitude. But its effecting your brain right away and the more you do this practice, the stronger the pathway to gratitude becomes. Eventually this leads to an increased use of this I feel grateful pathway. This is called neuroplasticity which is the ability of neural networks in the brain to change through growth and reorganization.

“By consciously practicing gratitude everyday, we can help these neural pathways to strengthen themselves and ultimately create a permanent grateful and positive nature within ourselves.” (2)

Research shows that practicing gratitude — 15 minutes a day, five days a week — for at least six weeks can enhance mental wellness and possibly promote a lasting change in perspective. (4)

This experiment and the science of gratitude shows us that:

  1. Our thoughts are directly connected to our emotions.

  2. We have control over where our thoughts take us.

  3. With practice we can create happiness from the inside.

Behavior changes biology — Remember that behavior changes biology. Your brain is designed to problem-solve rather than appreciate. You often must override this design to reap the benefits of gratitude. Positive gestures benefit you by releasing oxytocin, a hormone that helps connect people. Some people call it the love hormone. A regular gratitude practice can bring us into happiness whenever we are in need, not just in the “special/good/big moments”. We can conjure it anytime we need to feel better, to cultivate hope for the future and to take action in sharing this gratitude with others, creating a gratitude ripple effect. (5)

Gratitude has also been shown to:

  • Reduce stress levels.

  • Improve blood pressure.

  • Improve heart health and positively affects biomarkers associated with the risk for heart disease.

  • Improve immunity.

  • Improve sleep.

  • Improved mood.

  • Build and enhance our relationships.

  • Increase satisfaction in our work environments.

  • Help combat anxiety and depression.


Simple ways to practice gratitude:

  • Make a list in a journal/in your mind/or speak it out loud.

  • Share your gratitude list with someone else and create a gratitude ripple.

  • Listen to a song, playlist or gratitude frequency.

  • Express your gratitude by creating something: a meal, art, a song, a dance, a poem.

  • Say “Thank You” frequently: to yourself, to others, to nature.

  • Many of us reflexively say, “thanks” often. Next time you hear yourself say it, stop and pinpoint precisely what you are thankful for. 

  • You may feel negative or frustrated during the day. When that happens, step back and shift your focus to a positive aspect of the situation.

  • Find one thing you are grateful for and fill up with the sensation of gratitude.


“Try saying thank you, aloud or in your head, every time you see, taste, feel, hear, or sense something that you are grateful for... if you’re paying attention, you could be saying Thank You all day, every day.”

Resources:

  1. Nov 22, 2022, ‘Can Gratitude Increase Quality of Life?’, Penn Medicine Princeton Health.

  2. Madhuleena Roy Chowdhury, BA, April 9, 2019, ‘The Neuroscience of Gratitude and Effects on the Brain’, PositivePsychology.Com

  3. Harvard University

  4. UCLA Health

  5. Mayo Clinic Health System

What's on the other side of fear?

What a predicament we’re in.

Fear is such a strong emotion that can lead to lashing out, running away, disassociating, avoiding… and yet because of our current lifestyles plus a lack of tools for processing our emotions, we often get stuck in the part of our nervous system responsible for fear. This really hinders our ability to get out of comfort zones and go beyond what currently is, into the unknown.

Fear is meant to be felt for a moment. To inform of danger and to awaken the senses for potential threats. It is not meant to be a constant state. In order to step closer to something bigger, scarier, the unknown it would be wise to understand and learn how to move through your fears.

What does it feel like on the other side of fear?

We all have a good idea for how it feels to be in a state of fear… breathing and heart rate increase; muscles tense; we run or duck or scream or hide. In addition, stress hormones are released throughout the body such as adrenaline and cortisol and our energy is shifted towards survival (and away from the stomach which is why we can have stomach disturbances when worried/anxious/overstressed).

But let’s go beyond that… If you’ve ever done something you never thought you would for fear of it, you know what this feels like on the other side. Take a moment and go back to the moment you realized you moved through the fear, you made it despite the discomfort.

Relief. Confidence. Euphoria. Strength. Pride. Compassion for past versions of the self. Maybe you even felt a sense of freedom!! All of these states are possible on the other side of your fears, yet how do we move through the resistance to get there? One little step at a time.

Practicing uncomfortable things is a really good way to begin this work of facing fears. If you haven’t done this in a while or ever, please find a tiny, baby, achievable but still kinda scary thing to do. You MUST flex this muscle in lots of little ways to build your bravery muscles. This way when you find yourself on the edge of something bigger, YOU HAVE BEEN PRACTICING and know how to take a big breath and a big jump.

Every small scary thing that you move through provides a little more confidence, trust in self, and understanding of the reward that is right on the other side of the discomfort. This is the art of growing.


Practice doing uncomfortable things. Start small and build.

  • Make eye contact with strangers

  • Make small talk with a stranger

  • Sign up for a new class

  • Turn the water cold at the end of the shower

  • Jump in cold water

  • Plank or wall sit holds

  • Move your body in a challenging way

  • Brake Check (Take a break from a particular food, substance, habit)

  • Practice that second language you kinda know IRL

  • Do an activity you know you’re bad at aka fail on purpose

  • Perform or speak in public

  • Karaoke (even if just in your bff’s living room)

  • Donate money

  • Tell the truth when some asks “how are you?”

  • Do the healthy thing that’s not as fun

  • Go on a solo retreat/travels

  • Meditate

  • Witness your thoughts and words

  • Explore your thoughts and words

  • Feel your thoughts and words

  • Process your thoughts and words

  • Express your emotions

  • Get a tattoo :)


If you can see it, you can believe it. Using visualization in this guided meditation you can practice walking down the path in which you decide to forward even though there is fear in your way.

Feeling Emotional? Lets get into those hips!

A tutorial + a simple practice for exploring emotions.

Our hips are ball-and-socket joints, meaning they naturally have more range-of-motion than other types of joints. However, if we don’t allow our hips to access this wide range-of-motion, they can start to feel blocked or even stuck physically. Our hips also correlate to our emotions. If we don’t tend to the wide variety of human emotions, we can feel blocked or stuck emotionally. ⁣

Try spending a few minutes in these two simple yet effective yoga poses - Easy Pose and Child’s Pose. ⁣

  1. Watch the video tutorial on the Easy Pose and Childs Pose. Use props to alleviate any pain or extreme discomfort anywhere in your body.

  2. Breathe big as you hold each yoga pose for up to 3-4 minutes. Your body will tell you through sensation when you’ve had enough. Feel your way through.

  3. Allow any physical hip sensations or emotional sensations that arise to be felt. Use your breath to ride the waves of sensation that flow in such as physical hip sensations like stretch, tension, discomfort. If emotional sensations flow in, do the same and use your breath to allow the emotions to be felt. You are safe to feel your emotions, as they are simply a form of communication from your body.

  4. If there is a lingering emotional sensation see if you can name it. Is it anxiety, shame, fear, gratitude, happiness, love? Once you’ve identified it, let it be seen, heard, acknowledged. Simply having a conversation with the emotion/sensation is enough. I know this may seem odd but it has been very helpful for me to get to know my emotions through simple yoga, breath and chit chat with my body. The more I understand each emotion, the more I can honor them, and the more easily they flow in and out.

  5. Journal or voice memo what came in when you allowed your hips to open.

Meditation is Medicine + Meditation Practice

If I told you I had a pill that would significantly decrease your chances of suffering from all sorts of disease would you buy it and take it daily? How much money would you spend on that wonder pill? Would you share it with your family and friends to help keep them healthy too? What if I told you that you didn't need a pill to make this happen. What if I told you that you could reduce your chances of suffering all sorts of disease simply by meditating daily. Would you be as gung ho as you were about the magic pill?

What is meditation?

Meditation is the practice of training your brain to work at different frequencies. Our brain has five different categories of brain waves, each correlating to different kinds of activities. The higher frequencies are associated with active learning and an alert prefrontal cortex, where we spend most of our day. With meditation, you can train your brain to move into the lower frequencies which are associated with calm and peaceful feelings. Lower, slower, wave length frequencies allow more time between thoughts. Meditation allows you to move from highly active thinking mind to a more quiet and visual mind. 

What are the benefits?

The studies on mediation are vast and the benefits are outstanding. From young to old, healthy to ill, CEOs of Fortune 500 companies and Oprah Winfrey to busy moms and students, meditation can help to not only make you more focused and productive, but it can help you to stay calm and make tough decisions in crazy and hectic moments. Look at this list below. I have never seen anything with proven results that positively affect such a wide variety of human life as meditation (sleep and exercise are a close second). Benefits include but are not limited to the following:

  • Decreases depression

  • Regulates mood and anxiety disorders

  • Reduces stress

  • Reduces panic disorders

  • Increases concentration

  • Reduces alcohol and substance abuse

  • Improves focus and attention

  • Improves ability to work under stress

  • Improves information processing

  • Improves decision making

  • Trains mental strength, resiliency and emotional intelligence

  • Relieves pain more than Morphine

  • Improves pain tolerance

  • Helps manage ADHD

  • Improves learning, memory and self-awareness

  • Improves rapid memory recall

  • Prepares you to deal with stressful events

  • Fosters creativity

  • Reduces risk of heart disease and stroke

  • Increases resiliency to stress and therefore increases immune system

  • Reduces blood pressure

  • Decreases inflammatory disorders

  • Helps prevent asthma, rheumatoid arthritis, and inflammatory bowel disease

  • Helps treat premenstrual syndrome and menopausal symptoms

  • Reduces risk of Alzheimer's and premature death

  • Helpful for those with Fibromyalgia

  • Helps to manage psoriasis

  • Improves empathy and positive relationships

  • Reduces social isolation

  • Increases compassion

  • Decreases worry

  • Decreases feelings of loneliness

  • Reduces emotional eating

All of these benefits have studies to back them up. Check out this post for links to all of the science. 

How do you begin a meditation practice?

First, take a look at the list above and count how many of those things would benefit your life. I counted 10 for myself. Next, decide how important those benefits are to you. Are they no big deal, or are they differences that would greatly change your day to day life. Take a moment to notice the value that a mediation practice would bring to your wellbeing. For me, this is a no brainer, pun intended. Looking at my list of things that meditation can help allows me to recognize the massive need for a practice in my life. Tap into what your life would look like with a solid meditation practice and then set yourself up for success.

  • Just Breathe. You can start with just 2 minutes of sitting quiet and focusing on your breath. Feeling your inhales and feeling your exhales. If your mind wanders simply bring it back to your breath. Building to 20 minutes daily is ideal. 

  • Find a video or app to help guide you through. If you want more than the two minutes you can search for all sorts of specific meditations, such as gratitude, lovingkindness, forgiveness, or increased energy and they range from 5 minutes to hours long. I love the apps Calm & Insight Timer and people rave about Headspace.

  • Create a special place to do your meditation. This can be as basic as a yoga mat on the floor or can incorporate pillows, candles, photos of people and places that make you happy, or any other objects that make you smile. The more enjoyable your space the more likely you'll come to it. 

  • Connect meditation to another habit. I personally like to do my meditation early but Im not a stickler about it. I sneak lots of different kinds of meditations in all day everyday. But if you need help making it a regular part of your day, connect it to a habit you already have each morning like brushing your teeth.

  • Add it to your calendar or daily checklist. I go in and out of loving and benefiting from checklists, but when I’m trying to incorporate something new, having reminders is super helpful. If you’re not a checklist kinda human, maybe just place Post-it notes all around for a reminder :)

  • Use it throughout the day. If you missed it in the morning, find time to squeeze it in later. My practice generally looks like lots of little moments with the hopes of them all overlapping one day, lol. I use my 30 Breaths meditation (in which you sit and focus on your breath for 30 breaths) all the time. When I'm stressed and feeling frazzled, or when I'm antsy and feeling like I need something right this minute or i might snap, like sugar, junk food, buying crap, more coffee, or a nap.

  • Move into your body. Simply bringing your awareness into your body is enough to slow the mental chatter. There are many techniques like moving meditations - yoga, swimming, dance, etc., body scan meditations which practice somatic awareness, even massage can become a way to step out of the mind and into the body. The video below is a simple practice of entering into the body thru the hands.

 

One conscious breathe in and out is a meditation. – Eckhart Tolle