The Science of Gratitude and How It Will Change Your Life

Gratitude has become a buzzword in the wellness space, calling people into everyday thankfulness practices. This is something therapists and even influencers have started encouraging their clients and communities to take part in. People are emboldened to write lists of daily gratitudes, to express gratitude in meditations, yoga classes, and even in weekly business meetings. But, why is it so important? Why are so many people now becoming evangelists of the gratitude practice?

We all know the old adage “gratitude changes your brain,” and while that’s 100% correct, it would be nice to know how. Research done by the American Psychological Association has shown that gratitude can improve overall well-being, increase personal resilience, strengthen relationships, and can greatly reduce stress and depression.

The APA found that the more grateful people are, the greater their overall well-being and satisfaction with their life. In addition to loving life, the APA also found that grateful people are linked to having more robust immune systems, lower blood pressure, and better sleep (which in turn means better waking hours). Because of the overall improvement in life, grateful people tend to be more generous, compassionate, happier, and have a greater capacity for joy and positive emotions.

​​”Gratitude rewards generosity and maintains the cycle of healthy social behavior” – Antonia Damasia, Director of the BCI and Dornsife Neuroimaging Institute at Unversity of Southern California and professor of psychology and neurology.

In essence, gratitude rewires your brain, or trains your brain to focus on the good. This doesn’t mean being impervious to negative experiences, emotions, or hardships, it simply gives you the power to choose where your focus will sit.

Another study done by the Department of Counseling and Educational Psychology, Indiana University Bloomington, Bloomington, IN, USA, found that people who wrote a daily letter of gratitude for 12 weeks began to experience greater mental health, the release of toxic emotions, and beneficial lasting effects on the brain such as increased brain activity.

With all of these awesome benefits, gratitude might just be the powerhouse we all need to fully experience the beauty in life within and despite the chaos and turmoil around us. Today, we invite you to join us in this practice with a few questions you can do alone or with your loved ones to reflect on what you’re grateful for.

3 Questions to Inspire Gratitude //

• What have others done in your life that you’re grateful for?
• What’s an aspect of your physical health that you feel grateful for?
• Who in your life has had the biggest positive impact?

When thinking about the holiday, we at Nurture really gravitate toward this aspect of thankfulness, in fact, it is the reason we celebrate today. An opportunity we have to lean into gratefulness, we will take it. In our daily lives and on a day now dedicated to it. So today, we will practice our gratitude in any way we can. Saying thank you to our bodies for allowing us to move, saying thank you to our loved ones for spending time with us, saying thank you to the earth for providing food for us to eat, saying thank you to the indigenous who were forced to sacrifice years ago.

There is a never-ending list of reasons to express gratitude.

So, we say thank you to you and for you for being a part of this amazing community. We truly would not be able to do what we do without you!