The Power of Gratitude: How it Impacts Your Mental Health and Simple Practices to Add it to Your Life
Gratitude And Mental Health
In our fast-paced, consumption-driven world, where stress and anxiety seem to be the norm, it can be easy to overlook the simple things in life that contribute to your happiness and well-being. Sometimes it's the everyday moments, like noticing your breath, stepping outside in the fresh air, or a sweet text from a friend that helps you stay focused and encouraged on the wild ride of life.
Enter Gratitude.
Gratitude isn't just about saying thank you for what you have. It's a contemplative practice that invites you to seek out moments of joy, connection, and support, even on days that feel heavy.
When you make gratitude a practice in your life, you are literally rewiring caveman DNA that is programmed to look for danger and keep you stuck in survival mode, and creating new neural pathways that seek out joy, connection, and pleasure. How amazing is that?
When you practice gratitude consistently, you are training your mind to look for the good in your life, improving both your mood and your mental health. The ripple effect continues out into your relationships, your work, and your spiritual well-being.
In this article, we will explore the science around gratitude, the benefits of having a gratitude practice, gratitude and mental health, and some simple ways you can practice gratitude starting today. Ready? Let's go!
Your Brain on Gratitude
To start, let's discuss why your mind tends to focus on the negative aspects of life more than the positive. Here's the deal, your brain is wired to keep you safe! It's been trained to keep you alive and is more familiar with running from tigers than stopping to smell the roses. As a result, you instinctively seek out potential threats as a survival mechanism, as opposed to using that brain power to seek out pleasure or joy. Let's just call it a bad habit!
If you're someone who struggles with anxiety, depression, or the aftermath of trauma, you probably can guess how this survival mode 'skill' negatively impacts your mental health. It can add more stress, more worry, and more hyper vigilance to your already exhausted mind and nervous system.
The good news is you can rewire your brain. Easy? Not exactly. But with practice and support, totally doable. And you guessed it, a gratitude practice is a powerful tool to train your brain to look for the good moments in life, rather than just keep you safe from the dangerous ones.
The Science Behind Gratitude and Mental Health
There is a strong correlation between the practice of gratitude and improvements in mental health and wellness. Research has shown that practicing gratitude can not only improve your mood but also increase dopamine and oxytocin production in the brain. (Yes, please!) When you learn to focus on what you have, rather than what you wish you had, you can reduce your stress and constant mental chatter, resulting in more peace, happiness, and overall mental health.
According to a study conducted by researchers at UC Davis and the University of Miami, people who journaled about things they were grateful for were more optimistic and felt better about their lives overall. And bonus, they also exercised more which kept them physically and mentally more in shape. Researchers found that consistent, daily gratitude practices resulted in higher levels of alertness, enthusiasm, determination, optimism, and overall energy. In addition, the gratitude group experienced less depression and stress, were more likely to help others in need, moved their bodies more regularly, and made greater progress toward personal goals.
You can read the full study, titled "Counting Blessings Versus Burdens: An Experimental Investigation of Gratitude and Subjective Well-Being in Daily Life," via this link.
How Gratitude Impacts Mental Health
Your mental health is affected by a variety of factors, including intergenerational trauma, genetics, environment, exposure to toxins in your food and products, diet and lifestyle. The good news is, your genes can be reprogrammed (thank you, epigenetics studies!) and your brain can change. A gratitude practice can positively impact your mental health in the following ways:
Increases positive emotions: Gratitude helps you focus on the good in your life, leading to an increase in the feel-good emotions like happiness, joy, love and contentment.
Reduces negative thinking: When you practice gratitude, you train your brain to look for the good and not just the 'bad', which can help with ruminating or self-defeating thoughts.
Boosts resilience: Gratitude can help you cope with challenging or stressful situations and bounce back from setbacks by reminding you of the things that are going well in your life.
Increases mindfulness: Being grateful invites you to be in the present moment and learn to appreciate what is unfolding all around you, often reducing stress and increasing contentment.
Encourages self-care: When you learn to slow down, look for the good and find things to be grateful for about yourself and your life, you are more likely to prioritize taking care of yourself and connecting with others in a nourishing way.
The Benefits of Gratitude
Gratitude is more than just saying "thank you" or showing appreciation for things that are going well in your world. It's a mindset practice that invites you to look for and find the good in your life every single day. Some days it might be something as simple as being grateful to be alive, have shelter, food and water, or a cat to snuggle. Practicing gratitude does not mean you are happy about everything that is happening in your life. It's about finding something to be grateful for, even when your life feels like it's falling apart.
Research shows that practicing gratitude can lead to a range of physical, mental, and emotional benefits, including:
Improved relationships: When you express your gratitude towards people in your life, you bring more feel-good energy to your relationships, helping you feel more connected and less alone.
Increased happiness: Gratitude has been linked to higher levels of positive emotions and overall life satisfaction.
Better sleep: A daily gratitude practice can help improve the quality and duration of your sleep.
Reduced stress and anxiety: When you find something to be grateful for, it can help shift your focus away from negative thoughts, thereby reducing your stress and anxiety symptoms.
Improved self-esteem: Gratitude can help you appreciate yourself and your life more, resulting in feeling more at ease in your life and loving yourself more.
How to Cultivate Gratitude Daily
There are many ways to cultivate gratitude in your life so that you too can experience all the mental health benefits! The trick is to make the daily practice simple enough that you can, and will, actually do it every day.
A simple morning practice could look like taking a minute to focus on your breath when you wake up in bed and saying 'thank you' to your body. Another quick practice is to look for the good - look for things that bring you joy or pleasure and say them out loud as you go about your day. Yes, being grateful for your morning coffee, making time to read, or gazing outside at the rain, all count.
Another way to practice gratitude is to keep a gratitude journal. This can be a simple practice of capturing 1-3 things you are grateful for at the end of the day (or keep a tiny notebook in your purse or backpack). You can also include a bit about what happened and why, but honestly even making a bullet point list will work!
Don't be fooled by the simplicity of a gratitude practice. Our brain will actually try to thwart our efforts to change if we do something too drastic, so start small and build your practice gently and consistently over time. Trust the process!
Practicing Gratitude & Working With A Therapist to Support Your Mental Health
When you dedicate yourself to practicing gratitude, you can transform your mental health and overall well-being. As you retrain your brain, you rewire your mind-body connection and will see positive impacts mentally, physical, emotionally, and even spiritually.
If you're ready to cultivate gratitude and take the next step on your healing journey, The Holistic Counseling Center can help. Our therapists work with adults, teens and couples both online and in-person.
Book a free consultation call to learn more about working with one of our therapists and how we can help!
We are currently accepting new clients for online counseling anywhere in California, and in-person therapy at our office in El Dorado Hills (just minutes from Folsom and short drive from Sacramento).
If you’re ready to get started, you can book a complimentary consultation call with our intake coordinator to learn more about our practice and if it feels right, get matched with one of our therapists.
We look forward to supporting you!
-Kim
Meet Kim
Kim Burris is a licensed holistic psychotherapist, founder of The Holistic Counseling Center, and author of ‘The First 90 Days After Birth.’
She honors the mind, body, spirit connection and offers evidence-based treatment with a heart centered approach, integrating the depth of western psychology with the heart and soul of eastern mysticism.
Kim and her team currently offer holistic counseling to individuals in El Dorado Hills, CA and online. Click HERE to book a no-cost consultation call.
