Facebook pixel
Go to home page

Focus on Gratitude to Build Brain Health

Happy parents and young children are shown using a laptop and waving while making a video call before Thanksgiving dinner in the dining room.

How can feeling thankful influence your brain?

Identifying reasons to feel grateful benefits your emotional well-being and helps reduce stress. Being intentional about finding gratitude creates a cycle of seeking out positive perspectives.

SCIENCE SAYS:

Gratitude isn’t just an act of kindness. Feeling thanks can also boost your emotional well-being and reduces stress. Research shows gratitude can increase serotonin and dopamine levels, increasing feelings of happiness, even if you do not share these feelings with others.

WAYS TO BEGIN:

  • Reflect on what makes you take pause and feel deep appreciation.
  • Keep a gratitude journal to help document the reasons you give thanks.
  • Practice active listening and meditative strategies for being present in each moment.
  • Invent new ways to express or document gratitude in words, like writing letters, taking photographs and practicing acts of kindness.

Share this article


TRY ANOTHER KNOW BRAINER: How can empathy boost your brain health?

BrainHealth Index

The BrainHealth Index is a holistic measure of brain health performance, capturing the immense complexity of human brain performance as defined by the World Health Organization (WHO, 2022).