What Are You Grateful For?

The antidote to negative emotion, showing gratitude is known to release dopamine and serotonin in the brain — the neurotransmitters associated with feelings of pleasure, motivation and joy.

It’s thought that something like depression comes with the inability to experience positive emotion, however neuroscience says otherwise. People who suffer from depression are capable of experiencing positive emotion, however unlike the healthy brain, they are incapable of sustaining these positive emotions.

Research suggests that the more you practice gratitude, the more you strengthen the necessary neural circuitry involved with these positive emotions. Its also been found that the more you practice, the more effortless it becomes for your brain to not only produce positive emotion, but also sustain these positive emotions.

But before you begin a gratitude practice, I must point out that there are certain ways in which you need to practice gratitude in order for it to be effective. Its no good expressing gratitude towards something that is universal to everyone else, such as “I am grateful for the sun”.

An effective practice of gratitude involves finding things that are specific to you and your personal circumstances. And, when you do think of something specific to you, it’s best to pause, reflect and really embody the positive emotion that comes with it.

Would love to hear what you are grateful for today in the comments below