The Superpower of Gratitude
Feel better. Receive a multitude of benefits. Rewire your brain. And advance your career.
Believe it or not, science and empirical research has associated all of these outcomes with the regular expression of gratitude.
After Thanksgiving, then what?
Yes, it is the Thanksgiving season, and this is when almost every person on the planet embraces gratitude and expressions of gratitude. But give it its due – gratitude represents a critical quality for success in personal relationships, improved achievement in the workplace and, of course, life itself.
Sincere gratitude, even clumsily delivered, unleashes an entire spectrum of benefits, the kind that wash over others and magnify in scope and impact.
For instance, the hypothalamus, that mysterious little part of your brain that hides behind the bridge of your nose, holds an astonishing influence on our daily lives. The hypothalamus is what essentially train wrecks your good-intentioned and carefully planned-out diet. You walk by a piece of hot cherry pie and as soon as your on-board sensor package (sight and smell) transmits critical data, boom – the hypothalamus highjacks the logical higher-thinking portion of your brain: “Diet? What diet? Reward yourself now!”
A shot of constructive dopamine
The result of even considering the possibility of busting that diet? The hypothalamus produces dopamine, a neurotransmitter that plays a leading part in reward-induced behavior.
But when it comes to expressing gratitude – recognizing and being thankful for good things in your life (including thanking people sincerely) – the cognitive and emotional part of that act also produces dopamine that leads to all kinds of good outcomes, especially if you do it over time, according to a National Institutes of Health study.
In reality, expressed gratitude represents a critical superpower that can literally change your life, your well-being, and even your career for the better. Here’s a few reasons to embrace and practice gratitude, both on Thanksgiving and year-round!
Give toxic thoughts the heave-ho A truckload of empirical research points out that the regular practice of gratitude cancels out and replaces toxic and destructive emotions. Yes, it may seem corny, especially when you hear or read that you should write down things your grateful for (at least three) in a journal on a daily basis. The upshot? It. Works.
Gratitude makes you more attractive Want to build relationships? Get noticed? Advance your career? Trying being sincerely grateful and express it. Being the opposite also underscores the power of gratitude. Nobody wants to be around a whining loser who grumbles about nearly everything. Complaining repels. Being grateful attracts. Want to be talked about? Be grateful. You’ve heard someone say, “Boy, Karen has had almost everything in the book thrown at her, but somehow she always has a good word to say.” Gratitude – essentially guaranteed to work in building relationships.
Toxic workplace? Take action! A long-time friend of mine, who is also the president of an international non-profit organization, never fails to thank or compliment me almost every time we have contact. What is amazing about this is the fact that he has his share of active naysayers who sometimes go around him and undercut initiatives. He could choose to be in a foul attitude, but instead always humbly says, “If you don’t like the darkness, light a candle.” He expresses sincere, thoughtful gratitude and it impacts that organization all the way through. The takeaway? Gratitude transforms toxicity and often outright neutralizes people who are passive-aggressive. It reminds me of a quote attributed to Malcolm Gladwell: “The world is changed by your example, not your opinion.”
Can’t sleep? Count your blessings. Be grateful. Ever start to gently drift off to sleep and suddenly all of your sleepy thoughts are blown apart by one extraneous anxiety-producing memory? The resulting sticky toxic thoughts seems to swell in size until all hope of falling asleep has fled. Guess what? Through these unmanaged disturbing thoughts, you may have just changed your blood chemistry and now have a tank load of fresh cortisol and adrenaline coursing around and soaking your brain cells. These hormones will efficiently do their jobs, raising your heart rate and getting your body ready to fight or flee. Unfortunately, you need to do neither. What you do need to do is sleep. The antidote? Cognitively choose to be grateful and start mentally listing all of the good things you presently have. This will center you in the present back in reality, and quiet those cascading stress inducers. (Bonus hint – use that gratitude journal before you get in bed – chances are you’ll sleep better)
Be grateful and rewire your brain. Consciously choosing and practicing gratitude – a sense of being (and ultimately feeling) thankful – aids in your brain’s positive capacity to build new neural nets through neuroplasticity. Several studies on neuroplasticity at major universities like UCLA and elsewhere positively link expressions of gratitude to the enhanced capacity being able to effectively practice mindfulness and live in the present. It’s not an overnight process, but over time, gratitude helps us overcome our psychic entropy and move off center, ceasing to re-examine bad situations (real or imagined) in microscopic detail and replacing them with constructive reality-based optimism.
The point? Gratitude is a superpower. You may not think of yourself as a truly grateful person. But the benefits of humbly leveraging this superpower exist, and they start mounting up immediately upon application.
Gratitude can be a life- and company-changing catalyst. Gratitude represents a choice. So, this Thanksgiving and tomorrow and the day after that, make a forward-looking choice. Look for that sense of impending good. And embrace the superpower of gratitude!
By Michael Snyder, MEK Managing Principal, who constantly tries to move being grateful off of the “to-do” list.