Receiving Gratitude For Improved State of Mind
A common practice is to express gratitude for the good in our lives in an effort to improve our state of mind. Recent experiments indicate receiving gratitude is even more powerful.
There are areas in the brain related to states of wellbeing and positive social behavior. We could activate these areas (pro social neural networks) of the brain simply by thinking about receiving gratitude. The technique can be practiced for as little as one to five minutes per day and have effective, lasting results.
The practice can involve you receiving sincere gratitude from someone you assisted. It could also be a story about someone receiving gratitude in a way that moves you. The story could be your experience of someone expressing sincere gratitude to you or a true experience you are familiar with. This should be an actual event you can relate to. Our brains do know when we are creating a fiction that isn’t real. The actual story could then be reduced to significant bullet points to help with recall. Reviewing these points, a few minutes each day, can activate the brain areas for wellbeing and positive social engagement. The practice is simple. Write the story in details that are significant to you. Include the following:
- What was the struggle.
- What was the help provided.
- How does the help impact you
There also seemed to be notable physical results, from another experiment, when using this practice. Clinical results indicated a reduction in inflammatory chemicals (TNF-alpha and IL-6) in women. This simple practice seems to have physical benefits in addition to psychological benefits.
The above comes from “The Huberman Lab” Podcast produced by Stanford Professor Andrew Huberman. The links below lead to the Huberman Lab Podcast Website and the same video on YouTube. The video is one hour and 26 minutes long. I’ve condensed the content to the actionable material. Follow the links below if you have an interest in the science behind the practice.
YouTube: Huberman Lab YouTube
Huberman Lab: Huberman Lab Podcast Website
Disclaimer: The “Just Suppose Newsletter” and Blog share ideas in exploring personal progress as derived from various sources. It is intended as information only and is not intended as advice to engage in any specific physical or mental activity. Always consider whether these ideas, concepts, techniques & activities are right for you & always confer with your health professionals.