5 Simple Ways to Practice Gratitude
For our early hominid ancestors, paying attention to the good in their lives did not have the same evolutionary advantage as paying attention to the bad.
In those harsher, less abundant times, humans developed a strong bias for the negative, a hyper-sensitivity to threats and scarcity; and this bias served them well, keeping them alive and allowing them to pass their genes on to us.
But today, it is far less important that we pay fierce attention to every little threat or discomfort. In fact, this tendency to notice what’s not going well in our world is the source of many of our woes, where our brain overamplifies our troubles and creates far more stress than we ought to experience.
Practicing gratitude is a science-backed way we can override our inherent negativity bias, shift our mood for the better, improve our health and be a kinder, happier person. At the core, our mind cannot focus on positive and negative information at the same time.
By consciously practicing gratitude, we are training the brain to pay more attention to positive emotions and thoughts, thus reducing worry, anxiety and stress. In his book Upward Spiral, Dr. Alex Korb describes how at the neurochemical level, gratitude acts to promote the release of neurotransmitters like serotonin and dopamine, which can increase positive emotions and dampen negative ones.
GRATITUDE CONNECTS US TO OTHERS
Gratitude is also incredibly beneficial in developing positive relationships in our lives. It shifts our brain’s focus from ‘me’ to ‘we’. It forces us out of our little, myopic world and opens us to the broader connections and inter-relatedness we are all part of.
As a species, we are wired to connect and collaborate. Developing and maintaining positive relationships is at the heart of being human and key to our happiness and resilience.
“Gratitude drives happiness. Happiness boosts productivity. Productivity reveals mastery. And mastery inspires the world”.
- Robin Sharma
GRATITUDE IS A CHOICE
Ultimately, practicing gratitude is choice; a choice that only you can make. Now that you understand the neuroscience behind it and the benefits it provides, let’s look at five ways you can make an intentional choice to be more grateful, happier and more resilient in an often chaotic and uncertain world.