Science! It’s been awhile since I shared some gratitude research.
Charitable Giving and Gratitude
Throughout the years I've shared many benefits of practicing gratitude from personal experiences as well as those proven through research studies. I discovered a new study with an unexpected benefit of practicing gratitude that can be seen in brain scans.
First a little about the study that was published in Frontiers in Human Neuroscience. It was a controlled experiment that measured both self-reported gratitude and altruism as well as taking brain scans to capture neural measures of pure altruism. They found that "gratitude biases the brain’s reward system toward rewards for others versus oneself."
In the study the control group wrote a general journal entry each day and the experimental group wrote what they were grateful for each day. There was no difference between the two groups at pre-test but after the intervention the experimental group had statistically significant increases in both self-report satisfaction as well as increases in neural activity in the brain's reward centers.
Basically all of this means that writing down what you are grateful for every day makes charitable giving feel better.
I love this so much. Because not only does practicing gratitude feel good it also makes giving feel even better. And when we are giving we have more to be grateful for so it is a beautiful cycle. But more importantly it makes us more likely to do the things that make the world a better place. Not just sitting around making donations but also taking action and increasing our connections to other human beings. OK I am generalizing the results by saying that. But it isn't too far of a stretch to see that volunteering would create the same feel-good effects as donating.
One more benefit of practicing gratitude. I hope you will share what you are grateful for with us on the site. We are missing your voice.
Clearly, being grateful has some pretty sweet benefits.
~Dani Dipirro
What benefits do you experience from practicing gratitude regularly?
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[su_note note_color=”#e7e7e7″ text_color=”#686767″ radius=”0″] My gratitude journey started in May 2011 and continues to this day. Thank you for being a part of it! A daily gratitude practice is simple. Write down three things you are grateful for each day. Download your free GratitudeGuide. My clients focus on gratitude and learn from their successes to make the positive changes they want in their lives. You can too. Call me to set up our first meeting 505.333.9336. [/su_note]