Neuroscience reveals how gratitude changes your brain to be happier

We often hear about the power of gratitude for creating a more positive and happy mental state. But did you know that gratitude literally transforms your brain?

According to UCLA’s Mindfulness Awareness Research Center, regularly expressing gratitude literally changes the molecular structure of the brain, keeps the gray matter functioning, and makes us healthier and happier.

When you feel happiness, the central nervous system is affected. You are more peaceful, less reactive, and less resistant. And gratitude is the most effective practice for stimulating feelings of happiness.

In one study of gratitude, conducted by Robert A. Emmons at the University of California at Davis and his colleague Mike McCullough at the University of Miami, randomly assigned participants were given one of three tasks. The participants kept a journal each week, with one group describing things they were grateful for, another describing what’s hassling them and the other keeping track of neutral events. After ten weeks, the participants in the gratitude group felt 25 percent better than the other groups, and had exercised an average of 1.5 hours more.

In a later study by Emmons with a similar set up, participants completing gratitude exercises each day offered other people in their lives more emotional support than those in other groups.

Another study on gratitude was conducted with adults suffering from congenital and adult-onset neuromuscular disorders (NMDs), with the majority of people having post-polio syndrome (PPS). Compared to those not jotting down what they’re grateful for every night, participants that did express gratitude felt more refreshed each day upon wakening. They also felt more connected with others than did participants in the group not expressing gratitude.

A fourth study didn’t require a gratitude journal, but looked at the amount of gratitude people showed in their daily lives. In this study, a group of Chinese researchers found that higher levels of gratitude were associated with better sleep, and also with lower levels of anxiety and depression.

Better sleep, with less anxiety and depression. Some compelling reasons to express gratitude more regularly.

Three simple steps to becoming more grateful

If you’ve only got time to say one prayer today, make it the simple words of “thank you.”

Here are three practical steps you can take to infusing routines of gratitude into your life.

1) Keep a daily journal of three things you are thankful for. This works well first thing in the morning, or just before you go to bed.

2) Make it a practice to tell a spouse, partner or friend something you appreciate about them every day.

3) Look in the mirror when you are brushing your teeth, and think about something you have done well recently or something you like about yourself.

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• People who fret over minor things for more than a day have a much higher risk of chronic disease
• Impatience speeds up aging in DNA: People with quick tempers ages faster

People who fret over minor things for more than a day have a much higher risk of chronic disease

It's time to let go of the minor upsets. People who get easily agitated by a family argument or flat tire have a much higher risk of developing chronic diseases years later, new research has found.

A study of more than 1,000 people found those who dwelled for more than 24 hours on mundane stressors had much weaker immune systems and more heart problems 10 years down the line. By contrast, those who could 'let it go' did not experience significant health changes over the decade-long study. 

The findings, published today in the journal Psychological Science, provide some of the clearest evidence to date that negative emotions can impact physical health. More importantly, the researchers at the University of California, Irvine said, the study hammers home that everyday upsets can be just as damaging to our minds and bodies as major traumatic events like divorce or death.

'Our research shows negative emotions that linger after even minor, daily stressors have important implications for our long term physical health,' said Kate Leger, a graduate teaching assistant at UC Irvine.

'When most people think of the types of stressors that impact health, they think of the big things, major life events that severely impact their lives, such as the death of a loved one or getting divorced.

'But accumulating findings suggest it is not just the big events, but minor, everyday stressors that can impact our health as well.' 

Leger and her team analyzed 1,155 people in the Midlife in the United States Survey, a nationally representative study of adults. In the survey, the participants answered questions about the daily stressors they had experienced across eight consecutive days - and the effect they had on them. Each day they reported how much of the time over the previous 24 hours they had felt a variety of emotions, such as being lonely, afraid, irritable and angry. 

The subsequent part of the study took place a decade later, when they completed surveys that assessed their chronic illnesses and functional limitations.

All together, Leger found a simple flat tire, bad grade or argument has an effect on an individual's health when the bad feeling it generates spills over into the following day. 

Critically, this revealed a link between lingering bad feelings in response to a stressor and a greater number of health problems. These included chronic illnesses, functional impairments and difficulties with everyday tasks. The associations remained regardless of individuals' gender, education and health at the outset. And they held even after the researchers took their same day emotional responses and average number of stressors into account. 

Leger said: 'This means health outcomes don't just reflect how people react to daily stressors, or the number of stressors they are exposed to.

'There is something unique about how negative they feel the next day that has important consequences for physical health.'

The researchers suggest the phenomenon could play out through activation of stress-related systems or through health behaviors - two potential mechanisms that offer avenues for future research. 

Leger added: 'Stress is common in our everyday lives. It happens at work, it happens at school, it happens at home and in our relationships.

'Our research shows the strategy to 'just let it go' could be beneficial to our long term physical health.' 

[dailymail]

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• Positive thinking: Just believing you are healthy cuts your risk of early death by 71% 

Positive thinking: Just believing you are healthy cuts your risk of early death by 71%

Many of us accept we're not the healthiest person on the planet. But new research warns this mindset could be dangerous. 

In fact, according to Stanford University, people who view themselves as less healthy than others are at risk of suffering a premature death - no matter how active they actually are.

The study, published in Health Psychology, is the latest of many to show how our thoughts, feelings and beliefs have a direct impact on our health. 

Experts say this shows we should equally prioritize feeling positive and working out.

'Our findings fall in line with a growing body of research suggesting that our mindsets - in this case, beliefs about how much exercise we are getting relative to others - can play a crucial role in our health,' co-author Dr Alia Crum said. 

Dr Crum, an assistant professor of psychology, and Octavia Zahrt, a doctoral candidate at the Graduate School of Business, analyzed surveys from more than 60,000 U.S. adults from three national data sets. 

The surveys documented participants' levels of physical activity, health and personal background, among other measures. 

In one of the samples, participants wore an accelerometer to measure their activity over a week.

They were all asked the same question: 'Would you say that you are physically more active, less active, or about as active as other persons your age?'

The researchers then viewed death records from 2011, which was 21 years after the first survey was conducted. 

They found that people who saw themselves as less active than others were up to 71 percent more likely to die in the follow-up period than people who thought they were more active than their peers.

This was even true after they controlled for physical activity, age, body mass index, chronic illnesses and other factors. 

Dr Crum's prior research shows that the health benefits people get out of everyday activities depend in part on their mindsets - that is, whether or not they believe that they are getting good exercise. 

In her 2007 study, Dr Crum told a group of workers at a hotel that the activity they got at work met recommended levels of physical activity.

Previously, most of the workers had seen themselves as inactive. 

Through this shift in mindsets, the workers experienced reductions in weight, body fat and blood pressure, among other positive outcomes. 

Zahrt and Dr Crum offer possible explanations for mindsets and perceptions having such powerful effects on health. One is that perceptions can affect motivation, both positively and negatively. 

Those who are made aware of their healthy activity levels - like the hotel room attendants in Dr Crum's 2007 study - can build on them and exercise more.

 Those who deem themselves unfit are more likely to remain inactive, fueling feelings of fear, stress or depression that negatively affect their health.

The researchers also cite the established influence of placebo effects, where patients who think they are getting a treatment experience physiological changes without receiving actual treatment. 

In the same way, people who believe they are getting good exercise may experience more physiological benefits from their exercise than those who believe they aren't getting enough exercise.

'Placebo effects are very robust in medicine. It is only logical to expect that they would play a role in shaping the benefits of behavioral health as well,' Dr Crum said.

The researchers emphasize that the study is correlational in nature and thus does not prove that perceptions of inactivity cause earlier death. However, other experimental research - such as Dr Crum's 2007 study - does suggest a causal nature to the link between perceived amounts of exercise and health outcomes.

'So much effort, notably in public health campaigns, is geared toward motivating people to change their behavior: eat healthier, exercise more and stress less,' Dr Crum said. 'But an important variable is being left out of the equation: people's mindsets about those healthy behaviors.'

In fact, a growing volume of research from Dr Crum and other labs shows that perceptions and mindsets predict health and longevity, for example, in the domains of stress, diet and obesity.

It seems unlikely. But Dr Crum insists it is not surprising, considering the 'everyday experiences where our beliefs or a simple thought have very palpable and physiological effects.'

'In the case of stress, a thought about something going wrong can make us sweat or [become] shaky or increase our heart rate,' Dr Crum continued. 

'With sexual arousal, a simple thought or idea can have immediate physical effects. 

'We experience these things regularly, and yet we're not cataloguing them as something that matters. 

'For whatever reason - dualism or a prioritization of the material - we tend to ignore the fact that our thoughts, mindsets and expectations are shaping our everyday physiology.'

Zahrt and Dr Crum say the findings could help change our perception that vigorous exercise in a gym is the only way to attain a proper activity level. 

Being mindful of and feeling good about activities you do every day - like taking the stairs, walking or biking to work, or cleaning the house - could be an easy first step for everyone to benefit their health, they say.

'It's time that we start taking the role of mindsets in health more seriously,' Dr Crum said. 'In the pursuit of health and longevity, it is important to adopt not only healthy behaviors, but also healthy thoughts.'

[dailymail]

Also read:

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• Want to live longer? Think positively!

Positive thinking can fend off cancer, heart disease and infection for 8 years

Having a more positive outlook on life may help people live longer.

A new study has revealed that women who are optimistic are less likely to die from cancer, heart disease, stroke, infection, and several other major causes of death.

The positive health effects for the women were shown to last over eight years.

The researchers suggest that public health professionals should begin pushing positivity in patients alongside a healthy diet and exercise.

'The link between optimism and health is important to study because it can be changed, and so can easily help people,' said lead-author of the study and Social and Behavioural Sciences expert Dr Eric Kim.

'It's something that not many people think about.'

'A lot of modern healthcare is about sick care and not optimism.

'But actually by enhancing patients' optimism, as well as their diet and exercise regime, we could see plenty of health benefits,' he said.

Though the study only investigated women's health, the researchers say that their results likely apply to men as well.

And Dr Kim has some tips to leading a more optimistic life.

'Good optimistic habits include writing down everything kind you have done for other people, or writing down everything you're grateful for every day for a week.' 

'There is also a "best possible self" exercise, in which you visualise your ultimate goal in important aspects of your life, such as your work or love life.

'Over the next seven days, try to visualise what needs to be done to achieve this outcome.'

The Harvard study analysed data from 2004-2012 from 70,000 women enrolled in the Nurses' Health Study.

This long-running study has biannually tracked women's health via surveys for 40 years.

The team looked at participants' levels of optimism alongside other factors that might play a role in mortality risk, such as race, high blood pressure, diet, and physical activity.

The most optimistic women had a nearly 30% lower risk of dying from any of the diseases analysed compared with the study's least optimistic women.

The most optimistic women had: A 16% lower risk of dying from cancer, 38% lower risk of dying from heart disease; 39% lower risk of dying from stroke; 38% lower risk of dying from respiratory disease; and a 52% lower risk of dying from infection.

The positive health effects for the women were shown to last over eight years.

Optimism - a general expectation that good things will happen - has previously been shown to improve people's health by inspiring healthy behaviors, such as exercising regularly and eating healthily.

But the new research, from the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston, Massachusetts, found that these healthy behaviours only partially explain the lower risk of death in optimists.

The Harvard team speculate that there is actually a direct, intrinsic biological link between positivity, happiness, and health. 

While other studies have linked optimism with reduced risk of early death from cardiovascular problems, this was the first to find a link between optimism and reduced risk from other major causes.

'We don't know for sure, but we think that positivity could reduce inflammation and raise antioxidants levels,' said Dr Kim.

'Studies have shown that these things cut people's risk of various diseases.

'It could also boost the immune system.'

In future, Dr Kim and his team at the Boston-based Lee Kum Sheung Center for Health and Happiness, hope to further explore the direct biological pathways between optimism and health.

And whilst positivity can help with health, Dr Kim warns against victim blaming.

'Some people might not want to become more optimistic, and it's important we respect that as a society.'

[dailymail]

Also read:

• Feel younger than your age? It may help you live longer
• Is using the power of your MIND the best way to beat chronic pain?
• People who view themselves as healthy are less susceptible to the common cold
• Want to live longer? Think positively!

Want to live longer? Think positively!

Scientists have come up with proof of the power of positive thinking.

They have found people who have a sunny, optimistic outlook on growing older live longer than those who are constantly worrying.

The research suggests that people who feel bad about getting old accelerate the ageing process. In contrast a positive attitude will add more years to your life than not smoking or taking regular exercise.

A team of American psychologists found that people who were positive about aging lived an average of 7.5 years longer than those who regretted the passing years.

They believe that negative thoughts about the ageing process have a direct impact on the will to live.

The researchers, led by Dr Becca Levy, from Yale University, in Connecticut, said the effect of a positive attitude towards aging was greater than physiological measures such as low blood pressure and cholesterol - each of which is thought to add a maximum of four years to life.

The effect was even more pronounced than factors such as keeping weight down, not smoking and taking exercise - each thought to add between one and three years to life.

The researchers studied information from 660 volunteers aged fifty plus.

Death rates among the participants were compared with their responses to a survey conducted 23 years earlier.

The volunteers were asked if they agreed or disagreed to statements such as "as you get older, you are less useful".

Dr Levy's team believe the sheer will to live partly explains the link between positive thinking and longevity. However, they don't think it is the only reason.

They believe another factor is the effect of stress on the heart.

Previous research has shown that the hearts and arteries of elderly people exposed to negative aging stereotypes do not respond well to stress.

People could have negative thoughts about aging picked up from society without even being aware of them, said the researchers.

"Our study carries two messages," they wrote.

"The discouraging one is that negative self-perceptions can diminish life expectancy.

"The encouraging one is that positive self-perceptions can prolong life expectancy."

The researchers warn that a poor attitude towards the elderly in Western societies may exacerbate the problems. It is time to stop knocking the old, they say, and make them feel good.

The research is published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.

Also read:

• People who view themselves as healthy are less susceptible to the common cold
• Feel younger than your age? It may help you live longer

People who view themselves as healthy are less susceptible to the common cold

Bad news for hypochondriacs - people who believe they are healthy are less susceptible to the common cold.

 If you think you're susceptible to getting the sniffles, chances are you're probably right.

A recent study found that people are better at assessing their own health than doctors might give them credit for.

Researchers asked 360 healthy adults to assess their health as excellent, very good, good, fair or poor.

They were then exposed to the common cold and monitored for five days to see if they got it.

The experiment found about a third of the participants, who had an average age of 33, went on to develop colds.

Those who rated their health as 'excellent' were twice less likely to develop a cold than those who were very good, good, or fair, scientists at investigators at Carnegie Mellon University found.

It suggests people who consider themselves to be very healthy have a stronger immune system than those who have some doubts.

In general, people who are optimistic are more likely to do things to take care of themselves. A positive attitude can cause a chain reaction of positive outcomes, thoughts, and events.

Also read: Is using the power of your MIND the best way to beat chronic pain?