Does Gratitude Rewire Your Brain? - American Brain Foundation
How would you describe the experience of gratitude? You might say it’s a warm, fuzzy feeling you get when other people express their appreciation for you, or when you appreciate them. Gratitude is a feeling, but it’s also the deliberate act of acknowledging an external source for something you value, whether that source is another person, a community, or a deity or spiritual concept. Psychologically, expressing and receiving thanks can be enormously validating, and your brain rewards you for it by releasing neurotransmitters (organic chemicals for transmitting signals through the nervous system) that make you feel happier. Gratitude could be thought of as a way for the brain to encourage kindness toward others and motivate individuals to engage in socially conscious behavior. But research shows that, biologically, there is much more going on than earning a reward of feel-good chemicals. In fact, gratitude activates physiological changes in many different brain regions. When we feel gra