Gratitude brings significant benefits to our mental and physical health

 Imagine that you are running away from a Nazi chase, and quite by chance, a stranger takes you under his wing. This stranger takes care of you all winter and provides you with food and shelter, even travels to other cities to deliver messages to your family, yet there is no expectation or hope that you will repay him. While your loved ones and loved ones are systematically trapped by Nazi fanatics, this stranger keeps you alive and nurtures your faith in humanity, offering you proof that amid widespread horror, many individuals still act with unlimited compassion and dignity.

When you think about this stranger, what he risks and gains - how will you feel?

You may experience a surge of positive emotions, a joy of relief that you do not have to worry about survival, and a sense of intimacy with the stranger who made it possible for you. Basically, these feelings can be described as gratitude...

Gratitude as a feeling is celebrated throughout philosophy and religion. Recent scientific research suggests that gratitude brings significant benefits to our mental and physical health. But very little is known about what actually happens in our body and brain when we experience that feeling.

Why is that important? Because a better understanding of the physiology of gratitude can help point out strategies for reaping its health benefits and help people understand the importance of nurturing this powerful emotion. This research aims to lay the groundwork for what happens in the brain when we are grateful.

What can the brain tell us about gratitude?

If you study gratitude, you will come across philosophical treatises and religious speeches that emphasize the importance of appreciation, along with scientific research that suggests that gratitude can improve sleep, strengthen romantic relationships, protect you from illness, protect you. In addition, motivates you to exercise and boost your happiness, among other benefits.

However, very little is known about what happens in our brain and body when we feel grateful, making it difficult to understand how gratitude really works. For example, can the activity of our brain reveal anything about how much gratitude achieves its significant benefits?

Given the clear link between mental and physical health, understanding what happens in the brain when we feel grateful can tell us more about the connection between mind and body - namely, how positive emotion can

improve bodily functions. Research results can also help scholars design programs to generate gratitude by assisting them in pinpointing activities and experiences necessary to reap the benefits of gratitude.

It must be said that "catching" people when they feel grateful has its challenges. For example, some people will not feel grateful when they expect it, while others may feel grateful in unexpected situations. Powerful stories of help and sacrifice will be used as the best example of gratitude.

How to achieve a grateful brain?

For the research purpose, a collection of video material was compiled with stories of Holocaust survivors filled with relentless acts of selflessness and generosity. Each scenario was reformulated in the second person (e.g., you are on your way in terrible weather, and another prisoner gives you a coat) and presented to a group of participants. Participants were asked to imagine how they would feel if they were in the script. While participants reflected on these scenarios, their brain activity was measured using modern brain imaging techniques (in the form of functional magnetic resonance imaging).

For each scenario, participants were asked how grateful they were and that rating was related to brain activity at the time. While such an approach would not foster precisely the same feelings about surviving such a situation, the vast majority of participants reported strong feelings of gratitude, deep engagement, and perhaps more importantly, increased empathy and understanding of the Holocaust due to participating in research.

The results showed that when participants reported those feelings of gratitude, their brains showed activity in a set of regions located in the medial prefrontal cortex, the area in the brain's frontal lobes where the two hemispheres meet. This brain area is associated with understanding other people's perspectives, empathy, and a sense of relief. This is also an area of ​​the brain that is heavily connected to the systems in the body and brain that regulate emotions and support the stress relief process.

More reasons to be grateful

These results show us a reasonable story of gratitude. Gratitude-related regions are part of the neural networks that "engage" when we socialize or experience pleasure. These regions are also strongly associated with the features of the brain that control basic emotional regulation, such as heart rate and arousal. In addition, they are associated with stress reduction and thus pain relief. Finally, they are also closely linked to the "my opioid" networks activated during close interpersonal contact and pain relief.

In other words, the results show that because gratitude relies on the brain networks associated with social networking and stress relief, this may partly explain how feelings of gratitude lead to health benefits over time. The sense of appreciation and recognition of help from others creates a more relaxed state of the body and allows the benefits of reduced stress to affect us.