The Biology of Gratitude
The Thanksgiving ritual is a neurobiological intervention.
KEY POINTS
Thanksgiving conjures strong feelings, including love, stress, and, most importantly, gratitude.
Gratitude produces an explosion of neurochemicals that downregulate our nervous systems and elevate our mood.
Gratitude can increase the brain's plasticity.
Ancient rituals include characteristics such as being in community with others that are good for our biology.
As a physician and scientist, I spend a lot of time thinking about the biology behind the things we feel. It’s a passion subject for me, whether the feelings are bad things like stress and shame, or good things like love and gratitude. The feeling of gratitude comes to mind as the Thanksgiving holiday draws near.
For many of us, Thanksgiving can be a wonderful holiday because it is a time when we look around our table and see the faces of people we cherish, a meal we have prepared together, and, hopefully, a reflection on what the life we have gotten to live has given us.
Thanksgiving can also be stressful. It can be a reminder of someone we have lost, a family that is hurting, and the scarcity of the things we need. All this makes gratitude, at times, a complex emotion.
What Expressing Gratitude Produces
Here’s what is happening in your brain and body when you think or do something that expresses gratitude and reminds you of what you have and what you can give to someone else: Gratitude produces an explosion of neurochemicals—oxytocin, dopamine, serotonin, endorphins—that downregulate our nervous systems, reduce stress, elevate our mood, produce a sense of well-being, empathy, and perspective.
Gratitude can even increase the plasticity of the brain. Gratitude isn’t only something we feel; it’s something we do. And that choice has real biological consequences. The actions we take will trigger important neural circuits and the biochemistry of the brain.
The Wisdom in Ancient Rituals
I’ve often wondered how certain rituals were created long ago—especially those that seem to have been designed around an understanding of biology, even though the biology wasn’t known then. Thanksgiving is one of those, involving relationships, storytelling, reflection, a shared meal, and being in community with others.
This ritual is rich in the very signals–safety, belonging, attunement—that regulate and repair us. At the first Thanksgiving in 1621 in Plymouth, Massachusetts, they didn’t know that this ritual would be rich in oxytocin, dopamine, and more, but it is. It is actually a neurobiological intervention.
An Annual Reset
When I think of it this way, the holiday starts to mean something else, something more like an annual reset. Now that I know that gratitude is not just a feeling, not just an emotion, but a whole mind-body-biological force that I can set in motion, I am going to invest in it—through conversation, cooking, playing, and any way I can express who and what matters in conscious gratitude.
Read the article on Psychology Today.
