When we express gratitude and receive the same, our brain releases dopamine and serotonin, the two crucial neurotransmitters responsible for our emotions, and they make us feel 'good'. They enhance our mood immediately, making us feel happy from the inside.
Susan Ferguson says when humans feel gratitude, the brain produces oxytocin, a hormone important to bonding. “When we feel gratitude, the brain produces oxytocin, a hormone important to bonding,” Ferguson said. “It's the same hormone that mothers release after birth and is found in breast milk.
“When you experience the feeling of gratitude, your brain releases a combination of dopamine, oxytocin, and endorphins,” Fox told Runner's World. “This is all very similar to a runner's high.”
Research has shown that consciously practicing gratitude can reduce feelings of stress and anxiety. In fact, studies have found that a single act of thoughtful gratitude produces an immediate 10% increase in happiness, and a 35% reduction in depressive symptoms.
Gratitude makes you happy
Expressing feelings of appreciation to others and ourselves creates positive emotions and feelings of pleasure and contentment. Research shows that people who express gratitude are more likely to share with others freely, offer emotional support and assistance, and forgive more willingly.
Expressing gratitude is associated with a host of mental and physical benefits. Studies have shown that feeling thankful can improve sleep, mood and immunity. Gratitude can decrease depression, anxiety, difficulties with chronic pain and risk of disease. If a pill that could do this, everyone would be taking it.
In short, gratitude can boost neurotransmitter serotonin and activate the brain stem to produce dopamine." Dopamine is our brain's pleasure chemical.
Gratitude helps people feel more positive emotions, relish good experiences, improve their health, deal with adversity, and build strong relationships.
Gratitude is a powerful emotion that can bring many benefits to our lives. Expressing gratitude and cultivating it in ourselves has been linked to increased happiness, improved physical health, greater mental well-being, higher self-esteem, and life satisfaction.
Brain Chemicals
—When gratitude is expressed and/or received, the brain releases dopamine and serotonin, two crucial neurotransmitters responsible for our emotions. Dopamine and serotonin contribute to feelings of pleasure, happiness, and overall well-being.
Gratitude helps to reduce stress hormones in the body. According to research presented by UC Davis Health, gratitude is related to 23 percent lower levels of cortisol (the hormone that creates stress in the body). Gratitude blocks toxic emotions, such as resentment, envy, depression, and regret.
Gratitude is one of the most powerful human emotions. Once expressed, it changes attitude, brightens outlook, and broadens our perspective.
Psychologists find that, over time, feeling grateful boosts happiness and fosters both physical and psychological health, even among those already struggling with mental health problems.
3 signs you're practicing 'toxic gratitude'
The gratitude that you're expressing is invalidating your feelings. You're using gratitude as an excuse to stay in a situation that isn't serving you. This is likely due to fear that you may not be able to achieve better, Pearson says.
Gratitude is a very high vibrational state to be in, and a very high mood or energy to experience compared to other moods and energies out there.
Gratitude reduces anxiety and depression
At the neurochemical level, feelings of gratitude are associated with an increase in the neural modulation of the prefrontal cortex, the brain site responsible for managing negative emotions like guilt, shame, and violence.
Gratitude improves psychological health.
Gratitude reduces a multitude of toxic emotions, from envy and resentment to frustration and regret. Robert Emmons, a leading gratitude researcher, has conducted multiple studies on the link between gratitude and well-being.
By now, it's no secret that practicing gratitude allows our brains to release serotonin and dopamine—two “feel good” chemicals that positively impact mood, willpower, and motivation. But what's not as well known is regularly engaging in a gratitude practice strengthens these neural pathways.
It allows us to see value, virtue and benefit in everything. In this regard, gratitude can be considered the antidote to many forms of suffering. Therefore, it might also be, in its own right, an actual form of spirituality.
Research shows it can reduce stress and improve physical and mental health. “…. many studies over the past decade have found that people who consciously count their blessings tend to be happier and less depressed….” Learn more from Gratitude Changes You And Your Brain (Berkeley's Greater Good Magazine).
Studies have shown that gratitude reduces anxiety (depression, too) in part by optimizing the functioning of the autonomic nervous system as well as those same neurotransmitters involved in anxiety. The brain can't respond to anxiety and gratitude at the same time, which means it's one or the other.
Your emotions and feelings are complex. Rarely do you ever feel one single thing at any given moment? It's important to understand that you can experience feelings of sadness, anger, and grief alongside gratitude.