A healthy helping of thankfulness

Naomi Eisenberger of UCLA is among the researchers working to expand our understanding of gratitude.

Giving thanks—it’s not just for the fourth Thursday in November anymore.

Researchers in the burgeoning field of gratitude science are finding a host of psychological and physical benefits associated with feeling and expressing thankfulness.

Gratitude has been linked to reduced depression, increased optimism, fewer physical ailments and more of that feel-good neurotransmitter dopamine in the brain.

It’s not all new—cultivating an “attitude of gratitude” has long been a part of 12-step addiction recovery programs—but there’s growing excitement about the expanding frontiers of such research and about finding new ways to scientifically document the effects of being thankful.

At UCLA, for example, Naomi Eisenberger, an associate professor of psychology, is in the midst of a project in which the participants—women ranging in age from 30 to about 60—go through a six-week “gratitude course” involving writing about things for which they’re thankful. Blood samples taken before and after the course will be compared to see whether inflammation levels, linked to a number of chronic diseases, have been affected by the gratitude exercise.

“We want to see in this study whether this gratitude intervention can actually reduce some of the inflammatory activity that we’re seeing in these individuals,” Eisenberger said.

Eisenberg’s research is part of a broader effort by the Greater Good Science Center at UC-Berkeley to “expand the scientific understanding of gratitude.” The Center, with funding from the John Templeton Foundation, last year awarded $3 million in grants to researchers across the country for a wide range of studies, including exploring how gratitude affects romantic relationships, healing after a heart attack, health and resilience in aging, and what people choose to purchase—experiences vs. material objects—in a “consumerist society.”

John Templeton Foundation infographic by Here’s My Chance.

“This research is exponentially growing and we hope can have a continued impact in the world,” said Emiliana Simon-Thomas, the center’s science director. “Gratitude isn’t a new idea, right? There’s certainly a long tradition of different philosophical frameworks or religious traditions that embrace and promote gratitude practice. But for many it’s important to also have this empirical base [to demonstrate that] this is something that serves ourselves and our communities in a profound and measurable way.”

Even as the science expands and new discoveries proliferate, one fundamental remains the same: practicing gratitude is free and accessible to just about everybody.

“It’s shocking how simple it is,” Simon-Thomas said. (Some tips on getting started from the Greater Good website are here and here.)

But here’s something to keep in mind if you’re counting your blessings around the Thanksgiving table this year: it seems that not all gratitude is created equal.

“What the research is starting to uncover,” Simon-Thomas said, “is a pattern showing that gratitude towards people, particularly gratitude expressed—not just felt, but expressed—is actually the most powerful form of gratitude, one that has the most bang for your buck in terms of its impact on your day-to-day psychological experience.”

Marvin Southard, director of the Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health, sees a “use-it-or-lose-it” pattern emerging in some of some of the recent research into the workings of the brain.

“It’s like a muscle. If you use certain muscles, they get stronger. The muscles that you don’t use get weaker,” he said. “It’s the same thing with the way the neurotransmitters work in our brain…There actually has been some clinical work done to show that focusing on positive things, cultivating a sense of gratitude for the things that have happened in one’s life, even for people who are suffering from a chronic illness, produces better health outcomes for those individuals.”

In some ways, the new gratitude research is less about re-inventing the wheel than providing giving scientific credence to something that’s long been a part of the therapeutic experience.

“The sense that things like meditation and gratitude are good for you is common sense in a certain sort of way,” Southard said. “And I guess what ended up surprising me is that there seems to be so much scientific neurological research that supports those things that in the past we would have just taken for positive common sense.”

Robert Emmons, a UC-Davis psychology professor and author widely seen as the foremost pioneer of gratitude research, said the subject has exploded both in the popular imagination and in research because it works.

“The topic has become popular because people realize what science is now proving—that there is remarkable power in gratitude to heal, to energize, and to change lives,” Emmons said in an email. “There is a new generation of gratitude researchers out there who are examining the health effects of gratitude. Some of the findings are really amazing. They are using state-of-the-art measures of biomarkers of health and aging.”

And how do the mental health and neuroscience professionals themselves get their gratitude on?

In Simon-Thomas’ case, a nightly game of “Rose, Bud, Thorn” around the family dinner table is just the ticket.

“Rose is something that you’re really grateful for, that you want to think about and appreciate,” she explained. “The bud is something that you’re looking forward to, that you’re excited about happening in the future. The thorn is something that’s difficult that happened…It’s nice to do every day. It sort of keeps us all in touch and gives us more insight into what’s going on with each other and with ourselves.”

Emmons watches how he communicates: “I  like to use the language of gifts. Think of the benefits you received today as gifts. Relish and savor the gifts you have been given. That’s what I do and what I suggest people try.”

As for Southard, he’s found something that serves him well, even on those marathon board meeting Tuesdays at the Hall of Administration.

“I meditate twice a day and at the end of each session I try to be conscious of the blessings in my life—even on Tuesday.”

Posted 11/22/13