16 Benefits Of Gratitude, According To Science & Mental Health Experts

Practicing gratitude is as easy as saying thank you for life's blessings, and the sooner you start, the sooner you'll start reaping the benefits of gratitude—of which there are plenty, by the way. 

Gratitude is "the practice of making space for appreciation," licensed psychologist Snehal Kumar, Ph.D., tells mbg. This could be an appreciation for the people and things in your life, the experiences you've had, or the experiences you've yet to have, but gratitude can also (and should) be rooted in an appreciation of the self, Kumar explains.

What separates gratitude from thankfulness is intention, therapist Joree Rose, LMFT, adds. Gratitude "is a quality of thankfulness," she says. "It's something you intentionally choose to focus on and practice, which means you don't just feel it; you do something about it."

Practicing gratitude has been shown to improve emotional regulation, a key component of managing stress. In a 2017 study1 published in the journal Scientific Reports, researchers analyzed participants' heart rates before, during, and after experiencing gratitude and before, during, and after experiencing resentment. When an individual focused on the things they were grateful for, their heart rates decreased—a change associated with calmness and a more sedative state. Additionally, the gratitude practice relaxed communication between various regions of the brain correlated with increased anxiety, suggesting being grateful might make it easier for the mind to not get so worked up worrying about things.

Gratitude causes the brain to produce an increase in dopamine (a neurotransmitter that's related to feelings of pleasure and reward-motivated behavior) and serotonin (a neurotransmitter believed to help regulate mood and social behavior), licensed clinical psychologist and board-certified neurotherapist Catherine Jackson tells mbg. 

All those feel-good chemicals we just mentioned? They're also good for your emotional state. Take this example: Rose tells mbg that during a group mindfulness class in which she led a guided gratitude meditation, one of her clients was able to soften his anger toward his wife by reframing his mindset from hostile to grateful. The couple had gotten into an argument the morning before Rose's class, but by focusing on the fact that he has his wife to argue with rather than the fight itself, the argument became less impactful. 

"[When] you are triggered, overwhelmed, anxious, sad, angry, depressed, etc., the amygdala (the emotional alarm in the center of the brain) gets triggered, which shuts down executive functioning," where logic, reason, rationality, communication, and decision-making reside, Rose explains. If you choose gratitude over a grudge and over the negative, it won't necessarily negate the issue entirely; however, it will help you feel less emotionally charged. 

As soon as you become comfortable in your relationships and become better acquainted with another person's quirks and "flaws," it's easy to dwell on even the slightest irritations, miscommunications, and disappointments that may arise within the relationship. Unfortunately, this can drive a wedge between you and a friend or loved one. But Rose says the more you focus on the good in your relationships, the more you'll find. 

"[In addition to an] increase in feeling loved and cared for, as well as love and caring for others, [practicing gratitude] will also help you to increase the feeling of interconnectivity with others," Rose explains. By allowing you to tap into a greater human experience, ultimately overlapping with the practice of self-compassion, gratitude serves as a gentle reminder that you are not alone; your problems and insecurities are valid and shared, and recognizing this can help strengthen your social connections.

Speaking of empathy, according to research published in the journal Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, individuals who regularly practiced gratitude were said to have more gray matter (cell bodies in regions of the brain where information is processed) in the right temporal lobe of the brain (the part of the brain that processes emotions). Increased gray matter volume in that particular area has been associated with "increases in healthy individuals with higher competence in interpreting other's intentions," the researchers noted in the paper. Taken together, these findings suggest that gratitude may be connected to a better ability to understand others.

Research shows that the more grateful you are, the healthier you feel. A 2013 study3 published in the journal Personality and Individual Differences found more grateful people were more likely to report better physical health. Why? The researchers found those who practiced more gratitude tended to have better psychological health, participated in more healthy activities, and were more willing to seek help for their health concerns, all of which made them more likely to experience better actual health. 

In turn, some research suggests that honing a more grateful mentality now might even help prevent disease later on in life. One 2015 study found gratitude can lead to a better mood, better quality of sleep, more self-efficacy as it relates to heart health, and even lower amounts of inflammation in the body.

Another study4 from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) analyzed blood flow across various regions of the brain while participants expressed feelings of gratitude and found that individuals who showed more gratitude experienced higher levels of activity in the hypothalamus, the part of the brain that controls major bodily functions such as eating, drinking, sleeping, your metabolism, and stress responses.

Research5 published in the Journal of Positive Psychology in August 2018 found the secret to raising a child who isn't materialistic is to instill a sense of gratitude in them as early as possible. According to one of the experiments discussed in the publication, prompting children to keep a gratitude journal proved effective; however, if writing isn't something your child is interested in, California psychiatrist Monisha Vasa, M.D., tells mbg they'll also learn by example. 

"Allow children to witness you modeling being helpful and kind to others in small or big ways" so that they can ultimately mimic your behavior, Vasa says. "Noticing and participating in acts of kindness as a family allows for more connection and positive experiences, which we can all be grateful for."

Let's say finances are tight. Someone who dwells on the negative would probably harp on their bank account collecting dust. But someone who regularly expresses their gratitude might focus their attention on the rain that nourishes the trees that give them oxygen, the soft pillow they rest their head on every night, or a dear friend who makes sure to call if for no other reason than to say hello. 

A study7 conducted by researchers at the University of Rome found regularly expressing feelings of gratitude can lead to fewer symptoms of depression and anxiety symptoms.

Studies8 show that feeling confident in who you are and your abilities can also stem from regularly expressing feelings of gratitude. It happens in a kind of domino effect: The more positive you feel within yourself, the more positive energy you express to others and the world around you, clinical psychologist Shelley Sommerfeldt, Psy.D., tells mbg. 

Did you know the human brain is practically hard-wired to automatically, intensely, harp on the negative in life? That same energy is rarely displayed in times of celebration or positivity. A regular gratitude practice can challenge this negativity bias9—aka our brain's natural tendency to focus on the negative rather than the positive—in order to promote a more positive outlook. 

In a series of three studies10 published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, researchers randomly assigned participants to either keep a daily or weekly log of one of three topics: hassles they encountered, things they were grateful for, or neutral life events and relationships. Participants were encouraged to document their overall mood, physical and mental health symptoms, and their behaviors along the way as well. The results showed that participants required to engage in a gratitude practice were relatively more positive and experienced more emotional and interpersonal benefits than participants who focused on other topics.

Mark Borg Jr., Ph.D., a psychologist, psychoanalyst, and author of Don't Be a Dick: Change Yourself, Change Your World, tells mbg that one of the most important benefits of gratitude is that, although you can (and should) be grateful for your own accomplishments and skills, gratitude is deeply rooted in taking the focus off ourselves and redirecting your attention to the people and world around you. 

Research shows11 turning to gratitude as a coping mechanism in times of mental stress and emotional trauma can help alleviate some of the pain and prevent symptoms of PTSD and depression12 from forming. According to Rose, as long as you remain centered and stay breathing, even in the worst-case scenario, you always have something to be grateful for.

Research suggests that the more grateful you are for the people, experiences, and material things in your life, the more willing and the happier you are to give to those less fortunate.

In one study13 published in the journal Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, researchers analyzed people's brain activity through an MRI scanner as they watched money being transferred into either their own account (designed to spur feelings of gratitude) or the account of a local food bank (designed to spur feelings of altruism). Both feelings lit up the same region of the brain—the ventromedial prefrontal cortex, the part of the brain that processes risk and reward—showing that the feelings of gratitude and giving are closely related.

Then the researchers had people pick up gratitude journaling. In a fascinating turn of events, after three weeks of the writing practice, people's brains began responding differently to feelings of gratitude and altruism: That same ventromedial prefrontal cortex started lighting up even more in response to giving than it used to before starting the gratitude journaling. 

Research published14 in the journal Psychotherapy Research in 2016 suggests that the more often you express thanks, the stronger the psychological rewards are for doing it.

The study divided some 300 participants into three groups: The first group was asked to write a letter of gratitude to another person for three weeks, the second was asked to write about their feelings about negative experiences, and the third was not assigned a writing prompt. The results showed that individuals who wrote letters of gratitude reported "significantly" better mental health after their writing exercise ended—but that wasn't even the most fascinating finding.

More than two months later, the researchers used an fMRI scan to analyze everyone's brain activity while they received money from a kind stranger (designed to inspire feelings of gratitude). The people who had written the gratitude letters showed a lot more activity in the medial prefrontal cortex, a region of the brain associated with learning and decision-making, than those who hadn't done a writing exercise. That suggests a three-week gratitude practice was still affecting people's brains nearly three months after they'd started it.

"This indicates that simply expressing gratitude may have lasting effects on the brain," wrote Joel Wong, Ph.D., and Joshua Brown, Ph.D., two psychologists who were part of the research team behind the study, in Greater Good Magazine. "Practicing gratitude may help train the brain to be more sensitive to the experience of gratitude down the line."